Every November, shops take on extra hands for December. You need someone who can walk the shelves and count what’s actually there. What you don’t need is to hand a first-day temp the keys to wp-admin.
The usual options are worse than they look. A clipboard and a spreadsheet you’ll type up later is slow, and the numbers get messy on the way back to the office. A Shop Manager login “just for the count” is quicker, but it also opens orders, products and settings. That’s more access than a first-day starter should have, and it puts a typo one tap away from changing live stock.
You want an accurate count before the Christmas rush. The people with time to walk the aisles might be seasonal staff who started this morning. They know how to use a phone. They shouldn’t need a tour of the WordPress admin to be useful.
Give them the counting app, not the admin
Inventory Check for WooCommerce is a stocktaking app that runs on your own site, at /inventory-check/, not in wp-admin. It’s fully free, with no paid edition.
You create an ordinary WordPress user, give them the Inventory Check Counter role, and send them that app URL. They sign in, and the plugin sends them to the counting app rather than into the admin. The docs are plain about this: warehouse staff don’t need wp-admin. Counting happens on a phone or tablet.
They still need a WordPress login. That’s the important distinction. There’s no anonymous warehouse login and no separate device pairing. What they don’t need is a seat in the dashboard.
What they can do, and what they can’t
From the phone, a Counter can:
- Start a stock check, and name it if you want a clear record later
- Search products by name or SKU, or scan a barcode with the camera if the products have one
- Enter the physical quantity in front of them and save the count
- Pause and resume if they have to go pack an order
- Keep counting if the connection drops, then sync when they’re back
- See which products they’ve already counted
- Review the differences between what they counted and what WooCommerce expected
What they cannot do matters as much as what they can. A Counter cannot hit Update stock. Saving a count only stores the warehouse figure. WooCommerce stock stays untouched until someone with authority confirms the update — an Inventory Check Supervisor, a Shop Manager or an Administrator.
That’s the point of the role: let the person on the shop floor do the walking, without handing them the keys to the till’s inventory. I’ve written separately about that counter and supervisor split. This post is about using it when the person on the floor only started this morning.
How I’d set it up before their first shift
Do this the day before they arrive, not in the doorway with a queue of orders already waiting.
- Install the plugin if it isn’t already on the shop. Inventory Check for WooCommerce is in the WordPress plugin directory. Pretty permalinks need to be on. If /inventory-check/ returns a 404, open Settings → Permalinks and save any pretty structure.
- Add a WordPress user with the Inventory Check Counter role. Use Users → Add User. Don’t make them a Shop Manager “for convenience”. They don’t need those screens, and they shouldn’t be able to change stock.
- Send them the app URL. That’s
https://your-site/inventory-check/on your shop. They can bookmark it, or optionally add it to the phone’s home screen — Chrome on Android, or Share then Add to Home Screen in Safari on iPhone. Installing it is optional. An ordinary mobile browser is enough. - If you use a shared shop phone, show them Log out. On the Status tab in the app, staff can see who they’re signed in as and tap Log out. Roles only help if the next person isn’t still signed in as yesterday’s supervisor — or as you.
- Tell them the job in one sentence. They sign in, open the app, and count what’s on the shelf. They don’t need a wp-admin tour, and they don’t need to “just update the product” if a number looks wrong. That’s your job at review.
Their first day on the floor
They open the app on the phone and start a stock check. Give it a name that will still make sense in the history, like “Aisle B, 10 November” or “Bestsellers, first week of December”.
Then they work along the shelf. Search or scan, enter what’s actually there, tap Save count. Expected WooCommerce stock is shown for reference, but saving doesn’t change it. Products already counted in that check show as checked, so they’re less likely to count the same bin twice.
If they need to stop and pack, they can pause and resume. If the stockroom Wi-Fi dips, they can keep counting and it syncs when the connection comes back.
When they’ve finished a section, they can review the differences. They can see where the shelf and the site disagree. They still can’t write those numbers into WooCommerce.
You don’t need barcodes for this to work. Name and SKU search are always there. If you sell variable products, they count the variation — the size or colour in their hand — not the parent product.
Different people can count at the same time. Each user can have one open stock check, so a second temp can start their own check on another aisle without waiting.
What you do when they finish
You open the same review list. Check the ready lines, and recheck anything flagged as a conflict — for example an order that changed live stock while they were counting. Then you tap Update stock and confirm. Ready lines are written to WooCommerce. Conflicts are left alone for a recheck, not overwritten.
Completed checks stay in the history, with audit detail and a CSV export if you need a record later. The counts themselves stay on your WordPress site. There’s no outside inventory cloud, and the plugin doesn’t collect customer or payment data.
Wrap Up
Temporary staff can be useful on day one if you give them the right door, not the whole building. A Counter login and a phone is enough for an accurate count, without opening wp-admin, and without putting live stock one typo away from a first-day mistake.
Inventory Check for WooCommerce is fully free. You’ll find the setup notes and full docs on the Inventory Check for WooCommerce page, and you can install it from the WordPress plugin directory.
If you’re taking on Christmas help and want a clean way for them to count without a seat in the admin, book a quick call and we’ll look at it together.
Written by Connie, an AI, from Neil Matthews’ notes, archive, and direction. Neil directed and edited this piece. He did not write these words. Augmented publishing by Neil Matthews.