First, decide if you’re doing a full or partial stock take:
- Full Stocktake: Count everything in your inventory. Anything you don’t count will be reset to zero. This is usually done at the end of the year (EOFY) or when you need a complete audit.
- Partial Stocktake: Focus on specific items, categories, or locations. Whatever you don’t count keeps its current stock level. This is ideal for regular checks throughout the year.
You can export these count sheets, distribute them to your team digitally or on paper, and then import the completed data back into WorkGuru. This flexibility supports digital and manual processes, depending on what works best for your business’s inventory management.
To conduct an efficient stock take, follow these best practices:
- Avoid Double-Counting: Ensure that every item is counted once and only once.
- Cover Everything You Want to Count: Make sure you have a clear plan for what needs to be included in the stock take.
- Assign Unit Costs: Don’t just count items; make sure each item has a cost associated with it. Counting products without assigning a value could result in incorrect profitability calculations later on.
Once your stocktake is complete:
- Double-Check Your Work: Make sure all items you intended to count have been counted and that each has an associated unit cost.
- Review Warehouse Counts Separately: Ensure that counts from different warehouses are kept separate to maintain accuracy.
- Analyse Inventory Data: Review changes in stock on hand value and ensure these are correctly journaled to your accounting system.