A folder behind the counter
On Wednesday the livestock delivery arrives: a box of tropical fish, a few pairs of rats and mice, two bearded dragons and some budgies. The manager writes each batch into the register by hand: date, supplier, species, number, where they are housed. As animals sell over the next week, staff are meant to note each sale, but on busy afternoons they forget, or write it on a sticky note to add later. Losses go in a different column, sometimes.
When the local authority inspector visits, or a customer comes back with a question about a hamster bought a month ago, someone has to search through pages of handwriting. The numbers in the register rarely match what is actually in the tanks and cages.
Why the register falls behind
Live animals are not like bags of food. Each batch needs a record from the moment it arrives, and every sale, move or loss should update it. Paper cannot keep up with a shop floor where the same people also serve customers, clean tanks and take deliveries.
- Sales happen at the till, but the register is in a folder in the back.
- Livestock is often sold on a generic till key, so the till cannot say which batch sold.
- Moves between tanks or enclosures are not recorded.
- Losses are recorded late or not at all.
- Records for different animal types are kept in different books.
What an unreliable register costs
Your licence conditions set out what records you need to keep, and your own adviser or local authority can tell you what that means for you. A register that is incomplete or hard to search makes inspections more stressful than they need to be, and staff spend time before each visit reconciling pages.
Commercially, you cannot see which suppliers' livestock does well, which batches have higher losses, or how long animals stay in the shop before selling. That makes buying decisions guesswork.
A digital livestock record, from delivery to sale
- We build a tablet app where each delivery is recorded as batches: species or variety, number, supplier, date and the tank or enclosure they go into.
- Each tank or enclosure gets a QR code, so staff scan it to see what is housed there and when it arrived.
- Livestock sold at the till is linked to its batch, either through till products per batch or by scanning the enclosure code at sale.
- Moves between enclosures and losses are recorded with a scan and a tap, including the reason your team chooses from a list.
- The record keeps a full history per batch, searchable by date, species, supplier or enclosure.
- Reports show current livestock on hand, sales and losses per batch and supplier, and time in store.
| Record | Paper register | Digital livestock record |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival | Handwritten line | Batch recorded at delivery |
| Where housed | Not always noted | Linked to enclosure QR code |
| Sales | Added later, if remembered | Linked from the till |
| Losses | Separate column, often late | Recorded with a reason at the time |
| Search | Page by page | By date, species, supplier or enclosure |
What records you need is set by your licence conditions and your own procedures. We build the record to hold what you tell us, and we do not advise on animal care or licensing.
The shop floor with records that keep up
When a delivery arrives, the manager records the batches on the tablet as they go into their enclosures. Sales update the record from the till. A loss is logged at the tank, with the reason, in a few seconds. At any point the manager can see exactly what livestock is in the shop and where.
When an inspector asks for records, you open the tablet, filter by date or species, and print or export what they need. When a customer asks about an animal bought last month, the batch and supplier are a search away.
Is your livestock register behind the shop floor?
- Live animals are recorded in a paper register or folder.
- Sales and losses are added to the register later, if at all.
- Livestock is sold on generic till keys.
- Preparing for an inspection means reconciling pages by hand.
- You cannot see losses by supplier or batch.