Stocktaking.ie FAQ

What is stocktaking?
How often should I conduct a stocktake?
Who are stocktaking.ie?
Why do I need to stocktake?
Do you only provide stocktaking services?
Why should you consider an external company to undertake your stocktaking?
How can I be assured that my sensitive business information will remain confidential?
What do Stocktaking.ie charge for their services?

What is stocktaking?
Stocktaking is required so as to get an accurate count of stock in your business at a particular period of time. The stock is valued at cost value and is then used to generate margin and profit reports for the business. It is also required to complete the Balance Sheet in your year-end accounts where it is classified as a Current Asset. The business owner will then be able to see how the business is performing and to see what profit margins are being achieved.

Post stocktake, the business then makes decisions based on the profit margin being achieved. Stocktaking.ie understands the importance of achieving an accurate stock count and that is the reason we specialise in counting stock accurately. If the count is not accurate then you could be making decisions based on incorrect data which can have obvious detrimental effects on a business.

How often should I conduct a stocktake?
For Retail Business´s, that are not experiencing difficulties, four times per year is seen as an optimum amount of times per year. Should there be difficulties such as stock shrinkage through theft or poor practices then more frequent so as to identify the problem quickly.

For the Hospitality businesses, at least once per month provided that your business is performing to an acceptable level..

Several businesses do not want a stocktake on a regular basis. The main reason for this is mainly due to the cost of the stocktakes. Compare the cost of not having a stocktake with the cost of a drop of a few percentage points in your profit margin over the course of the year.

By knowing what your profit margin is on a regular basis you know if you are performing in accordance with your expectations. For example, if you are expecting a retail gross profit margin of 28% and at the end of the year it comes in at 27% due to excessive wastage, pilferage and loss making product lines. Knowing this at the end of the year is too late to make adjustments to rectify any changes required. With regular stocktakes, you can monitor your margins and assess performance. On a turnover of €3million that’s a loss of €30k. Think of the wages that could be paid with that!

Who are stocktaking.ie?
Stocktaking.ie is a company who provide a nationwide stocktaking services. We have a team of over one hundred stocktakers who can conduct stocktakes for all sizes of shops, supermarkets and all retail, pharmacy, hardware and hospitality premises.

We are the only stocktaking company in Ireland who are ISO 9001:2008 certified. This means that our Quality Management System is audited and certified each year to comply with International standards.

We use a combination of ISO certified systems of work, excellent staff and the latest in barcode scanning technology which assists us in providing a 100% accurate stocktake at EVERY stocktake.

Our stocktakes are transparent and easy to audit. By using a clever labelling system we are able to provide a system whereby we can provide rechecks in real-time to our team and to the in-store stock auditors.

Why do I need to stocktake?
Stocktaking is a fundamental part of running a successful business. By accurately stocktaking you are monitoring your margins for each department within your business.
Sir Francis Bacon is quoted as saying that “Knowledge is Power”. The same principle applies to operating your business.

Too often businesses state that they undertake a stocktake once per year as it is their accountant who requires the information. Businesses that do this run the risk of operating at a loss for an entire year and not knowing if they are making the required margin. When they are notified of this, it is too late to make adjustments to rectify the situation.
By not stocktaking, you will be ignoring potential losses that can be occurring every day in your business. Stocktaking highlights individual variances in beverage stocktakes, wastage and stock losses in the kitchen and stock loss values in retail outlets. If the results yield no discrepancies you will have peace of mind, however if discrepancies are identified, then Stocktaking.ie will be able to recommend a suitable course of action to eliminate stock loss.

Do you only provide Stocktaking services?

For retail business we provide a stock counting service. This reduces the need to conduct the stocktake in-house. We do this by using the product file from your EPOS and detailed reports can then be provided. Variance reports are also available for a retail premises.

While stocktaking constitutes the bulk of our business, we regularly provide ancillary services as a result of the findings of a stocktake. These are mainly geared towards hospitality business and focus on:

  • Loss prevention
  • Cycle counting
  • Gross profit analysis
  • Menu Engineering
  • Cost control audits

Why should you consider an external company to undertake your stocktaking?
There are 3 reasons why you should consider using an external company.

  • Any person who has a hand in ordering or serving the stock should not be involved in a stocktake as there is always the risk that stock quantities could be increased or manipulated on paper to account for breakages or theft that may occur during the period.
  • An independent stocktaking business will report the findings “as is”
  • It saves you time and money so you don’t have to
      • Organise/readjust staff rotas AND manage the shop AND pay overtime
      • additional scanner rental
      • training staff how to use scanners
      • management and staff overtime
      • rechecking reports
      • collating the stocktake results

We are professionals who are excellent at what we do. Our team count stock every day and not just once per year which makes us efficient at producing excellent, accurate and efficient results

How can I be assured that my sensitive business information will remain confidential?
Since launching in 2004, Stocktaking.ie has built a solid reputation as a discreet, professional provider of stocktaking services and accurate reports. Your confidential business information will always remain exactly that. Confidential.

All our data and customer data is backed up on an off-site server which is operated by KeepItSafe.com where all data is encrypted and is only retrieved by Stocktaking.ie management team. This is in accordance with our ISO standards.

What do Stocktaking.ie charge for their services?
Because every business is different, it is difficult to quote without understanding your exact requirements such as:

  • Do you have a hospitality, pharmacy, hardware or retail business?
  • How often do you want a stocktake?
  • What is your estimated stock on hand?
  • What is the estimated stock holding?
  • What is the square ft of your store?
  • Do you require the stock take results to be read back into your EPOS?

After a brief telephone conversation we will be better positioned to give you a FREE quotation at no obligation.