Stock check mode

You begin by picking a location. That may be a whole store or a single cabinet. The phone shows what the register believes is there, in shelf order, and you walk it.

For each item you do one of a small number of things. Confirm it by scanning its barcode label or tapping the row. Correct the quantity or location if the record is wrong. Flag it as missing if it is not there. If you find something that is not on the list, add it. If a bottle has lost its label or you cannot read it, photograph it and flag it.

You can stop at a natural break, such as when the bell goes, and come back to the same place. The next location starts when this one is finished.

The software records your answers, and the checking itself is still done by eye. A good stock check looks at more than whether the bottle exists. Look at the condition of the cap and the state of the label. Check whether a date has been written on anything that needs one. Look for crystals around a closure, staining on the shelf, or a solid that has separated out of something that should be clear.

A few things should stop the check altogether. Do not move or open anything you suspect is a dried picric acid, an old ether with crystals around the cap, or a container of a chemical you cannot identify and which shows signs of deterioration. Close the store, record it and get advice. Our chemical storage guide describes the common cases.

The sheet of things that ought to go is where most paper stock checks stall. A technician writes "out of date" on the printout and the printout goes in a folder. In stock check mode, anything flagged during the walk feeds a proposed disposal list at the end, along with what the register already knows to be expired.

You review that list and decide. You can send it as a disposal request, hold it, or simply keep it as a record of decisions. Unknown bottles and anything in an excluded category are kept separate from the priced lines, and they move to a manual enquiry with a recommended store assessment.

When you finish, the register produces a signed stock check report as a PDF: what was checked, by whom, on what date, what was confirmed, what was changed and what was found or missing. Reports are stored in the stock check history, so next year's check starts with last year's findings in view.

That report is the piece of paper a head of science can show a governor, a health and safety adviser or the fire service. A printed list with pencil marks shows that someone looked at the shelves. A signed report tied to an audit history also shows what changed as a result.

You can run your first stock check by tapping rows, with no labels at all. Many schools will want to use that first walk to apply labels as they go. The register produces Code 128 barcode labels and GHS container labels from its own hazard data, printable to A4 label sheets or to Brother and Dymo label printers. Once a store is labelled, scanning is quicker and reduces the chance of confirming the wrong one of three similar bottles.

The design is built around the end-of-year routine, but nothing ties it to July. You might check only the flammables cabinet each half term. A university group might check a lab before a principal investigator moves on, when legacy stock tends to surface. A hospital department might check before a refurbishment, or before handing a store to a new manager.

A stock check is also a sensible way to hand over a store. A new technician who walks every location in their first fortnight will end up knowing the store and with a clean record at the same time.

Stock check mode is available on the School plan and above. Technicians can run a check and correct stock. Every correction made during a check writes the same immutable audit entry as any other change, with the reason "found in stock check" where that applies. That means the difference between the register before and after is itself on record.

If your department has several people checking different stores in the same week, each person's checks are recorded against their own name.

Stock check mode does not assess whether a chemical is safe to keep. It gives you a clear prompt and a clean record. The decision about an ageing bottle remains with the person responsible for the store, supported by your own risk assessment and by the supplier's safety data sheet. Where you need someone qualified to look at what is on the shelf, that is what a chemical store assessment is for.