This article will provide a number of tips that will make for a good stock take regardless of the type of business you have. Depending on the type of business you have stock takes are best completed by working on one department or area of the premises at a time. You may decide to break up your stocktake by physical location in your premises, or by supplier, department or category are other methods you can employ. Whichever way you decide be consistant.

With namy modern POS systems, stocktakes can be done several ways:

1./ Using a PDE scanner (Portable Data Entry)

You can use a PDE scanner to scan and enter quantities, then connecting this back up to the system to stocktake automatically. Plugging a scanner into a laptop, remotely accessing the Main computer using Remote Desktop, and walking around the store scanning products and entering quantities

2./Using an RF (Radio Frequency) or Bluetooth scanner

Using a wireless scanner to walk around the premises scanning items, and having someone at the computer entering the quantities is another method. Printing a stock listing sheet and writing down the quantities of each item, then entering them into the system. Taking items from the shelf to the computer and scanning them, then entering the quantity.

The key to stocktaking is to get your stock figures into the system as soon as possible after counting the stock, to eliminate a discrepancy between the time you counted and the time you entered that figure. Stocktaking is required for accurate stock control and for running reorder reports to replenish stock in the retail business.

There are two types of stock takes available in almost any Point of Sale system:

• Normal
• Spot Stock takes.

Normal Stock takes.

When performing a normal stocktake, you have the choice of whether to clear all of the quantities in chosen departments/categories or not. Setting the QOH to zero for the areas you are about to stocktake is recommended to ensure that the figures will be correct. It is best to clear the quantities, so that stock that you don’t scan into the stocktake (therefore you don’t have in stock) has its quantity set to zero.

Spot Stock takes.

When performing a spot stocktake, the quantity on hand figures are not cleared first. As you scan items into the stocktake screen, the system will check the date of the last time this item was last counted, then compare that to the start date of this stocktake.

If the item hasn’t been counted yet in the current stocktake, the quantity will be cleared and replaced with the figure you enter.

If the item has already been scanned in the current stocktake (for example, you have found more of the same item in the shop), the figure you enter will be added on top of the current quantity.

NOTE: Spot stock takes should not be used to stocktake your entire premises. It should only be used for checking a handful of items.

If you are looking for stock taking advice for your hospitality business, Synergy Stocktaking can cater for your needs.

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