In this “age of technology” how is it that so many premises are still closing the doors for their stocktake?
It is staggering as to how a business can close their doors on a trading day so as to count their stock. As mentioned in a recent blog post available here, (hyperlink with this link http://bit.ly/29FzRA8) it is possible for a premises to undertake an efficient stocktake with the correct preparation and planning and not close their premises.
Closing for your stocktake causes the following issues
* loss in revenue
* customer frustration
* customers being forced to seek an alternative supplier
* variance reports not being undertaken in an efficient manner
* delays in accounts being finalised
While it is advisable to undertake your stocktake out of hours for a fully accurate stock count, it should not take weeks or months to complete as highlighted in the below example.
A recent visit to a new customer who had a wholesale business, told me how they were frustrated with their stocktaking process and that they found it very time consuming and labour intensive. “We would close the store on a Sunday, as this was a quiet trading day and not too many customers would be upset”. Then, they would have ten staff write down the count of each item on-hand on a pre-printed sheet. It would then be totaled, typed into a spreadsheet, and manually input into their EPOS (electronic point of sale), variances would then be investigated in the following weeks and months as there were lots of surpluses and deficits with the count. My conversation with them was four months after their stocktake date and they were still not finished.
Unbelievable! Is it any wonder that businesses hate undertaking their stocktake!
The amount of work involved in their stocktake was enormous and changes had to be made.
We took the following steps;
* their product file of products on-hand was unorganised and it created confusion with staff
* we recreated this file and assigned barcodes to all products and product cases
* product descriptions were uniform, ie; we listed them as Manufacturer/brand, product name, product dimensions (weight/size)
* ensured that where there was stock stored, there was a barcode
* all shelving and storage was neat and organised
These changes resulted in a stocktake being counted and uploaded to their EPOS on the day of the stoctkake. It went from being a 4-5month expensive arduous task to being a 1 day process with there being no downtime/store closing for customers.
For more information on how we may be able to assist your stocktaking process and procedures and avoid closing for stocktaking, please let us know.
Patrick McDermott
Stocktaking.ie
+ 353 091 762001
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