For any small business owner, especially in retail, keeping a track of the stock is essential.
Keeping a close eye on the stock you have on paper vs. what’s actually in-store enables you to maintain inventory accuracy, spot causes of shrinkage early, and ensure that you always have the right amount of stock at the right time.
Tips Fast And Easy Physical Stock Counts
Here are a few tips you can use the next time you take a count!
- Taking a count of all the stock at once might make be difficult along with attending customers during store hours. Divide the stock into sections, and do the counting one by one.
- Use people who are sharp and alert and familiar with your day-to-day business. They should also be aware of the location of different items to take the count!
- Schedule it after work hours (to avoid losing out on customers) or keep the shop closed for a part of the day (inform your customers of the same).
- Draw up a map of your store or your stock room – this makes it easier to assign sections to your employees, and also mark off the sections once they have been checked, to prevent double entries.
- Labelling all the boxes and shelves just makes it easier to make sure that everything is where it should be!
- Deal with outstanding orders from suppliers, products returned by customers, or damaged items as soon as possible.
- If you have a POS system, you could check if it is equipped with inventory counting features. You could also use mobile apps meant specifically for scanning the stock.
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