Handcount
Questions, answered
What Handcount does, what it can see in your store, and what happens when something goes wrong.
Install Handcount- Do the people counting need a Shopify account?
- No. You create a count in your admin and share a link. Whoever opens it counts in an ordinary phone browser — nothing to install, no account to issue, no seat to pay for. The link is the permission, so treat it the way you would a key to the stockroom.
- Can several people count at the same time?
- Yes, and it is the point. Everyone who opens the link counts into the same session and sees the others' running totals as they go. Two people scanning the same shelf will double it — the app counts units, not people — so split the room, not the list.
- Do I need a barcode scanner?
- No. The phone's camera reads barcodes, and anything with a SKU can be typed into the same field. A Bluetooth scanner pairs as a keyboard and needs no setup at all if you have one.
- What happens if there is no signal in the stockroom?
- The catalogue is downloaded to the phone when the count opens, and scans are held on the device until the connection returns. A cold store or a basement counts exactly like the sales floor; the phone shows when it is behind and when it has caught up.
- What if something sells while we are counting?
- It is reported as a discrepancy rather than silently overwritten. A count records what was on the shelf at the moment somebody scanned it, and Shopify may have moved on since — so where the two disagree, the app stops and shows you both numbers instead of guessing. You decide, item by item.
- Can I undo a count after applying it?
- Yes. Every apply can be reverted, and the app records what it wrote so the revert puts back exactly those numbers. It does not undo sales that happened in between, because those are real.
- Does it change stock as we scan?
- No. Nothing reaches Shopify until you press Apply in the admin, and you see the full list of what will change before you do. A count is a document until you decide it is not.
- What can the app see in my store?
- Products, locations, and stock levels — that is the whole list. It cannot read customers or orders, and does not ask for them. The permissions Shopify shows you at install are the ones it holds.
- What does a full count do that a cycle count does not?
- A cycle count updates only what was counted and leaves everything else alone, which is the safe default. A full count also sets anything not scanned to zero — right when you have genuinely walked the whole location, and destructive when you have not. The app asks which one you mean when the count is created.
- How much is it, and is there a trial?
- Nineteen dollars a month for a single location, forty-nine for any number of them, both with a fourteen-day free trial. Items and counts are unlimited on either. Billing goes through Shopify, appears on your normal Shopify invoice, and cancels with the app.
Something to tell us?
A bug that got in your way, a feature that ought to exist, or a question the pages here did not answer.