How do you keep your stock figures accurate?

By counting a little, often, and letting the software do the arithmetic. Every business that holds stock has two figures for each item: what the system says and what is actually on the shelf. They start out the same and drift apart quietly, through breakages, mis-picks, a delivery booked in twice, or a box that walked out of the back door. Counting is how the two are brought back together. Done well, it doesn't close the doors, it doesn't depend on anyone's memory, and it turns each difference into a figure in the books, not just a shrug.

Why the two figures drift apart

Nobody sets out to have the wrong figure. It happens a unit at a time:

• Damage and expiry. A dropped carton, a crushed box or a product past its date goes in the bin, and nobody tells the system.
• Picking mistakes. The wrong size goes out, so one item is short and another is over, and both are wrong.
• Paperwork. A delivery is received twice, or not at all. A return goes back on the shelf but not on the books.
• Loss. Some stock simply leaves. Counting is often how you find out how much.

None of these show up on their own. The system carries on believing its figure until someone goes and looks.

What accurate stock figures need from your software

Stock that moves when the goods move

A delivery should put stock on the moment it's received, and a sale or despatch should take it off. When figures only catch up at the end of the day or the end of the month, every count starts out wrong, and nobody can tell a real loss from a late entry.

Counting without closing

A full count that shuts the business for a day is expensive, so it happens once a year, and a year's drift is found all at once. Counting everything while trading carries on, or a share of the items every few days, means problems are found within weeks, while someone still remembers what happened.

Blind counts

If the counter can see the number they're expected to find, that's the number they'll find. A good count sheet shows the item and the shelf, never the expected quantity.

A count belongs to the moment it was made

Trading doesn't stop while you count. If an item is counted at nine, and three are sold at eleven, the count isn't wrong, it's just earlier. The software should compare each count with what it expected at that moment, not with the figure at the start of the count or at the end.

A difference is money

"Two short" is a quantity. Two short at an average cost of 410 is 820, and that belongs in your books as a loss, not as a mystery between your stock report and your balance sheet. The count should end with the stock figures corrected and the books posted, in one step.

A trail of who counted what

When a figure is questioned, you need to know who counted it, when, and whether anyone changed it afterwards. Without that, a variance turns into an argument.

Knowing where to look

In a bigger store, knowing which bin an item lives in, and scanning it instead of reading the code, makes counting quicker and cuts mistakes.

How RPM does it

• Stock that moves when the goods move. Stock goes on when a goods in is saved and comes off when a despatch is completed, and each item's weighted average cost moves with it.
• Counting without closing. A stock take runs while you trade. Under Tenants, then Configuration, you choose whether a take puts every item on the count sheet at once (spot), or a share of them on each count day, so the whole range is counted by the end of the month (rolling). You choose the count days too.
• Blind counts. Counters use Stock Count. It shows the item and when it's due, and never the quantity the system expects. The printed count sheet doesn't show it either. The first person to save a row has it, so two people don't count the same shelf.
• A count belongs to the moment it was made. Each count is weighed against what the system held when it was saved, and the difference is applied when the take is reconciled. Sales and deliveries during the take are neither lost nor counted twice.
• A difference is money. The take lists every item with what was Expected, what was Counted and the Difference, and you can sort it to see the largest difference first. An item found on the shelf that isn't on the sheet can be added. Reconcile, and each item's stock is corrected, its value is adjusted at its average cost (or a new average, if you give one), and the total is posted to Stock adjustments in your books. RPM won't reconcile while any item is still uncounted.
• A trail of who counted what. Each line keeps who counted it and when, and every count and correction is kept in the row's history.

RPM doesn't do these yet:

• Knowing where to look. RPM keeps one quantity per item and each item's barcode, but it has no bin locations and no scanning screen.
• Counting the busy items more often. A rolling take shares the items out evenly, in item code order. It doesn't yet count fast movers or high-value items more often than the rest.
• A reason for each difference. RPM doesn't ask why an item was short. The take's Notes are the only place to write it down.

If you need any of these, write to support@rpmcode.com and tell us how you count today.

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