Monthly stock count: a plan for a small shop

A full count of all goods once a month is within reach even for a small shop, but it has to be planned in advance. A count without a plan usually starts unexpectedly, mixes with sales, tires everyone by noon and ends with nobody trusting the figures. With a plan, a count in an average shop takes between one and a half and four hours, and the result is a reliable figure you can compare with next month. Below is a three-stage plan using a building-materials shop as the example: preparation, count day and review. Say the shop has about 320 items: cement, paint, tile adhesive, screws, taps.

Pick the count day once

Do not move the date every month. Set a rule such as "the last Sunday of the month". Then months are comparable with each other and people are ready in advance. The worst days are payday, market day, the day a large delivery arrives and the first day after a holiday. If possible, count after closing or before opening so that sales do not shift the figures.

The day before: a preparation list

• Enter all receiving documents (delivery notes) and returns into the table. Write down the number of the last document entered: this is your cut-off point. Anything dated later belongs to next month.
• Divide the shop into zones: shelving 1, shelving 2, stockroom, open yard. Give each zone its own sheet and assign a pair of people.
• On the sheets, write the item name and unit of measure, but leave the balance column empty.
• Tidy up mixed goods and gather broken or unusable stock in a separate place.
• Prepare pens, scrap-paper tags and "counted" stickers.

Count day: two people per zone

In each zone two people work: one counts and the other writes. The counter says the number aloud and the writer repeats it back. Mark every counted shelf with a sticker. Write opened packs separately from full boxes: for example, 14 whole 25 kg sacks of tile adhesive and one opened sack, 30 sealed tins of paint and 3 opened ones.

If the shop stays open, log sales from counted zones on a separate sheet and have the cashier time-stamp sales from uncounted ones; both lists are applied to the balance at the end. It is fiddly and error-prone, so counting behind closed doors is far more reliable.

It is best if the person who keeps the records does not do the counting, because people do not see their own mistakes. Time the first count. A 320-item shop usually needs two pairs and 3 to 4 hours, and the time shrinks in later months.

After the count: reconcile and recount

Compare the sheets with the balances in the table. For each difference work out its value: quantity difference × purchase price. Recount the ten most valuable differences, this time by a different person. Many differences vanish here: the first count was simply wrong.

Then look for causes in the paperwork and note each correction together with its cause. Do not net shortages against surpluses into one figure: if an item is short in one place and over in another, that points to a mixed-up name or unit.

Three figures for the monthly report

1. The total value of the shortage in so'm.
2. That value as a percentage of the month's takings.
3. The five items with the largest differences.

For example, takings of 96 million so'm and a shortage of 640,000 so'm give about 0.7%. One figure for one month says little, but a climb over four months from 0.7 to 1.2 and then 1.8% is a warning that a systematic error lurks somewhere. If the figure falls, you know your routine is working.

Discuss the results with your sales staff too, not to blame anyone but to find causes together. They often know which items get confused by name and what is skipped at delivery. Draw up one short list of fixes: who changes what, and by when.

Conclusion

A monthly stock count pays off because losses are caught within a month, not within a year. The plan is written once and then becomes an ordinary habit. If you want an outside pair of eyes to organise the first count, check the results or run monthly controls, the AniqHisob team can carry out the count and help set up the routine.