A recently developed ion beam layer removal method allows the precise determination of complex depth profiles of residual stresses in crystalline and in amorphous thin films on a nanoscale [S. Massl, J. Keckes, R. Pippan, Acta Mater. 55 (2007) 4835]. Recipes and advice for optimal experimental design are given herein to minimize errors in the stress distributions calculated. The calculation procedure of this method is briefly introduced followed by the definition of any sources of error along with their influence on the resulting stress distribution. Finally, the errors as a function of experimental parameters are discussed by means of an example and four model stress distributions. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.