You identify dead stock in Tally by finding items that still have quantity on hand and have barely moved for a long stretch, usually 90 days, then listing them before year-end locks the valuation. Dead stock in Tally is that intersection: Stock Summary quantity above zero, Velocity near the bottom, item-wise sales quiet for the period you chose. Tally will not stamp an item as dead; it will keep showing a closing quantity and a rupee value at the current rate. A Guwahati FMCG owner in the second week of December opens Velocity, sorts to the bottom, and reads Stock beside it: pickle at 200 jars, 2 a day, 100 days of cover, ₹40 a jar, ₹8,000. Gift hampers from last Diwali, 60 boxes, zero movement since 18 November, ₹450 a box, ₹27,000. This article is the notebook method for that list, the reports that feed it, and what you do with the rupees before 31 March.
Key Highlights
- Dead stock is quantity still on hand after a long stretch of near-zero movement, read from Velocity plus Stock Summary, not from a feeling that a corner looks dusty
- Year-end identification matters because closing value is cash the business is reporting; a scheme or return in December is cheaper than a write-down in March
- Inventory and Stock Summary have no export; Velocity exports to PDF or Excel, which is the sheet for the dead-stock pass
In This Article
- How do I identify dead stock in Tally?
- Velocity plus Stock Summary, in December
- A notebook line: 90 days, quantity, rupees
- What is slow, what is seasonal, what is dead
- What to do with the list before year-end
- Why the rupee column can mislead
- Frequently Asked Questions
How do I identify dead stock in Tally?
You identify dead stock in Tally by pairing two facts. The item is still there. The item has not been selling.
"Still there" is Stock Summary quantity, as of today, with drill-down. "Not selling" is Velocity at the bottom of the ranking, or item-wise sales near zero for 90 days. Both have to be true. Zero stock and zero sales is an item you already stopped buying. High stock and high sales is a mover. Dead stock is high-or-any stock with movement that has gone quiet for long enough that cover is measured in months, not days.
December is the month to run this, not 28 March. A scheme on 12 December can still move pickle at a discount. A return to the supplier may still be possible on terms. On 28 March the auditor is reading closing quantity × rate, and the pickle is a number on a statement.
This pass sits next to stockout control for distributors, on the other side of the same ranking. Stockout control watches the top of Velocity. Dead stock watches the bottom, where Stock is still sitting.
Velocity plus Stock Summary, in December
Second week of December, Monday 9:40, after the movers have had their purchase look.
Open Inventory. Velocity is how fast each item moves, and Velocity sits in Reports+. Go to the bottom of the ranking, not the top. For each quiet SKU, open Stock. If quantity is zero, skip. If quantity is sitting, write a line.
Stock Summary from Tally on mobile is the same quantity as of a date, with item drill-down. Use today for the pass. A past date is useful when someone claims the hamper moved in November; quantity on 30 November is historical and exact, the rupee column at current rate.
Item-wise sales for 1 September to today confirms the quiet. If the pickle sold 60 jars in 90 days, it is slow, 2 a day if you stretch it, not dead. If it sold 4 jars in 90 days, it is dead for this purpose.
Godown-wise stock tells you where the dead units live. 200 jars in Guwahati and 0 in Tezpur is a Guwahati corner. 100 in each is two corners. A transfer does not make dead stock alive. It moves the problem.
Fast-moving and slow-moving items is the weekly ranking. Dead stock is the slow-and-still-here slice of that ranking, run as a year-end project with a 90-day lens.
A notebook line: 90 days, quantity, rupees
Four columns are enough. You do not need a second inventory book.
| Column | What you write | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Item | Stock item name | Pickle 400 g; Diwali hamper |
| 90-day qty sold | Item-wise sales quantity | 4 jars; 0 boxes |
| On hand | Stock Summary today | 200 jars; 60 boxes |
| Rupees at current rate | Quantity × current rate | ₹8,000; ₹27,000 |
Cover, if you want a fifth: on hand ÷ (90-day sold ÷ 90). Pickle at 4 sold in 90 days is 0.04 a day, cover 200 ÷ 0.04 = 5,000 days, which is a polite way to say it will not sell through. The hamper at 0 sold is infinite cover. Both are dead for the pass.
₹8,000 of pickle is easy to ignore. Forty SKUs at that size is ₹3,20,000. The hamper at ₹27,000 is one line that already justifies the Monday. Add last year's slow gift tins, an old pack size the company discontinued, and a sauce the market rejected in August. The notebook total is the working-capital figure the owner should walk into year-end knowing.
90 days is a working default for FMCG. Agri-input in January may need a season-length window, because a monsoon SKU is supposed to be quiet in December. Do not mark a Kharif chemical dead in January because Velocity is low. Mark it if last Kharif also left this much, and the next season's booking has not started.
What is slow, what is seasonal, what is dead
Slow is the pickle at 2 a day with 200 on hand: 100 days of cover, still moving, just not enough. It belongs on a hold-and-scheme list, not on a funeral list yet.
Seasonal is diya oil that did 0 in July and 40 tins a day in October. July Velocity would have called it dead. Last October's item-wise sales calls it a season SKU. Check last year's same months before you discount it in December. If December is between seasons and last December was also quiet, wait. If last December still moved and this December is 0 with 80 tins on hand, something changed.
Dead is near-zero movement for the window you chose, quantity still there, no season coming that historically cleared it, no booking in the sales-order book. The hamper on 12 December, last unit sold 18 November, 60 boxes sitting, next Diwali ten months away: dead for this year-end. You can keep a handful for next October, as a choice. The other 50 are cash.
A discontinued pack size with remaining stock is dead the day the new pack launched, even if Velocity had been fine in September. The ranking will lag. The owner already knows. Write it.
Do not use Tally's reorder master as a dead-stock flag. This method uses sales and stock you can see.
What to do with the list before year-end
The list is not the action. The action is four paths, in order of how much cash they return.
Scheme. Cut the rate, push to the parties who already buy adjacent SKUs. Party-wise sales tells you who lifted pickle in the last year, even if they stopped. A December scheme on ₹8,000 of pickle that recovers ₹5,000 is better than ₹8,000 of closing stock you pretend is fine.
Return. If the supplier still takes returns on that line, 12 December is a conversation. 28 March is a plea. Returns need the purchase history, which the purchase register has.
Keep a planned remnant. 10 hampers for next October, written as a choice with a date. The other 50 leave through scheme or return. Unplanned remnant is how 60 becomes 60 again next December.
Write-down. Last. It is an accounting event, not a sales event. Do it with the accountant, on the items that have no scheme and no return. The method's job is to make sure that set is small and named, not discovered on the printout.
Do not refill a dead line because the hook looks empty while you are placing the Kolkata oil order. The Velocity export that goes into the purchase call should still show the bottom of the ranking, so "just one case" has to step over a written no.
Why the rupee column can mislead
Stock value at current rate can make dead stock look smaller or larger than the cash that went into it.
If the pickle's rate was cut from ₹55 to ₹40, 200 jars show ₹8,000 today and were ₹11,000 when you bought them. The loss already happened. Closing at ₹8,000 just recognises it. If you only look at today's value, you understate what the corner cost.
Past-date Stock Summary is quantity-exact and values at current rate, so a backdated view of 1 April will not match the accountant's opening valuation if rates moved. For dead-stock identification you want today's quantity and an honest rupee at today's rate, plus a memory of what you paid if you are arguing a write-down.
A high rupee on a slow SKU is the one that deserves the first scheme. ₹27,000 of hampers before ₹8,000 of pickle. Rank the dead list by rupees, not by how embarrassing the corner looks.
Inventory and Stock Summary have no export. Velocity's PDF or Excel is the ranking you can mark up. The notebook holds the 90-day sold, the on-hand, and the rupees. That is enough to walk into year-end without discovering dead stock in Tally on the auditor's morning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do I identify dead stock in Tally?
A: Find items with quantity still on hand and near-zero movement for a long stretch, usually 90 days. Use Velocity or item-wise sales for the quiet ranking, and Stock Summary for the quantity. Tally will not label an item dead. The intersection is the identification.
Q: When should I look for dead stock in Tally?
A: In December, or at the end of your season, before year-end valuation. A scheme or return still has time. At the end of March the quantity is a closing number. Agri-input uses the season window, not a random 90 days in the off-month.
Q: Is a slow mover the same as dead stock?
A: No. A slow mover still sells, just not enough to justify the stock. Dead stock has near-zero movement for the window you chose, no season coming that historically cleared it, and quantity still sitting. Slow goes on hold-and-scheme. Dead goes on scheme, return, remnant, or write-down.
Q: Which reports do I open for this pass?
A: Inventory Velocity for the quiet ranking, Stock Summary for quantity as of today, item-wise sales for the 90-day sold figure, and godown-wise stock if you need to see which location is holding it. Velocity exports to PDF or Excel. Inventory and Stock Summary do not.
Q: Should I transfer dead stock to another godown?
A: Only if that location actually sells the item. A transfer moves quantity. It does not create demand. Party-wise sales for last year tells you whether anyone at the other branch ever lifted it.
Q: Does a high closing value mean the stock is healthy?
A: No. Closing value is quantity times current rate. Dead stock can show a large rupee figure and still be unsold. Rank the dead list by those rupees so the expensive quiet SKUs get the first scheme.
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