What is a Stocktaking Procedure and why is it important?
A stocktaking procedure entails a thorough checking of all the inventory your business currently owns, particularly how much of it you have and the condition it is in.
It is up to the discretion of your business how many times a year you will carry out a stocktake, this decision will be impacted by the kind of goods you sell and their value.
A successful stocktaking process will help you:
- Keep track of your inventory and monitor how effectively you are doing this.
- Ensure your business is meeting its targets and allow you to make effective changes to your stock management if it is not.
- Reduce problems with overstocking or stockouts.
- Uncover any underlying issues that may not have been picked up on before, such as problems with suppliers or theft.
- Manage stock control especially if your business sells perishable goods.
How to create your own Stocktaking Procedure.
The stocktaking procedure will never be the same for any one business, for example it can be dependent on how many active sites you have or how frequently you decide to carry out stocktakes.
Our free example, which may be downloaded below outlines an in-depth stocktaking procedure. However, you may wish to alter it, so that it more specifically fits the individual needs of your business.
To create your own robust stocktaking procedure, you need to begin by considering what the scope of your process will be and the objectives you want to achieve.
For a stocktaking procedure your main objective will be obtaining the most accurate stock count possible to ensure that your stock records are correct and up-to-date.
Once you have determined your scope and objectives you can now decide upon the beginning and endpoints of your process.
In our example, we chose to start our process with arranging the date and time for its occurrence and ended it with the stock levels being updated to reflect the true stock count accurately.
After the starting and endpoints have been confirmed, you can now fill in all the connecting steps that are required to move your stocktaking procedure through from beginning to end.
Consider each step that must occur within your process to ensure that it is as effective as possible, such as organising your stock into specific categories, scanning the stock and entering count on the system, and checking the end count for variances.
Once you have decided upon all the steps you wish to take, you now should focus on the specific roles that will play a part within your stocktaking procedure and which steps they will have responsibilities on.
Think about all the staff that need to be involved, their responsibilities, and the information they require to successfully complete the stocktake.
Based on these factors you can then determine the specific roles and their responsibilities at every step of the stocktaking procedure.
Now that you have finalised all your planning, you can create your own stocktaking procedure template using more traditional methods or better yet a software like Jomo247 that will help you automate it.
This means that once you have built your stocktaking procedure, it can run through our system without you having to constantly manage its progress unless you really need to.
Implementing your Stocktaking Proceedure.
Once you have finished designing your process template it is time to implement it within your daily operations.
Remember when implementing a new process, it is crucial that you consistently monitor its performance to ensure it is meeting your requirements.
Undertaking and evidencing your commitment to continually improving your processes is key to ensuring your organisation conforms to regulations and standards such as ISO 9001:2015.
For more of our free compliance templates, click here.
