ABC Analysis
Not all stock deserves equal attention — rank items by annual value and manage class A tightly.
Inventory items
| Item name | Annual qty used/sold | Unit cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
Add inventory items with their annual quantity and unit cost (or load the sample) to see your ABC classification, Pareto chart and restocking priorities.
What is ABC inventory classification?
ABC analysis sorts your stock list by how much money each item consumes in a year, so you know where to spend counting and ordering effort. For every item you multiply the quantity used or sold in a year by its unit cost, rank the results from highest to lowest, and tag each item A, B or C. The output is a ranked table showing usage value, share of the total, a running cumulative percentage and the class. It is an internal management report, not a statutory one, so you can run it as often as your buying cycle needs.
In an Indian shop, pharmacy, hardware store or restaurant kitchen, most of the cash locked in stock usually sits in a short list of items. Those are the lines where a stockout costs a sale, where a few rupees off the purchase rate adds up over a year, and where a counting mistake distorts your closing stock at year end. ABC analysis puts that short list in front of you, so you can count A items more often, hold safety stock for them, and buy C items in bulk without much thought.
The inputs are figures you already have. Annual quantity can come from last year's sales report, your purchase register or a Tally stock summary. Unit cost should be what you pay for the item, not what you sell it for, because the aim is to measure money spent on keeping stock. If you sell seasonal goods such as festival stock or school supplies, use the last twelve months rather than one month, or a slow season will push important items down into class C.
What the ABC analysis tool does
Automatic A, B and C classes
Items are ranked by annual usage value and cut at 80% and 95% of cumulative value. Classes update as you type.
Pareto chart
Bars show each item's usage value and a line tracks the cumulative percentage, so you can see where the curve flattens out.
Value by class
A pie chart and three summary cards show how many items sit in each class and what share of total value they hold.
Restock priority per item
Every row carries a restock priority, and each class card suggests a control policy, from weekly review for A to bulk ordering for C.
Pull products from your workspace
With your permission, product names and cost prices load from the Setu workspace. You only add the annual quantities.
CSV and PDF export
The CSV lists every item with quantity, unit cost, usage value, class and restock priority for Excel or Google Sheets. The PDF report adds your company name, the class summary and the full ranking.
How to use the free ABC analysis tool
- 1Type your company name if you want it printed on the PDF report.
- 2Enter each item's name, the quantity used or sold in a year, and its unit cost. Tap Add item for more rows, or Load sample inventory to see a worked set of 12 items.
- 3If a Setu business workspace exists in this browser, tap Use workspace on the banner, then Pull products to load your product names with cost prices. This replaces the rows already in the table, so fill in each item's annual quantity afterwards.
- 4Read the three class cards for each class's item count and share of total value, then the ranking table for every item's usage value, percentage of total, cumulative percentage, class and restock priority.
- 5Check the Pareto chart and the value-by-class pie chart to see how concentrated your stock value is.
- 6Tap Export CSV to download the ranking, or Export PDF to open a print-ready report you can save as a PDF.
Common mistake: ranking by units sold
ABC analysis ranks by usage value, annual quantity × unit cost, not by how many units move. In the sample inventory, cable ties move 20,000 units a year at ₹0.10 each, only ₹2,000 of value, and land in class C, while 150 hydraulic pumps at ₹220 each come to ₹33,000 and sit in class A. Fill in a quantity for every item: rows without a name are skipped, and an item left at zero quantity has no value and drops to class C. Update quantities and costs after a price change or a new season, because classes shift when costs or demand move.
Frequently asked questions
An inventory method based on the Pareto principle: class A items are the vital few (~80% of consumption value), B the middle (~15%), C the trivial many (~5%). Each class gets a matching level of control.
Rank items by annual consumption value (annual quantity × unit cost), take the cumulative percentage of total value, and cut at 80% (A), 95% (B) and beyond (C) — exactly what this tool automates.
A: tight control — frequent counts, careful reorder points, negotiated pricing. B: moderate, periodic review. C: simple rules and bulk orders. Pair with our Stock Reorder Point calculator for the A items.
Yes. It is free, needs no signup and has no fixed limit on the number of items. Your item list saves automatically in this browser, so it is still there when you come back on the same device. Clearing browser data removes it, and a private window forgets it once closed, so export a CSV if you want a permanent copy.
Use cost price. ABC analysis measures how much money you spend to keep each item in stock, so annual quantity multiplied by purchase cost is the standard basis. Selling price would inflate high-margin items and hide costly low-margin ones. When you pull products from a Setu workspace, the tool uses each product's cost price and falls back to the selling price only when no cost price is saved.
ABC analysis groups items by money value. XYZ analysis groups them by how steady their demand is, and FSN analysis by how fast they move: fast, slow or non-moving. They answer different questions, so many businesses combine them, for example by watching an A item with erratic demand more closely. This tool performs the ABC classification only.
Yes. The tool runs in a phone browser, and the item table, ranking table and Pareto chart scroll sideways on small screens, while the class cards and pie chart stack to fit. For a long item list, typing on a laptop is quicker, and the list you save stays only in the browser you used, so pick one device for the analysis.