A stock ledger for Telegram and Instagram sellers

On a Telegram channel or an Instagram page you sell clothes, cosmetics, household goods or handmade products. The channel holds hundreds of posts, while in private messages come the questions: "Is this available?", "Is the black one left?", "Do you have size M?" You answer from memory, and one day you tell a customer "yes" while the shelf is empty. The answer is not a complicated program but a simple stock ledger: one table, the right columns and five minutes a day.

Why a simple table is enough

Selling through social media does not need a big system. You need a quick answer to one question: "How many of this item do I have now?" A notebook, Excel or Google Sheets can all handle it, provided you fill it in straight after each sale or delivery.

Filling in the table the first time takes the longest: you have to count every item and write it down by colour and size. Give that one day, and afterwards keeping it up takes a few minutes.

Google Sheets is handy for working from a phone: the table is always in your pocket and, while replying to a customer, you see the balance with one tap.

The columns of the table

For most small sellers these columns are enough:

• Photo number. The sequence number of the item in the post, or the number of the picture in the album.
• Item name.
• Colour and size. Each variant on its own row.
• Opening balance: how much was in stock at the start of the period.
• Receipts: how much arrived during the period.
• Sold: how much was sold during the period.
• Balance: calculated by formula, that is opening + receipts − sold.
• Price in so'm.

In Excel or Google Sheets you only need to write the balance formula once and it applies itself to every row. For example, if the opening balance is in column D, receipts in E and sales in F: =D2+E2-F2.

Working with the photo number

A customer often sends not a name but a picture: "Do you have this one?" A name is easy to muddle, while a number is unambiguous. Give every product post a number and put it in the caption, for example "№127". Use the same number in the table.

Then, given a screenshot, you find the row in a second and answer exactly. When the item runs out, edit the post and mark it "Sold", which spares you dozens of identical replies.

The daily routine

1. After every sale, record it at once: +1 in the "Sold" column. Do not leave it for the evening, because by the end of the day you will not remember it all.
2. When new stock arrives, enter the quantity in the "Receipts" column and check the colour and size.
3. In the evening spend five minutes: physically count your five most popular items and compare them with the balance in the table.
4. If there is a gap, leave a note the same day: what happened, or that it is unexplained.

If someone helps you sell, share one table with the same rules; otherwise everyone ends up with a "balance" of their own.

The weekly check

Once a week set aside 15 minutes and count your ten best sellers in full. If the table and the shelf agree, you can trust the ledger. If not, look for the cause: a sale that was not recorded, a return, the wrong variant sent, an item given as a gift.

Common mistakes

• All colours and sizes in one row. Then you will not notice that "black M" has run out.
• A Telegram chat instead of a ledger. Messages get lost and searching them is hard.
• A returned item not put back into the table.
• Erasing yesterday's figure and writing a new one over it. If a correction is needed, add a separate correcting entry so it is clear why the figure changed.
• Replying to a customer without looking at the table.
• Not updating the price in the table when it changes: later the sales total no longer matches the real takings.

Conclusion

A stock ledger lets you answer customers with confidence, see ahead that an item is running low and place orders in time. One table, the right columns and five minutes a day are enough to start. If the stock has grown so much that it needs one full count, the Sanab team can run the count and hand over the result as an Excel table that you can use as your opening balance.