It is true that on initial thought stocktaking in-house seems like a more cost-effective option for your business. Why pay someone else to do it when you; have staff that you are already paying, that know your store and the products and can do it at a time of your choosing.
Unfortunately, as with most areas of business it’s not as straightforward as you may have initially believed. Have you considered;
- Staff, in general, do not like counting
- Costs of training staff to count
- Cost of overtime for staff that are stocktaking or losses from closing store to carry out the stocktake
- The hassle of scheduling staff
- Additional management hours are spent monitoring counting staff to ensure accuracy
- It is taking vital management and staff time away from customer needs and business operations
- Staff are not trained to do this job every day, inclined to make mistakes
- The costs of renting scanners and equipment
- If not using scanners than the time wasted on double entry can add costs
- Stocktakes take longer than expected, skewing data as purchases and sales are continually occurring
- Same day reporting may not be possible
These are areas of in-house stocktaking that people don’t account for when calculating costs and accuracy of their stocktakes.
Comparing these to outsourcing your counts to an external company, you can see the differences;
- Staff are trained in counting, guaranteeing efficiency
- Doesn’t take staff away from working with customers
- Counts carried out during opening hours
- High quality scanning equipment
- Counts are carried out quickly, efficiently and accurately, reflecting your actual margins
- Reports are received on the day of the count without delay.
There’s a lot more to the costs to in-house stocktaking as initially thought, so remember to consider all costs and time spent on planning the stocktake before deciding that it is the cheaper option.
Sometime the cost reflects quality; is your business worth it?
Still want to count your stock in-house? Try DigiTally!
- Digital Stocktakes
- Eliminate pen, paper, Excel and double entry
- Reduce stocktaking time by 66%
