Cycle counts for Shopify

Keep your Shopify counts accurate, without shutting down to count everything at once

Most Shopify stores only count once a year, so small mistakes pile up quietly for months in between. Binly's cycle counts let you count a shelf, a vendor, or your fastest movers on a schedule you set — scan with your phone, watch the counted quantity compare to Shopify live, and apply the adjustment the moment you're done.

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Count · example

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Cycle count — Shelf A

Scanned 38 / 40

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Organic Tee

counted 12 (system 15) · −3

Scan to count — apply adjustments to Shopify

Count by shelf, vendor, or velocity

Pick a slice of your catalog — one shelf, one vendor, or just your top sellers — and count that, on whatever schedule keeps it accurate.

Variance while you're still counting

Every scanned count is compared to Shopify's system quantity in real time, so a miscount shows up before you've moved to the next shelf.

Apply straight to Shopify

When a count is done, applying it posts the counted quantities to Shopify directly — no export, no spreadsheet reconciliation.

See it in action

The same counting screen — run on one shelf instead of the whole store

Scanned quantity, system quantity, and variance, side by side. A cycle count uses this exact screen, filtered down to whatever subset of the catalog you're counting that day.

binly.org · stocktake

Binly counting screen showing scanned item counts and variances for a retail store

Click to enlarge
The real Binly counting screen — the same one used for a full stocktake, run here against a single shelf or vendor for a routine cycle count.

The problem

A once-a-year count means months of drift nobody catches

Shopify tracks a quantity number for every variant, but it has no concept of counting a subset of your catalog on a schedule, or comparing what you scanned to what the system already says.

Ask most Shopify merchants when they last counted stock, and the honest answer is "sometime last year, during the big stocktake." In between, Shopify's quantity field is trusted by default — moved by sales, restocks, and the occasional manual edit — with nothing checking it against what's actually sitting on the shelf. A single miscount at receiving, a mis-scan at the register, or a return that never got logged compounds quietly for months.

What Shopify gives you

A quantity per variant that you can edit one at a time, or overwrite in bulk with a CSV import
No separate concept of a "count" — editing the quantity field just replaces the number, with no record of what was scanned versus what changed for another reason
No way to scope or schedule a count to one shelf, vendor, or category — it's the whole catalog or nothing

What that costs you

Small errors accumulate for months between full stocktakes, so the number on the shelf and the number in Shopify quietly drift apart
A miscounted bestseller isn't caught until it causes an oversell or a customer complaint at checkout
Whoever's at the register has to open Shopify Admin and dig through a report, instead of glancing at a count screen between customers

That's the gap cycle counts close. Instead of waiting for one big stocktake, Binly lets you count a shelf, a vendor, or your fastest movers on a rolling schedule — scanning with your phone, watching variance against Shopify update live, and applying the adjustment the moment you're done.

How it works

How cycle counts work in Binly

Three parts: a count scoped to what you actually need to check, a scan-to-count flow that runs at the register, and a variance you can see and apply right away.

Scope the count to a shelf, vendor, or category

Start a cycle count against a subset of your catalog — one shelf, one vendor's products, or just your highest-velocity SKUs — instead of counting everything at once.

Scan with your phone at the counter

Point your phone's camera at a barcode to log a count. It's fast enough to run in the gaps between customers at the POS, not just after closing.

Watch variance, then apply it

Counted quantity sits next to Shopify's system quantity as you scan, with the difference flagged immediately. Applying the count posts the adjustment to Shopify — no spreadsheet in between.

Setup

Set up a cycle count in three steps

Install Binly

Add Binly from the Shopify App Store — it reads your product and inventory data automatically, no CSV import required to get started.

Pick what to count

Choose a shelf, a vendor, a category, or a saved list of your top sellers — whatever slice of the catalog you're checking this time.

Scan, review, apply

Scan barcodes to log counts, review the variance against Shopify's system quantity, then apply to post the adjustment.

From count to Shopify

A count that updates Shopify the moment you're done

Cycle counts don't sit in a separate tool waiting to be reconciled later — applying one writes straight to Shopify inventory.

Cycle counts and a full stocktake use the same counting engine in Binly — the difference is scope, not the mechanics. Run cycle counts routinely, on whatever slice of your catalog needs checking that week, to keep day-to-day accuracy high. Then run a complete stocktake on whatever full schedule your business needs — annually, quarterly, or in between — for the full-catalog reconciliation a cycle count isn't meant to replace. Think of cycle counts as the routine check-ins that keep a full stocktake from turning up as many surprises.

Coming from Stocky

If you relied on Stocky's stock counts

Stocky's stocktake tool counted your whole catalog in one pass. Binly covers that same full stocktake, plus the routine cycle counts Stocky never really had a workflow for.

Stocky itself stops working August 31, 2026, so any counting workflow you were relying on there needs a home before that date, regardless of which replacement you choose.

This wasn't optional. Shopify's own Stocky app is being discontinued — delisted from the Shopify App Store in February 2026, with a full shutdown on August 31, 2026.

Source: Why Stocky is shutting down →

Pricing

Cycle counts on every plan

Counting isn't locked behind a paid tier — it starts on Free.

Binly's Free plan includes cycle counts and basic stocktakes, alongside low-stock alerts. Starter, from $19/mo, adds purchase orders, reorder suggestions from sales velocity, and barcode receiving. Pro, from $39/mo, extends counts across every location on a multi-location store.

FAQ

Common questions

What's the difference between a cycle count and a full stocktake?

A full stocktake counts your entire catalog in one pass, usually on a set schedule like annually or quarterly. A cycle count is smaller and more frequent — you count a shelf, a vendor, or a subset of products on a rolling basis, so accuracy gets checked continuously instead of once a year. Binly uses the same counting screen for both; a cycle count is just scoped to less of your catalog at a time.

Does Shopify support cycle counts?

Not natively. Shopify tracks a quantity per variant that you can edit directly or overwrite through a bulk CSV import, but there's no built-in way to scope a count to a subset of products, compare a scanned count to the system quantity, or track variance. Binly adds that layer on top of your existing Shopify inventory.

Can I count just one shelf or vendor instead of the whole store?

Yes. Start a cycle count against any subset of your catalog — one shelf, one vendor's products, a category, or a saved list like your top sellers — instead of counting everything at once.

Does applying a cycle count update Shopify automatically?

Yes. Scanned counts build up a cycle count in Binly, and applying it posts the counted quantities straight to Shopify inventory as an adjustment — no separate export or spreadsheet step.

Is cycle counting available on the free plan?

Yes. Binly's Free plan includes cycle counts and basic stocktakes, along with low-stock alerts. Upgrading to Starter, from $19/mo, adds purchase orders, reorder suggestions, and barcode receiving.