What is a Cycle Count?
A cycle count involves physically counting the products in your inventory and comparing them to the quantities listed in Meadow. This process helps identify discrepancies, ensuring that your inventory records are accurate and up-to-date.
Why are cycle counts important?
Compliance: The DCC requires a full inventory count every 30 days.
Accuracy: Regular counts help detect and correct discrepancies, reducing the risk of fines or license suspension.
Loss Prevention: Identifying missing or unaccounted products helps in understanding shrinkage and preventing losses.
Smoother Sales: Accurate inventory means fewer hiccups at the register and less confusion for staff.
Counting Methods
There are a few ways to run inventory counts — but only one gives you full visibility:
Print a list with expected quantities 👎
Easy to fake accuracy — Discrepancies often go unnoticed.Print a list without expected quantities 👎
Slightly better, but won’t catch items that are physically on the shelf but missing from the list.Blind count using Meadow (recommended) 🏆
Most accurate. Staff count what’s actually there, not what they expect. Meadow totals everything for you and the Missing Products tab shows you what was skipped — so nothing is missed or left in your system by accident.In this image, this inventory location is considered "Retail Floor," however each employee is designated a section to count on the retail floor.
How to Perform a Blind Count 🏆
Assign Areas: Divide the inventory area among staff members.
Use Meadow Tools: Utilize the Cycle Count feature in Meadow Admin or the iPad app.
Count Products: Scan or manually enter product quantities.
Submit for Review: Once counting is complete, submit the data for managerial review.
💡 Pro tip: Perform smaller, more frequent cycle counts to decrease labor and count more efficiently.
How to perform a Cycle Count
Stage 1: Open the Count
Using the iPad App:
Navigate to Tool Select > Cycle Count.
Select the appropriate location and category.
View open cycle counts, submitted, closed, and all counts here.
Open: A count has been created and is being contributed towards. You do not want two open cycle counts for the same location in the same category.
Submitted: A count has been completed and can still be contributed to, otherwise is waiting for review from a manager to implement the adjustments in inventory.
Note: All inactive products will not appear on an iPad cycle count. You will need to add inactive products to your cycle counts from admin.
Open a new cycle count or continue a count
Begin scanning products or manually enter quantities
Continue until your assigned area is fully counted
Submit your cycle count for review
Using Meadow Admin (Desktop)
Go to Inventory > Cycle Counts
Create a new count or select an open one
Choose your inventory location
Add products by name, brand, or option
Scan items or enter quantities manually
(Optional) Use notes to explain any issues (lost, damaged, etc.)
💡 You can leave a count open and come back to it later. Just note: any inventory changes made while a count is open may cause conflicts you'll need to resolve in the next stage.
Stage 2: Submit for approval
Once a count is submitted, managers can review, resolve discrepancies, and finalize it in Meadow Admin.
🧾 What to Review
My Actions tab – See all submitted counts. You can still add or adjust items here if needed.
Summary tab – Compare what was counted vs. what Meadow shows. Sort by largest discrepancies to prioritize your review.
Missing Products tab – One of the most important tools in the review process. This tab shows all products in that inventory location that were not counted at all. These are often products that no longer exist on your shelves but are still in the system — which can lead to compliance violations.
Conflicts tab – Shows any inventory changes made after the count began. Listed chronologically so you can track what changed and when.
For example:
If you counted 10 units and then sold 1, you'd need to subtract that unit.
But if the sale happened first and you counted the correct number after, you can ignore the conflict.
All conflicts must be resolved before finalizing.
💡 Pro tip: If a product was double-counted or entered incorrectly, don’t delete the action. Instead, add a new one to correct it to the proper quantity. This keeps your history intact and improves accountability.
✅ Finalizing the Count
Before finalizing, make sure everything has been fully reviewed and resolved:
Investigate large discrepancies – Look into any major differences between expected and counted quantities.
Check all inventory locations – Some discrepancies are simply products in the wrong spot.
Select a METRC adjustment reason – Required for every change (e.g. undersold, oversold, incorrect quantity).
Add notes where needed – Good documentation = better accountability and compliance.
Take this course to learn how to use Meadow's Cycle Count to improve your inventory efficiency.