End of financial year (EOFY) is not usually a time that small business owners look forward to. Regardless of your industry, EOFY brings with it a host of essential tasks for tax, budgeting, review and planning and it can be a stressful time. One essential task for any business dealing with stock items to complete in the lead up to EOFY is of course your annual stocktake. Every small business owner knows this is a huge job. However, the right business management software can take the stress out of EOFY stocktake. Pair this with smart inventory management strategies executed year-round and EOFY stock take becomes much less of an undertaking.
Let’s take a look at some of the basics to help your small business win at stock control at EOFY and all year too.
What exactly is a stocktake anyway?
A stocktake is a physical count of all of the stock (or inventory) your business has on hand at a given point in time. A stocktake should record all of the following information:
- A list of each stock item and its value
- Any discrepancies between the theoretical stock on hand and actual stock on hand
- How and when the stocktake was completed
- Who valued the stock and the data that the valuation is based on
How often should a stocktake be carried out?
Stocktakes should be undertaken least once a year. For tax purposes this should be as close to end of financial year as possible, so that the change in your total stock valuation from one year to the next can be reported.
However, with the right business management software in place more regular stocktakes will have your business working more effectively.
Why is stock control so important?
For any inventory dependent business, it’s critical to understand what stock you have to hand, where it is and where it needs to be to meet customer demand.
What systems can help with stock control?
Some businesses use simple spreadsheets for stock takes (and for ongoing stock management) and although sometimes seen as the cheap and simple option, it is problematic. Using spreadsheets is time consuming and prone to errors and discrepancies. It relies on manual data entry and as quickly as data is entered it becomes out of date.
While using spreadsheets can work for businesses just starting out, you will very quickly outgrow the capabilities of spreadsheet stock management. If you’re operating across multiple sites and with multiple ways for your customers to purchase (such as e-commerce) then siloed spreadsheets are not going to give you the control you need.
Business management software like ProfiitPlus that integrates with your sales channels (both point of sale and e-commerce), stock and accounting functions will make your life a whole lot easier.
Multi-channel and location sales
One of the biggest challenges for businesses offering their customers the flexibility to choose how to they purchase is the complexity of order management. For example, is your e-commerce store integrated with your physical store(s)? Are these integrated with your third party online sales platforms? What happens if a customer orders something online but then returns is to a physical store?
A key feature of ProfiitPlus is the ability to count and keep track of products across multiple sales channels and locations in real-time.
Real-time integration
As mentioned above, one of the limitations of spreadsheets is that they provide a snapshot of what stock looks like at a given time and very quickly the data is out of date. They also can’t offer key insights like identifying slow-moving stock, seasonal trends and demand so that you can act quickly to ensure you have the right stock quantities in the right place. Or even better, so that you can act before the event by understanding supply and demand better.
Further information
Find out more about Foresiight’s leading business management software ProfiitPlus, and achieve the level of stock control your small business needs to take the stress out of EOFY. Simply call us on 1800 061 670 or use our easy contact form to tell us about your business and we’ll be in touch.
