Inventorier

Inventorier is a French verb meaning to conduct an inventory or to make a list of items held by an organization. Derived from the noun inventaire, which designates a catalog of goods, the verb denotes the process of cataloging, verifying, and recording assets or stock. The term also appears in other Romance languages with similar forms, such as inventariar in Spanish and Portuguese, reflecting a shared Latin root.

In practice, inventorier is used in accounting, logistics, libraries, museums, and public administration to determine what items exist, where they are located, and their condition or value. It supports asset management, loss prevention, regulatory compliance, and financial reporting. The action typically falls under a broader stocktaking or asset-audit cycle and is often performed periodically or in response to particular events (e.g., year-end close, relocation, or system migration).

A typical inventorier process includes planning, item identification and data capture (descriptions, quantities, locations, serial numbers, and condition), data verification or physical counts, valuation or revaluation if required, reconciliation with records, and reporting or updating of inventory systems. Accuracy and completeness depend on clear procedures, trained staff, and reliable data capture tools, such as barcodes, RFID, or enterprise resource planning systems.

In English-language contexts, the closest equivalents are to inventory or to inventorize; inventorié fits as the French past participle, j’ai inventorié, for example. See also inventory management and stocktaking.