Best Practices for Data Entry & Inventory Accuracy
Tips to help you stay on top of your data and keep your inventory accurate year-round.
Maintaining accurate inventory in Craftybase depends on entering your data consistently and building habits around key workflows. This article outlines simple strategies to help you stay up to date and keep your stock levels, costs and reports accurate.
Craftybase is a real-time (perpetual) inventory system. That means every stock change — from a new material purchase to a shipped order — automatically affects your inventory levels and COGS calculations.
If you don’t enter this data regularly, your inventory will fall out of sync.
Rebuilding historical records can be time-consuming, so the goal is to prevent falling behind in the first place.
Suggested data entry habits
You can use Craftybase in a way that suits your workflow, but we recommend the following approach as a starting point:
Purchases
- Enter new purchases as soon as materials arrive.
- If you're not ready to enter them right away, keep all receipts in a single location (e.g. folder or inbox) and process them on a set day each week (you'll need to keep in mind that "on hand" stock numbers calculated in Craftybase will not be accurate until all purchases are in place.
Manufactures
- Log manufactures as soon as possible after making your products.
- Aim to record them at least once a week.
- Use recipes to pre-fill materials and save time.
- Consider enabling Auto Manufacture if you produce items only after orders are placed and have a short manufacturing time.
Orders
- Orders from supported integrations are imported automatically.
- Manually enter any sales from unsupported platforms or in-person sales on a regular schedule.
Keep your inventory accurate with cycle counting
Instead of relying on a full stocktake at year-end, you can improve accuracy by regularly spot-checking small batches of inventory. This is called cycle counting.
How to implement:
- Set a frequency that works for your business (weekly, biweekly, or monthly).
- Choose a small set of materials or products to count — e.g. based on usage, value, or storage location.
- Compare the counted amount with what’s shown in Craftybase using our Stocktakes feature. This will automatically create adjustments if there are discrepancies, so that you can review if required.
Cycle counts help you identify data gaps early and make fewer corrections later.
Need help?
If you’ve fallen behind or want help setting up a workflow that suits your business, reach out to our support team at hello@craftybase.com.