ABC Analysis for Inventory
Sort your stock items into A, B and C classes by annual usage value. Paste your item list from Excel or open a CSV file, check the columns, and download the classified list. Your data stays in your browser.
Your item list
One row per item: item code, annual quantity used or sold, and unit cost. A description or a ready-made annual value column also works. A header row is fine.
Check the columns
First rows as read
Class cut-offs and duplicates
ABC classes
| Row | Item | Reason |
|---|
All items, highest value first
| Rank | Item | Description | Annual qty | Unit cost | Annual value | Share | Cumulative | Class |
|---|
Your file and figures stay on this device. The page reads them in your browser; nothing is uploaded, sent or saved. Download or print your result before you close the page.
What ABC analysis in inventory means
ABC analysis ranks stock items by how much money moves through them in a year. In most stores a small number of items carries most of the value. Those are the A items: they deserve the tightest control, the most frequent counts and the closest watch on stock levels. C items are the many items with little value each, where simple rules are enough. B items sit in between.
The idea follows the Pareto principle (roughly 80% of the value in 20% of the items), but your own split will differ. The tool shows the real split for your list.
What you need
| Column | Needed? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Item code | Yes | One row per item. The same code twice is reported, or combined if you tick the box. |
| Annual quantity | Yes, unless you have an annual value | Quantity issued or sold in 12 months, in the unit the cost is for. |
| Unit cost | For a value-based analysis | Without it, items are ranked by quantity alone and the tool says so. |
| Annual value | Optional | If your system already gives usage value, use it instead of quantity × cost. |
| Description | Optional | Carried through to the result and the CSV. |
Copy the cells from Excel or Google Sheets and paste them, or save the sheet as CSV UTF-8 and open the file. Excel workbooks (.xlsx) cannot be opened directly. Up to 10,000 rows and 5 MB.
How the classes are worked out
Annual value = annual quantity × unit cost (or your annual value column).
Share = annual value of the item ÷ total annual value × 100.
Cumulative share = the item’s share plus the shares of every item ranked above it, from the highest value down.
Class: A while the cumulative share is 80% or less, B up to 95%, C above that. Both cut-offs can be changed.
Two rules a plain spreadsheet formula does not have: the top-ranked item is always A, even when it alone is more than 80% of the value; and items with no usage (value 0) are always C. Items with equal value are ranked by item code, so the result is the same every time.
Worked example
Ten spare parts with a total annual value of 133,350. Press Try an example above to load them.
| Item | Annual qty × unit cost | Annual value | Cumulative | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P-100 Hydraulic pump | 40 × 1,250 | 50,000 | 37.5% | A |
| M-220 Gear motor | 60 × 480 | 28,800 | 59.1% | A |
| S-500 Seal kit | 150 × 95 | 14,250 | 69.8% | A |
| F-415 Air filter element | 300 × 42 | 12,600 | 79.2% | A |
| V-610 Ball valve | 80 × 140 | 11,200 | 87.6% | B |
| B-310 Bearing | 2,400 × 3.80 | 9,120 | 94.5% | B |
| G-830 Grease cartridge | 500 × 6.50 | 3,250 | 96.9% | C |
| C-720 Cable ties | 900 × 2.10 | 1,890 | 98.3% | C |
| L-940 Label roll | 1,200 × 1.20 | 1,440 | 99.4% | C |
| T-050 Safety tape | 200 × 4.00 | 800 | 100.0% | C |
4 of the 10 items (40%) are class A and carry 79.2% of the value. The bearing has the highest quantity of all, 2,400 a year, but it is class B: ABC analysis ranks by money, not by how often an item moves.
Doing the same in Excel
- Annual value in column D:
=B2*C2(quantity × unit cost). - Sort the list by column D, largest first.
- Cumulative share in column E:
=SUM($D$2:D2)/SUM($D:$D), formatted as a percentage. - Class in column F:
=IF(E2<=80%,"A",IF(E2<=95%,"B","C")).
The tool does these steps for you, keeps the order stable, lists rows it cannot use with the reason, and does not break when you re-sort the list.
Using the classes
- Counting: count A items most often. The cycle counting guide shows how to build a schedule by class.
- Reordering: set safety stock and reorder points carefully for A items with the Safety Stock Calculator; simple min-max rules are often enough for C items.
- Storage: ranking by value is not the same as ranking by picks. For slotting fast movers near dispatch, rank by the number of picks instead: use the pick count as the quantity and leave the unit cost column unused.
- Old stock: class C also holds items with no usage at all. Check them with the Inventory Aging Report.
Questions
Why 80% and 95%?
They are common starting points, not a rule. Some businesses use 70% and 90%, or set A by a number of items. Change the cut-offs under Class cut-offs and duplicates and the classes update at once.
Is my data uploaded?
No. The page reads the pasted text or the file in your browser. Nothing is sent to WarehouseCalc or anyone else, and nothing is stored. Close the page and it is gone, so download the CSV first.
My list has one row per location. What do I do?
Tick Combine rows with the same item code. Quantities and values are added and the unit cost becomes the average. Without the tick, repeated codes are listed as rows to fix.
Which numbers can it read?
1234.5, 1,234.5, 1.234,5 and 12,5 (decimal comma), with or without a currency sign. 1,234 is read as one thousand two hundred and thirty-four.
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