Bookshop stocktaking with a barcode scanner or shelf photos
Count what is on the shelves, see where it differs from the catalogue, and decide what to do about each difference.
Try TitleEntryA bookshop stocktake in TitleEntry is a count of the shelves against your catalogue. You scan barcodes or photograph shelves, and it keeps a running tally by title and copy. At the end you get a report of every difference, and your stock figures stay untouched until you act on it.
Last updated: 27 October 2026
Three ways to count a bookshop
A barcode scanner
Plug in a USB scanner and work along the shelf. The scan box keeps its focus, so there is nothing to click between books, and each scan is saved as it happens.
The phone camera
Hold the phone up to each barcode in turn. A barcode still in view is not counted twice; move on to the next book and it counts that one.
Shelf photos
For second-hand stock with no barcode, photograph the shelf. The AI reads the spines and matches them to your catalogue, and you tick what to count. Each photo uses credits, like a shelf scan.
All three can go into the same check, so new stock is scanned and the older shelves are photographed.
A bookshop stocktake from start to finish
Start a check
Open Stock check and give it a name, such as “Year end 2026”, or keep the date it suggests. Nothing in the catalogue changes when you start one.
Go shelf by shelf
Scan or photograph one shelf at a time. Every count is stored straight away, so you can stop when the shop gets busy and pick up the same check tomorrow.
Watch the counts
Each scan reports back: found and counted 1 of 2, more copies than recorded, or not in your catalogue. A slip is undone with one click.
Read the report
Choose the shelves you covered or the whole shop. The report lists what was not seen, what was counted short and what is not catalogued, and each list exports to Excel.
What the report shows a bookshop
A missing book may have been sold without being recorded, put back on the wrong shelf or simply lost. The report shows you where to look:
- Books the catalogue lists that nobody found on the shelf
- Titles with fewer copies out than the catalogue records
- Books standing on the shelf that were never catalogued
- Which shelves the report covers, named at the top
- Each list a page at a time, or as an Excel file
- Stock levels left alone until you correct them
Selling keeps the numbers close
Sell by barcode on the Sales page, or mark books as sold in All Books, and each sale takes its copies off the count. A sold-out book stays in the catalogue at zero, marked Out of stock, ready for the next delivery. By stocktake time the figures you check against are already up to date.
Every screen of a photo check is shown in how to do a stock check from shelf photos, and AI stocktaking covers libraries as well as shops. Building the catalogue first? See book cataloguing for bookstores, or bring in an existing list with spreadsheet import.
Frequently asked questions
Count what is on each shelf and compare it with what your records say. In TitleEntry you start a stock check, scan or photograph the shop one shelf at a time, and the report lists every difference.
No. Every scan is saved the moment it is made, so one check can be spread over quiet hours on several days and finished whenever suits the shop.
No. It reports the differences and leaves each quantity as it was. You decide which books to correct, one at a time, once you have looked into them.
Photograph the shelf. The AI reads the spines and matches each one to your catalogue, books saved without an ISBN included. You check the matches before anything is counted.
Yes. Bookshop accounts keep a price and a cost for each book, and the catalogue exports to Excel with quantities, prices and costs alongside every title.
Write to us through the contact form. We set up a bookshop account with stock checks and selling ready to use.
Stocktake coming up?
Tell us about your shop and we will show you a check on your own shelves.
Get in touch