15 Reasons why you should outsource your Stocktaking

Many of you would be familiar with the dreaded end of year, or Quarterly and believe it or not in a lot of cases MONTHLY Stocktakes! Imagine a world where at the click of a button you could bestow this dastardly task unto another poor soul… Well here’s 15 reasons to make you consider doing so!

1. Shop staff, in general, dislike counting stock.

2.Too much time being wasted in Scheduling, Training & Monitoring staff, just to ensure they are counting correctly!

3. In-House counting of stock is not impartial and results could be falsified unknowingly.

4.The hassle of conducting the Stocktake and managing staff to ensure accuracy is difficult and unproductive.

5. It’s a long day and can result in lost revenues and increased staff costs If people counting are not efficient.

6. Increased overtime/out of hour cost with in-house Stocktaking, This can be an unforeseen cost for small Business’s.

7. With In-house Stocktaking, You may not be able to get such detailed reports on your stock. Eg variance reports, wastage, stock on hand etc..

8. Additional management hours are spent monitoring staff that are in most cases not trained in Stocktaking, And do not fully understand the repercussions of miscounting, to ensure full accuracy.

9. Spot checks may not be carried out throughout and employees and management are working to full capacity.

10. It takes management and staff that are vital to the business away from their sole responsibility of putting the customer first.

11. Asking employees to do a task which in most cases they did not sign up for and are not trained in will result in inaccurate stock levels.

12. There is an additional cost to renting your own equipment to carry out a Stocktake, This equipment in the wrong hands is worthless!

13. Untrained staff conducting a Stocktake will not result in an accurate Stocktake versus professional Stocktakers who would carry out such tasks on a daily basis.

14. Stocktaking taking too long while purchases and sales are still in progress throwing your numbers into disarray.

15. Same day reports may not be possible!

Stocktaking.ie can assist businesses in counting their stock in the most efficient manner possible. Our team of trained professionals, ensure that from the first point of contact that your requirements are recorded and communicated to the front line members of our Team. Every single item Top to Bottom is counted by our staff and through our procedures we provide full trace-ability.

Still want to count your stock in-house? Try DigiTally!

• Digital Stocktakes
• Eliminate pen, paper, Excel and double entry
• Reduce stocktaking time by 66%

DigiTally Preview

Take me to the DigiTally website!

The post 15 Reasons why you should outsource your Stocktaking appeared first on Stocktaking.ie.

What Is A Stocktake?

A stocktake, often referred to as inventory (depending on where in the world you are) is performed by stocktakers and it determines how much stock a company has on its premise’s at any one point in time.

The stock is accounted for by counting, weighing, scanning or measuring, depending on the type of stock on hand the business has.

The stocktake results is then used for several reasons

1. Financial
2. Shrinkage
3. Technical analysis

Financial

The valuation of the stock on hand is then used to determine the margin been achieved on that department/product line. This information is generated by your accountant and is a vital source of knowledge for accessing your profitability.

The valuation figures are also used to assist in generating management accounts for the business

Shrinkage

The stocktake results are also used to determine the shrinkage within the business. Shrinkage can be defined as all stock that is not accounted for.

Reasons for shrinkage include;

• Breakages (which are not accounted for elsewhere)
• Wastage
• Spillages
• Incorrect portion control
• Theft – Internal or External
• Improper distribution/accounting procedures

Technical

The results of the stocktake is uploaded onto the customers EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) which then compares the Theoretical stock levels (what stock you should have on hand) with the Actual stock levels (what you Actually have on hand) and provides a Variance report.

This is vital in identifying

• Which product lines are showing a variance (why it is showing a variance is then analysed)
• Identifies slow moving product lines which can get damaged or become obsolete if not sold/distributed

Efficient stock management has many benefits which are listed below;

1. It reduces the cost of holding too much stock
2. It ensures that you have the required levels of stock on hand
3. It ensures that customers can receive goods on demand which in-turn ensures the sale and avoids “Out of Stock” (customers hate that one!)
4. Eliminates overstocking of certain product lines

Efficient stock control far outweighs the cost of the actual cost of the stocktake itself and through careful planning it should be a straight forward procedure.

For completing an efficient stocktake you should consider whether

• Your team have the technology and/or level of competence to complete it in-house to get the results you want
• You should outsource it to a third party professional stocktaking company

Lets face it, stocktaking/inventory control is not the sexiest subject in the world but if done correctly your business will be performing at a significantly more profitable level than if ignored or not managed correctly.

Patrick McDermott

Patrick is Managing Director of Stocktaking.ie, Ireland’s leaders in outsourced stock control. Stocktaking.ie use the best systems and technology to assist customers nationwide in ensuring that the hassle and stress is taken out of in-house stocktaking.

Still want to count your stock in-house? Try DigiTally!

• Digital Stocktakes
• Eliminate pen, paper, Excel and double entry
• Reduce stocktaking time by 66%

DigiTally Preview

Take me to the DigiTally website!

The post What is a Stocktake appeared first on Stocktaking.ie.