Counter App
How to Count School Supplies with an Android App
Key takeaways
To count school supplies on an Android phone, create one Counter App — Tally & Clicker counter per stockroom shelf or cupboard, add a tag per item with a step matching the pack size, count once a term in shelf order, set targets as restock levels, and export the Summary to Excel for the school office's order.
- A school supply count in Counter App — Tally & Clicker uses one counter per physical place, such as a stockroom shelf or classroom cupboard, and one tag per item.
- Setting a tag's step to the pack size, such as 12 for a box of pencils, lets one tap in Counter App add a whole unopened pack.
- A termly school supply count works best in a fixed week, with tags created in the same order as the shelf layout.
- Shared class kit such as calculator sets can be checked with a counter whose target equals the full set size.
- Counter App — Tally & Clicker works offline on Android 12 or newer and is free to download with no ads; try it free for 3 days, then choose a yearly or monthly plan or a one-time lifetime purchase.
Running out of glue sticks in week three is not a crisis, but it is a symptom. Supplies in schools disappear in small amounts, from many places, by many hands, and nobody counts them until a cupboard is empty. A short, repeatable counting routine on a phone fixes most of that without adding a spreadsheet to your evenings. This guide walks through a setup and a termly routine that a teacher, teaching assistant or office manager can run in under an hour.
Why do schools count their supplies?
Supply counts usually serve one of three purposes, and it helps to be clear which one you have:
- Reordering. You want to know what to buy before it runs out.
- Accountability. You need to show where a budget went, or that shared kit came back.
- Planning. You want to know whether you have enough for a particular project, like 30 sets of watercolors for a Year 3 art unit.
Reordering needs a reorder point for each item. Accountability needs a dated record and maybe photos. Planning needs a quick check before a unit starts. The same app can do all three, but the setup differs a little, so decide before you begin.
Setting up your inventory
Think in places first, then items. A typical primary school might have a central stockroom, a cupboard in each classroom and a box of art materials that travels between rooms. A secondary school adds department stores.
In Counter App, create one counter per physical place: "Stockroom shelf A", "Room 12 cupboard", "Art trolley". Each counter then holds tags for the items found there. Categories nest up to three levels, so you can file counters as "Supplies > Stockroom > Shelf A" or "Supplies > Classrooms > Room 12". Pin the category you count most often.
Give each counter a short code, such as "SA" for Stockroom shelf A, and a color. When the counter list fills up, the code badge and color make it easy to find the right one, and the list also offers search, a date-range filter and six sort orders.
One tag per item, with the right step
Inside each counter, add a tag per item: "Pencils HB", "Glue sticks", "Exercise books A4 lined", "Whiteboard pens black". Be specific. "Pens" is too broad to reorder against.
The step is the feature that makes supply counts fast. Most supplies arrive in packs, and counting single items is slow and error-prone. If pencils come in boxes of 12 and you only count unopened boxes, set the step to 12. If you prefer to count boxes as boxes, leave the step at 1 and name the tag "Pencils HB (boxes of 12)". Either way, decide once and write it into the tag's notes so the next person does the same.
Opened packs are the awkward part. A simple rule works: count only full packs on the shelf, and treat an opened pack as "in use". If loose items matter, add a second tag such as "Pencils HB loose" with step 1.
Barcodes on packs and shelves
Each tag can hold a barcode or QR value. Scan the code on the pack with the camera, or type it in when the label is damaged. This is handy in two ways. First, it records exactly which product you mean, which avoids buying the wrong size of exercise book. Second, if you stick a printed QR label on a shelf edge, the code on the tag matches the shelf, so a helper knows which tag a shelf belongs to.
Not every item needs a code. Use them for things you reorder by product number and skip them for generic items like scrap paper.
How do you run a termly school supply count?
Pick a fixed week each term. The end of term is common, because you can order over the break, but the first week back also works if deliveries are slow.
The count itself:
- Open the counter for the place you are standing in.
- Switch to List view so every item is a row with minus and plus buttons.
- If the previous term's values are still there, reset the counter first, or reset one tag at a time as you go. Resetting a whole counter or a single tag are both available.
- Work shelf by shelf in the same order as the tags. Create the tags in the same order as the shelf layout and the count gets quicker every term.
- Add a note to any item that looks wrong: damaged packs, the wrong product, a box someone has hidden behind the paper.
If you are counting with a helper, one person calls out and the other taps. Turning on the volume buttons in settings lets the person tapping keep their eyes on the shelf. That option is off by default.
When a cupboard is done, lock the counter. Locking prevents accidental taps when the phone goes back into a pocket.
How do you turn a supply count into an order?
A count becomes useful when it is compared with something. Give each tag a target equal to the level you want on the shelf after an order arrives. The progress bar in List view then shows at a glance which items are well below their target.
Alternatively, use a count-down target as a reorder point. Set "Glue sticks" to count down from the full shelf level, and take one off whenever a pack is removed. When the counter reaches the target, a sound or vibration alert tells you it is time to reorder. This works best for a stockroom with one person in charge of handing things out.
To build the order, open the counter in List view and note each gap between value and target. For a larger stockroom, the Excel export is easier: the summary gives one row per tag, and the gap is a simple formula.
Shared kit: the "do we still have 30?" check
Some kit moves between rooms: class sets of calculators, mini whiteboards, scissors, headphones. These go missing in ones and twos.
A counter per kit box with a target of the full set size is enough. Before the box leaves a room, count it. If the total is below the target, the progress bar shows the gap immediately, and the history log shows when it was last full. Adding a note on the event, such as "2 left in Room 8", helps the next person look in the right place.
For a fast check, Grid view with large tiles is handy: one tile per item type in the box, tap through, and see the target percentage on each tile.
Photos of shelves and damage
Up to six photos fit on one tag, enough to show the supplies clearly. A photo of a shelf after a count is a quick record of what "full" looks like, and a photo of a damaged delivery is useful when you contact the supplier. The photo editor lets you rotate, draw with a brush, and add text in six colors, so you can circle the crushed corner of a box or label a shelf.
All photos for a counter appear together in the photo gallery with tag labels and dates. Notes appear in the All Notes screen, which can be sorted. Between them, you have a visual and written record of the count without a separate folder.
Sending the count to the office
Office staff and business managers rarely want to open someone else's app. Give them a file.
- CSV or Excel. The export dialog lets you tick Summary, Events, Notes and Locations. For an order, Summary is usually enough. For an audit, add Events, which lists every count with its time.
- HTML report. Sharing the counter as an HTML page includes embedded photos, which is useful when you need to show damaged stock or the state of a cupboard.
Send the file through whatever channel your school uses for orders. Counter App has no account and no Counter App cloud, so supply counts are stored on the phone and reach the office as the file you export or share.
Keeping a year-on-year record
At the end of the year, make a backup ZIP. You can choose which counters and categories to include and whether to compress photos. Store it with your other school records.
The backup is also how you hand the system over. If a colleague takes on the stockroom next year, they can import your backup on their phone. The import screen shows a preview and asks how to treat duplicates: replace, copy or skip. There is no live sync, so if two people count on two phones, agree who holds the master copy.
Comparing years is simplest with the Excel exports side by side. If glue stick use doubles from one year to the next, that might be a new art scheme, or it might be that glue sticks are walking home in pencil cases.
A hypothetical example
Imagine a primary school office manager responsible for one stockroom with four shelves and six classroom cupboards. She sets up ten counters under a "Supplies" category, with about fifteen tags each. The first setup takes an afternoon, mostly typing item names and steps.
In the last week of term she counts the stockroom herself in around twenty minutes and asks each class teacher to count their own cupboard with the app on her phone during a staff meeting. Each cupboard takes five minutes. She exports the Summary for every counter, combines the gaps into one order, and sends it before the holiday. Next term the count is quicker, because the tags are already in shelf order and the targets are set.
The numbers here are an illustration, not a measurement, but the shape is typical: slow first time, fast after that.
Small habits that help
- Count in the same order every time; create tags in shelf order.
- Write the counting unit into each tag's notes ("boxes of 12", "packs of 5").
- Reset before counting, not after, so the last count stays visible until you need to replace it.
- Lock counters you are not using.
- Keep one person responsible for each counter, even if several people count.
- Deleted counters go to the trash and can be restored, so cleaning up old ones is low risk.
What you need
The setup in a school is short: Counter App on an Android phone with Android 12 or newer. It is free to download with no ads; try it free for 3 days, then choose a yearly or monthly plan or a one-time lifetime purchase, and it works offline in a basement stockroom. Get the app at counterapp.online.
Frequently asked questions
Can a teacher count boxes of ten pencils instead of single pencils?
Yes. Set the tag's step to 10, or any value from 1 to 100, so each tap adds one full box and minus removes the same amount.
Can a supply tag store the barcode printed on a pack of exercise books?
Yes. A Counter App tag stores a barcode or QR value from the camera or typed manually, which ties the shelf tag to the exact product you reorder.
How does a supply count reach the school office?
Export the counter as CSV or Excel with the sections you tick, or share an HTML report that embeds your shelf photos.
Can two school staff count cupboards on two phones and merge the results?
There is no live sync, so one person sends a backup ZIP and the other imports it, choosing in the preview to replace, copy or skip duplicates.
Does a basement school stockroom need Wi-Fi for counting?
No. Counter App counts fully offline and only goes online for optional notifications, update checks and map tiles.
How should opened packs be handled in a school supply count?
A simple rule is to count only full packs on the shelf and treat opened ones as in use, adding a separate loose-items tag at step 1 if loose stock matters.
When in the school year is the best time to count supplies?
The last week of term is common because orders can go out over the break, though the first week back also works when deliveries are slow.
