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Periodic counting – how it fits with business needs

Periodic counting methods

Periodic counting is an important part of the business control process. In the past, stock counts were completed annually for account valuation. Now, organised stock taking plans provide businesses with the ability to discover inventory they didn’t know they had, discover inventory outages when they thought they had inventory, discover damaged inventory and keep tabs on high value and high turnover inventory. All of which lead to increased turnover and better customer service and customer retention.

The need for periodic counting (rolling counts) depends on many factors like seasonality, stock turnover rates, product values and warehouse security. Organisations use Warewolf’s many stock count types to keep inventory accurate:

  • Brand
  • Location
  • Category
  • High value
  • Top sellers
  • Special selection
  • Spot check

Stock takes are conducted at warehouse level. (In Warewolf, shops and other retail units where inventory is held are called warehouses for consistency).

Warewolf’s general stock take methodology

When stock take counts are setup, only those products which fall into the stock take type are relevant. So if brands Nike and Adidas where selected, then Puma and Underarmour would be excluded from inventory changes.

Route guide

Periodic counting tip
Tip

Warewolf provides a guided route around the warehouse for speeding up stock taker productivity. (This feature may be switched off depending on client policy).

Stock counters capture warehouse locations by scanning a barcode (or by keyboard / mouse if a scanner is not available), then they scan the inventory items at the location. Having moved from location to location capturing the relevant inventory quantities, they submit the count count for review by a manager. When the manager approves the count, inventory stock levels are updated.

Location reminder

Location reminder tip
Tip

Counting can be monotonous leading to stock takers forgetting to change location as they move around the warehouse. To combat this, the location reminder beeps every so often to alert stock takers.

Reviewing managers check variances and may accept all or part of a count and may reject some rows which go into a new batch for re-counting.

 

Periodic counting - the Warewolf stock count  process
The Warewolf stock count process

Last Update: January 19, 2017  

December 15, 2016   1752   Ian Lilburne    5. Stock Taking  
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