Every stocktake counts one location, and you choose how much of that location it covers. That choice is the What to count box on New stocktake - and you can change it part-way through, so a count that turns out to be the wrong slice never has to be started again.
What to count
What to count offers:
All products at this location - everything Shopify tracks and stocks there.
Products matching filters - a slice you describe with vendors, product types, suppliers, tags, collections, product status and a bin.
Specific products - a list you pick by hand.
Only what I scan - the session opens empty and each item you scan is added as you go, so there is no list to scroll past. Only what you scanned is corrected when you apply.
Active products at this location and Draft products at this location - the split to use if you hold back-stock as draft products: count the shop floor on one cadence and the stockroom on another. This is the product's status in Shopify, not whether it is published to a sales channel, and archived products are in neither.
One vendor, One product type and One supplier - the single-choice shortcuts. A supplier count covers every product that supplier supplies, vendor and tag rules included, the same matching your purchase orders use.
Least recently counted items - the number of items you name, counted longest ago at this location, never-counted ones first.
Products in a bin - type how the bin starts, and A counts everything shelved in aisle A. Items are matched on their pick-face bin only, so each one lands on exactly one aisle's count.
Whichever you pick, products Shopify does not track, and products not stocked at that location, are left out for you. Cycle counts offer the same choice with one exception, noted below - see Cycle counts: count on a schedule.
Products matching filters
Pick Products matching filters and a panel of filters opens: Vendors, Product types, Suppliers, Collections, Tagged, Leave out tags, Product status and Bin starts with.
A product is counted when it matches every filter you fill in, and any one of the values inside a filter. Leave a filter empty to ignore it. So vendors Acme and Borge plus the tag summer counts summer-tagged products from either brand, and Leave out tags subtracts at the end - anything carrying one of those tags drops out however well it matched.
At least one filter has to be filled in; an empty panel is the all-products count under another name, and Stockroom says so. Each filter holds up to 50 values.
A collection's contents are read once, when the count is prepared. Shopify does not tell us when a product's own edits move it in or out of a smart collection, so the count stays the shelf it was prepared for even if the collection changes that afternoon.
Specific products
Pick Specific products and Choose products opens the product picker - search, filter, tick what you want, and Add to count puts them in. Only items Shopify tracks can be counted, so untracked products are not offered. A list can run to 10,000 products.
This one is for one-off counts. A cycle count takes filters but never a hand-picked list: filters re-ask their question every time the schedule runs, while fifty products chosen once would quietly stop describing the shop.
Archived products
Archived products are left out by default - they are retired stock, and their barcodes can collide with what you are actually counting. Tick Include archived products when you do want them, for instance a clear-out of a discontinued brand. Draft products are always included.
The switch does not appear on the Active products, Draft products or Only what I scan choices, because those decide the question for themselves.
Change what a count covers after it has started
Press Change scope on a count that is still counting and the same What to count question opens again, filled in with what the count covers now. Widen a filter, switch from one vendor to a set of filters, add products by hand, change your mind about archived products - nothing anybody has counted is lost.
Saving rebuilds the sheet, which takes a few seconds, and then counting carries on:
Products the new scope brings in are added to the sheet, waiting to be counted.
Everything already counted keeps its count.
Lines the new scope leaves out keep their counts too. They move to the Not in this count tab, where Include brings one back if it belongs after all.
Items nobody had counted that the new scope leaves out simply drop off the sheet.
The location is the one thing you cannot change. Every expected quantity on the sheet was read at that location, so a count belongs to it for life - to count somewhere else, start a count there.
Two details worth knowing. A hand-picked list is replaced by whatever the picker sends back, so open Choose products and your earlier list is already ticked; leave the picker alone and the list you started with is kept. And the scope can only be changed while counting is open - in review, press Reopen counting first.
Good to know
Scanning something from outside the count keeps the count but marks the item Not in this count, so applying leaves its Shopify stock alone until you include it - see Reviewing and applying a stocktake.
Set all uncounted items to zero on hand at apply time only ever reaches the items in this count. On a count of one vendor, that vendor's uncounted items go to 0 and nothing else at the location is touched.
The scope is shown on the count and in the stocktake list, so you can always see what a session covers.
Counting needs no POS Pro subscription, whatever the count covers.
For counting, reviewing and applying, see Count your inventory with stocktakes.