What is the difference between Inventory stock take and cycle count?

Stock taking is the counting of on-hand inventory. This means identifying every item on hand, counting it and summarizing these quantities by item. There may also be a verification step, where the count results are compared to the inventory unit counts in a company's computer system. Stock taking is a common requirement of a periodic inventory system, and may also be required as part of a company's annual audit. While Cycle Counting involves counting a small amount of inventory each day, with the intent of cycling through the entire inventory on an ongoing basis.