The word “inventory” is surely familiar to all of us. Keeping your inventory up to date is key to a successful business. It lets you forecast your products more accurately, study your customers’ preferences and offer the products that are most in demand.
What is a store’s inventory?
By definition, inventory refers to the goods that move through the different stages on their way to becoming a finished product. It would therefore include:
- Finished goods
- Products in the manufacturing process
- Products under maintenance
- Raw materials
Taking a store’s inventory is essentially carrying out a thorough count of all the stock you have on hand. When you take inventory it’s important to be careful, because collecting the data inaccurately will throw all your numbers off. It allows you to check whether you have any discrepancies in your stock.
Why is inventory control important?
Inventory control is one of the biggest challenges retailers face today. Keeping your stock under control at all times makes for easy, efficient management. It also benefits you in a number of ways, such as:
- Forecasting purchases for the next season.
- Avoiding chaos in the warehouse by anticipating the replenishment of each item.
- Analysing which items sell more and which sell less, so you can take that into account in the following seasons.
- Preventing theft or stock discrepancies, because if you have your stock under control you’ll always know which products are missing. This way, if you’re short 10 units of an item, you can move it to another location and keep an eye on the situation.
- Avoiding dissatisfied customers, complaints, returns and so on.
How often should I take inventory?
How often you take inventory is up to you. It’s usually done monthly, quarterly or annually. It depends on how much importance you give it and how many items you have. Many companies do it annually to reconcile their accounting books at the end of the fiscal year.
What to keep in mind when taking inventory
Before you take inventory, we recommend keeping a few factors in mind, as they will make the job much easier.
- Set up a distinct coding system across all your products so you can locate them in the warehouse in an organised way. Read more about How to organise your warehouse with SKU codes.
- Make a list of the products that have sold the most and the least. This lets you spot products in your store whose prices you need to adjust or that you need to restock, and above all understand your customers’ preferences so you can adapt.
- Choose the stock control tool that best fits your business needs. You can take inventory by hand or in Excel, but it’s a tiring, tedious job. Programs like Stockagile offer to save you time on management and make your tasks easier in a simple, affordable way.
- Record the inbound and outbound movements of your stock. If you plan to take a detailed inventory, having your movements recorded will be essential for pinpointing where in the process you may have made mistakes or created discrepancies.
- Once you have your inventory figures, you need to make sure they match the actual physical inventory you have at that moment.
- Keep your inventory up to date. Always depending on the volume you’re managing.
The solution to your headaches
Many companies, and increasingly so with the arrival of technology, are updating and modernising the way they manage their business.
Read more about The advantages and disadvantages of using a POS
At Stockagile we understand how important it is to take inventory, and that’s why it couldn’t be simpler or more visual. It’s a cloud-based program, so it’s compatible with every device.
