BusinessHABTips For A Better Stocktake :Everyone knows knowledge is power and the insight gained by conducting regular Stocktakes empowers retailers to be proactive on stock decisions.
And most importantly increase their businesses bottom line.
Regular stocktaking is good business practice which will prevent many problems.
As well as confirm the amount of stock held for audit purposes.
There are so many benefits to having accurate information.
On your stock levels including improved customer service and efficiency in your operation,
With employee’s who always know exactly what stock is available & where.
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Conducting a regular stocktake will ensure you see benefits which:
- Provide accurate reporting which ensures your accounting is up to date and you are always aware of your profit margin
- Identify slow moving and overstocked products so you can act accordingly with special sales offers. Know that what you are spending your money on is profitable & what stock your store actually needs.
- Reduce back orders – stocktaking empowers business owners to see what moves quickly and reorder in a timely manner.
- Highlights poor practices in your operation or possible cases of theft before things might get out of control.
Regular stock taking afford businesses an accurate accounting of their stock levels,
Highlight major areas of weakness and loss – such as theft, damage and obsolescence –
And provide the data that inventory managers need in order to forecast, plan,
And purchase to best meet customer demand.
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Tips For A Better Stocktake
1. Timing is everything
The best time to conduct a stock take is when it will cause the least amount of disruption to regular business operations.
Make sure to schedule your stock taking during slow sales cycles, and outside of regular business hours.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
2. So is organization
Appoint leaders with strong organizational skills to head up the stock taking,
And task them with preparing all the necessary equipment required,
Such as portable bar code scanners, stock sheets, clipboards, pens and calculators.
Organize staff into teams and ensure that each team is assigned a supervisor.
Everyone should be clearly tasked and understand exactly which stock they will be required to count.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
3. Avoid double counts by marking goods
In order to avoid double counts have staff mark each item counted.
So that they know what has and hasn’t been accounted for.
Also, designate an easy to follow procedure for the counting –
This could be from top shelf to bottom shelf and from left to right, for example.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
4. Never trust a label – Open, count and record everything
When conducting stock taking it never pays to try speed the process along by guesstimating quantities,
Or trusting the quantities indicated on labels to be correct.
Make it explicitly clear to the teams that every single piece of inventory needs.
To be hand counted, marked and recorded.
This means that if there is an unopened box that indicates 10 units are contained inside,
Do not mark it down and move on – open the box, count every unit,
Record it and then proceed on to the next box.
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Tips For A Better Stocktake
5. Ensure all data is up to date before stock taking
It is extremely important to ensure that only up-to-date data is used.
Make sure to pinpoint and omit inventory that has already been invoiced to customers,
ut has not yet shipped – as well as stock received.
But not yet recorded in the inventory management software system.
All stock and price lists need to be the most up-to–date lists available.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
6. Value your stock correctly
Be sure to price your stock according to the most current cost prices and recommended retail prices (RRP).
For example, if you purchased certain stock a year ago at $500 USD per unit
But the current cost price has dropped to $350 USD per unit,
And then your lists should reflect the lower of the two prices.
The same applies for retail price points.
(The accounting principle of lower of cost or market, or ‘LCM’, applies).
Tips For A Better Stocktake
7. Gather the essential data
Once you have an accurate count of all your stock levels,
It is time to gather the most essential data that will allow you to pinpoint areas of loss.
As a result of bad business practice, theft and obsolescence.
Determine which stock has the highest turnover rate
And plan your purchase orders accordingly.
This way you can ensure that you won’t run into a stock out,
Should demand continue to surge for fast-moving inventory.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
8. Act to improve areas of weakness and loss
Be sure to identify stock with a sluggish turnover ratio,
As well as items particularly vulnerable to damage, theft and tampering.
Draw up a plan to sell that stock off.
And then put counter measures in place to prevent pilfering
And damage taking place on vulnerable stock.
Such measures could include having pallets wrapped with a pallet wrapper prior to shipment,
As well as implementing enhanced security checks and monitoring for goods in storage.
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Tips For A Better Stocktake
9. Assess your stock taking needs
Regular stock takes are extremely beneficial in helping businesses streamline
Their inventory management and thereby optimize productivity and boost profitability.
It may also be highly advantageous to your business to ensure that all stock can be accurately counted,
Tracked and traced throughout every stage of the inventory process.
By investing in a good inventory management software system.
Unleashed offers real-time perpetual inventory functionality.
Where inventory is updated on a continuous basis, making regular stock takes a thing of the past.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
10. Here are our Top Ten Tips for a Better Stocktake
A good guide is to schedule at least 4 ‘whole of inventory’ stocktakes.
Each year as well as scheduling monthly cycle counts which are smaller stocktakes of various departments.
Some well run operations with live integrated inventory management POS software.
Consistently run cycle counts instead of performing the traditional full physical inventory count.
Retail operations that use a real-time cloud based stock management POS system.
Can easily perform cycle counts along with their other warehouse activities during business hours.
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Tips For A Better Stocktake
1. Always plan ahead to make sure necessary resources are in place so things can run smoothly
Tips For A Better Stocktake
2. Choose the quietest time of the day (usually after hours) so that you have minimum interruptions
Tips For A Better Stocktake
3. Always conduct a stocktake in a tidy and orderly environment.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
All inventory should be accessible and sorted into appropriate categories.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
4. Organise staff appropriately – appoint a supervisor in each location responsible for overviewing the process.
Run reports to consider what stock will be counted and then allocate the appropriate staff levels to perform the count.
Teach staff the best system to count stock,
Such as always running from top to bottom and left to right to avoid count duplications.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
5. Limit noise and conversation – distractions from co-workers, mobile phones,
iPods or having the radio playing can all lead to staff making critical errors.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
6. Count every item – never estimate & always check the number listed is actually what is inside any unopened box.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
7. Mark any items counted to avoid duplication – this will also help identify any item that counters have missed.
Tips For A Better Stocktake
8. Make sure the data for the stocktake is valid
- Receive any outstanding purchase orders, inter-store transfers, returns etc
- Decide how you will handle damaged stock
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Tips For A Better Stocktake
9. Finalise the stocktake and investigate and note any inconsistencies
Tips For A Better Stocktake
10. When completed, review your stocktaking procedures and note any suggestions to further streamline actions.
And improve your processes for the next count.
If you only stocktake once a year you may be ignoring potential losses through damaged or slow moving stock.
Theft or problems with warehousing procedures.
You will save money by preventing problems and dealing with any stock issues promptly.
A successful stocktake doesn’t have to disrupt your business.
And will give you the accurate information you need to make better operational.
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