How to track stock on Meku without counting every day

You know how it goes: you close on Sunday, spend three hours counting cartons, and write the numbers on a notebook page that disappears two weeks later. Meku follows your stock as you sell, so the count is always up to date, and it tells you what is about to finish before it finishes.

This guide is for you if your products are on a shelf or in a store room. It takes about an hour to set up well, and then it keeps working by itself.

What you need before you start

Your products already added to Meku (see Getting started with the Meku Business POS)
An idea of how often you buy more of each item (every week? every month?)
One quiet evening to set the warnings

You do not need to count anything before you start. Your current stock numbers are already on each product from when you added it.

Step 1: Set a warning number for each product

Go to Inventory, open a product, and find Warn me at. This is the number at which Meku starts warning you.

A good number is what you sell in the time it takes to get more stock. If you sell 20 sodas a day and your distributor delivers every three days, set it to 60. The warning comes when you have one delivery’s worth of stock left, not zero and not double.

For products that sell slowly (two a month), set it to 2 or 3. For products that sell fast, set it to one week’s sales.

Step 2: Check Inventory every day

Go to Inventory → Stock. You see every product with its current stock. Tap About to finish or Out of stock to see your shopping list in two taps.

If you do this once a day, before opening or after closing, you will never have to tell a customer “imeisha” (it is finished).

Step 3: Record expiry dates on anything that expires

For products that expire, such as milk, bread, fresh food, medicines and even some cosmetics, turn on Expiry dates under Settings → What you sell. Then, each time stock arrives, add the expiry date of that batch. Open Inventory → Stock → Expiring to see what expires soon.

You can then sell it at a lower price before it must be thrown away. Meku also sells the oldest batch first automatically.

Step 4: Adjust the stock when something is lost

Sometimes a customer drops a bottle, or you find an extra carton in the store room. Open the product, tap Adjust, type what is actually there, and choose the reason: Miscount, Damaged, or Lost or stolen.

Tip: Always choose the correct reason. Six months from now, when your numbers do not match the shelf, the stock history is what tells you why, and it is only as useful as the reasons you record.

Step 5: Read the stock history when something looks wrong

Every adjustment, sale, refund and purchase adds a line to the product’s stock history. If your shelf has 14 but Meku says 22, open the product’s history and go back line by line. The mistake is almost always there.

Common questions

Does the stock change automatically when I sell? Yes. Every POS sale, online order and refund changes the stock at the same moment. You do not need to follow it separately.

What if I make what I sell, like a restaurant? Turn on Materials and Ingredients under Settings → What you sell. Then link each product you sell (for example pilau) to its ingredients (rice, oil, spices). Selling one pilau deducts the correct amount of each ingredient.

How often should I count the shelf? Once a month is enough if you set sensible warning numbers and record losses when they happen. Once every three months is acceptable. Counting every week is wasted effort. When you count, use Stock taking in Inventory to count all your products on one sheet.