A c store inventory is everything on the shelves, in the cooler, in the back room and on the forecourt that the store bought to sell again, valued at what it cost. It is the biggest number on a convenience store's balance sheet that nobody can read off a screen, because the point of sale knows what sold and the supplier knows what was delivered, and neither knows what is actually there until somebody counts. The count is where the inventory turns into figures an owner can act on: book stock against the count is shrink, cost of goods over average stock is turns, and turns into days is the cash sitting on the shelf. This page walks what the inventory is made of, how the count closes, and which free sheet on this site works each figure, one store at a time, with no account.
What a c store inventory is made of
Four kinds of stock sit in a convenience store and each counts differently. Packaged goods, the tobacco, the snacks, the drinks and the grocery lines, are counted by the unit and valued at the last cost paid, and they are most of the count by line count. Cooler and fresh lines, the milk, the sandwiches and the bakery, are counted by the unit but written off by the day, so the waste sheet matters as much as the count. Forecourt fuel is a volume in the tank, dipped or gauged rather than counted, and valued at the delivered cost per gallon; it is usually kept as its own inventory because its margin and its turns bear no resemblance to the shop's. Lottery, phone cards and other consignment lines are stock the store holds but does not own, and they come out of the count entirely. The IRS's guide for small businesses puts it plainly for tax purposes: inventory is the merchandise held for sale, valued at cost, and the cost of goods sold for the year is opening inventory plus purchases less closing inventory. Every sheet on this site uses the same three figures.
How a count turns into book stock and shrink
A count on its own is a number. It becomes information when it meets book stock, which is what the shelves should have held: opening stock at cost, plus what was bought in the period at cost, less the cost of what the register says was sold. The register reports sales at retail, so the cost of those sales is worked back through the store's gross margin, and that margin is the one input that can make an honest count look like theft or hide it. The convenience store count sheet on this site takes opening stock, purchases, the count, sales and your own margin and returns book stock, the shrink in dollars, shrink as a share of sales and the turns for the period. Shrink is then a figure to investigate rather than a feeling: a mis-keyed transfer to the other store, a delivery short-shipped and signed for in full, waste that never made the waste sheet, or the theft everyone assumed. The multi-store POS guide this page feeds explains why an unkeyed transfer between two stores shows as shrink at one and surplus at the other.
Turns, days on hand and the cash on the shelf
Once a year's cost of goods and two stock figures are to hand, the inventory answers the question an owner of more than one store actually asks, which is how much cash each store keeps tied up on its shelves and for how long. Cost of goods sold over the average of opening and closing stock is the turns; 365 over the turns is the days of stock on hand; sales less cost of goods over average stock is the gross margin return on inventory, the margin each dollar on the shelf earned in the year. The c-store inventory turnover sheet works all of them from four figures and publishes no benchmark, because the right figure for a store on a highway differs from the right figure for one beside a college, and the useful comparison is a store against its own last year and against the owner's other stores. The liquor store par sheet and the multi-store stock transfer sheet on this site then work the ordering and the levelling that bring a slow store's days on hand down.
Counting more than one store
With one store the count is a Sunday night; with three it is a system, and the system has to keep three on-hands against one item file, record every transfer between stores as a document rather than a memory, and close each store's count against its own on-hand rather than a blended figure. That is the multi-store point of sale's job and the guide this page supports walks what it must carry. What the point of sale does not do is the arithmetic between the counts, which is where the sheets sit: the transfer that levels two stores' cover, the shrink per store, the turns per store and the par per line. Rollupvo Pro keeps every count, transfer and par against the store it belongs to, so the comparison across stores is a list rather than a stack of sheets, and emails a count-due reminder to each store on the schedule the owner sets. The free sheets need none of that and work every figure on the page.
Questions people ask about c store inventory
What counts as inventory in a convenience store?
Merchandise the store bought to sell again, valued at cost: packaged goods, cooler and fresh lines, and fuel if the store owns it, usually kept as a separate inventory. Consignment lines such as lottery are held but not owned and come out of the count. The IRS's small business guide uses the same definition for cost of goods sold.
How often should a c store count its inventory?
The sheets do not set a schedule, on purpose: a store with a high-shrink tobacco wall counts that wall weekly and the grocery aisle monthly, and the right cadence is the one that finds a problem while the delivery note can still be checked. Rollupvo Pro emails a count-due reminder to each store on whatever schedule the owner sets.
How do I work out shrink from a count?
Book stock first: opening stock plus purchases at cost, less the cost of the sales the register reported, worked back through your gross margin. Subtract the count. The convenience store count sheet on this site works the shrink in dollars and as a share of sales from those five figures with no account.
Does Rollupvo replace the point of sale for counting?
No. The point of sale keeps each store's on-hand and rings the sales; Rollupvo works the arithmetic between the counts, the transfer, the shrink, the turns and the par, and the paid plan keeps every count and transfer against the store. The two sit side by side.