Deli stall inventory count specialist - weekly cycle-count checklist: count the high-value drifters every week, settle gaps within the week, lock the units convention before counting

Build a weekly cycle-count checklist for a cooked-food stall's
inventory count specialist (or the owner doubling in the role),
walkable every week, printed with tick boxes.

My stall: one freezer section, one dry-goods rack, one
seasoning shelf, packaging stored by the case (adjust; leave
numbers as [ ]).

Four sections:

1. Pre-count conventions (lock these before the first number -
   half of all gaps are born here)
- Weight unit: the whole count reads and calls in [one unit] -
  mixed jin/kilo readings are the leading cause of false gaps;
  anyone slipping gets corrected on the spot
- Frozen goods: two columns, gross weight and packaging weight;
  net gets computed at the desk - no mental arithmetic in
  front of the freezer
- Paperwork complete: today's delivery slips, returns, and
  write-off forms on the table before counting starts - items
  missing paperwork get counted for nothing; mark "slips
  missing" and recount them another day
- Timing: count after close; all stock movement stops for the
  duration - a mid-count delivery voids that zone
- Zone rotation: this week zone A (frozen birds, spices and
  dry goods, oil, packaging - the high-value drifters), zone B
  (bulky low-value) biweekly, WIP and master broth as a
  monthly special; the counting calendar hangs on the dry-goods
  rack

2. During the count
- Two-person teams, one reading one writing: the reader calls
  "item + number + unit," the writer reads it back before it
  goes on paper - solo counting can't catch skips and
  eye-balling
- Fixed order, zone by zone, one tick per shelf - the shelf
  left "for later" is the shelf that never gets counted
- Empty spots get recorded too: on the books but not on the
  shelf reads as "0 - open question," never skipped - skipped
  empties become month-end mysteries
- Count in place: the ledger walks with the counter; "about
  two bags left" recited from memory is not a count

3. Post-count (same day)
- Gap sheet: item / book / counted / difference / first read -
  the first-read column takes only certainties (paperwork
  missing / eyeballed / genuine difference, open) - no
  speculation
- Items with gaps over [X]: chase the same day - delivery
  slips, write-off log, a two-person recount if needed; if it
  won't resolve, mark it "open" in ink - never smooth it over
  (one smoothing, and every future gap in that item becomes
  "that old history")
- Overages get logged too: an overage is not found money -
  most often a missed sale or a convention error, chased on
  the same sheet as shortfalls

4. Weekly wrap
- One-page week summary: zone-A gap total, open items, and the
  fate of last week's open items - the same item gapping the
  same direction two weeks running goes into a memo to the
  owner: counting cannot fix this; a process is leaking

Constraints:
- Every item executable and tickable - "count carefully"
  banned
- WIP and broth conversions do not run on this checklist -
  they get the monthly special with its own conventions;
  mixing the two into one sheet corrupts both
- One zone fits in [40] minutes; longer means a convention or
  a zone boundary needs adjusting

Why it is written this way

The logic of cycle counting is bare: a discrepancy's attribution window is only a few days wide. A monthly count finds a whole bird missing and faces thirty days of slips, write-offs, and eyeballed numbers - unsearchable, so the gap becomes a write-off. A weekly count faces seven days, and most gaps resolve to a specific document. The A/B split concentrates the weekly effort on what actually drifts: frozen birds carry the highest unit value, spices and dry goods live in the "taking a little isn't taking" gray zone, oil and packaging get touched by everyone - together those four cover most of a stall's invisible loss, while bulky low-value items ride the biweekly slot and the counting cost lands where the risk density is.

The conventions section comes first and holds five items because half of count variance is decided before counting begins: mixed units, frozen goods counted gross-as-net, counting against missing paperwork - the classics of "counted diligently, numbers unusable." The two-person call-and-read-back ("item + number + unit") separates misreads from miswrites at the moment they happen; a month later, facing a gap sheet, nobody can remember which of the two occurred. "Empty spots read as zero" targets the psychologically easiest skip: on the books but absent from the shelf is precisely the discrepancy most worth recording, and skipping it destroys the evidence personally.

"Park it as open, never smooth it" and "overages on the same sheet" are the spine. The temptation to smooth peaks right at closing time (small gap, almost done), but one smoothing permanently unbalances that item's ledger - every future difference acquires a ready-made dumpster. Overages are listed separately because they're always received as good news: in the real world a material overage almost always means a missed sale or a convention error, and it says the same thing a shortfall does - one leg of this ledger is lame.

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