Embodiments of the present invention pertain to determining an approximate number of instances of an item for an organization. According to one embodiment, instances of items that reside on computer systems associated with the organization are determined. Instances of the same item can reside on different computers and an identification uniquely identifies an item. Random numbers are associated with identifications of the items. An approximate number of instances of the item is determined based on a highest random number associated with the item. The highest random number is the highest of the random numbers that were generated for the instances of the item.