The NZ financial year wraps up on 31 March, which means if you’re running a Shopify store, now is a good time to get your inventory sorted before your accountant comes knocking. A stocktake isn’t the most exciting way to spend an afternoon, but it matters. Accurate stock numbers flow through to your financial statements, your cost of goods, and your tax obligations. Get it wrong and you’re creating headaches for future you.
Here’s how to work through it in Shopify.
Before you start
A couple of things worth doing before you count a single product. First, fulfil any outstanding orders that haven’t been packed and shipped yet. Shopify’s inventory numbers include stock that’s technically allocated to unfulfilled orders, so clearing those first gives you a cleaner picture of what’s actually sitting on the shelf.
Second, export a copy of your current inventory as a backup before you make any changes. Go to Products > Inventory > Export and save that CSV file somewhere safe. If anything goes sideways you’ve got a snapshot to refer back to.
Count your physical stock
This is the part that can’t be automated. Go through your actual stock, whether that’s a storeroom, a garage, or a warehouse shelf, and count what you have on hand for each product and variant. Write it down or use a spreadsheet as you go. If you have a barcode scanner, even better.
The goal is a real-world count for every SKU you carry.
Reconcile against Shopify
Once you’ve got your physical counts, head to Products > Inventory in your Shopify admin. Work through your product list and compare what Shopify thinks you have against what you actually counted. Where the numbers don’t match, you’ll need to make an adjustment.
To update a quantity, click into the product, find the variant, and edit the inventory number directly. Shopify records this as a manual adjustment and logs the change, which is useful if your accountant asks questions later.
Common reasons for discrepancies include items that were damaged and never written off, stock received but not entered properly, returns that weren’t restocked correctly, or the occasional mystery shrinkage. Note down any significant gaps as you go.
Export your inventory report for your accountant
Once your numbers are reconciled, export a fresh copy of your inventory. Go to Analytics > Reports and filter by Inventory. You’ll find the Month-end inventory snapshot report there, which shows your stock levels at the end of each month going back up to three years. This means you can pull exactly what stock you had on 31 March without needing to have done anything special in advance. Your accountant will love this.
Export this to CSV and send it through alongside your sales reports. If you’ve set up product costs under each variant, Shopify’s inventory valuation report in the same section will give your accountant a total value of stock on hand too.
For sales data, head to Analytics > Reports, set the date range to 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, and export your finances summary and sales over time reports to CSV.
Check your draft orders
If you use draft orders in Shopify for manual sales, quotes, or phone orders, do a quick tidy-up before year end. Review any open drafts and either complete, invoice, or delete them. Open draft orders sitting in your system can muddy your sales figures and create confusion for your accountant.
A few things to flag
Shopify’s built-in inventory tools are solid for most stores, but if you’re carrying a large number of SKUs across multiple locations the process gets more complex. There are third-party stocktake apps in the Shopify App Store that can make counting and reconciliation faster, particularly if you’re scanning barcodes.
Worth knowing that Shopify’s Stocky app is being retired in August 2026 if you currently use it, so now is a good time to look at alternatives.
And as always, check with your accountant about what they need and in what format. Every practice works a little differently at year end.
Need a hand getting your Shopify store sorted?
If your store needs some attention before the financial year closes, we’re happy to help.
