Stock-taking without closing the warehouse for days

A full count or counting in parts

In a full stock-take, everything is counted at once. The warehouse stops, people stay late, and on Monday it turns out that some of the differences come from orders that left on Friday afternoon. A rolling count works differently: each week you check one zone, one row of shelves or one group of items. Over a few months you get through the whole warehouse without stopping for a single day.

The two do not exclude each other. You can count in parts during the year and do a full count once in a given period — how often you need one is a question for your accountant. If you count regularly between two full stock-takes, the full one goes faster and with fewer surprises.

Which items to count more often

Not every item deserves the same attention. Split them into a few groups and give each its own rhythm.

Add to next week's list any item that has had a customer complaint, an unexpected return or a negative stock figure in the program.

• Fast movers, such as the batteries that go out with almost every order. The more movements, the more chances for a mistake — count them every month or more often.
• Expensive items. One missing coffee machine costs more than a whole shelf of screws. Such items are usually few and quick to count, so check them often.
• Items that get mixed up: two paints in nearly the same shade, shoes that differ only in size, cartons in identical packaging. A difference on one of them often has a twin on its neighbour.
• Everything else. Slow-moving stock on the top shelves can be counted once or twice a year.

Preparation: labels, locations and goods on the move

A well-prepared count goes quickly. Every shelf and every location needs a number, and every item a readable label. If one item sits in three places, mark all three, or the counter will find only one. Goods left "for a moment" on the floor or by the loading dock go back to their place or are set aside with a sign.

Then decide whether to stop movements. For a full count of the whole warehouse, receiving and dispatch usually stop while it lasts. For a count of one zone there is no need: freeze only the shelves being counted, and tell the pickers to keep away from them for an hour.

That leaves the goods that are neither on the shelf nor with the customer. Decide in advance what you do with them and write it down, so they do not drop out of the count or appear in it twice.

• Goods in transit from a supplier or another warehouse: not on the shelf, not counted. They enter stock when they are received.
• Reserved goods: picked orders waiting for the courier are physically in the warehouse. Count them separately from the shelf, or ship them before the count.
• Returned parcels: goods not yet checked sit in a separate place and are counted separately. Mix them in with the shelf and you will cover up a shortage that really exists.

Who counts and how: in pairs and blind

The most common counting mistake is that the counter knows what to expect. If the sheet says "expected 48" and the shelf holds 46, it is easy to see 48. So hand out a list with only the items and locations, without the quantities from the program. That is a blind count: the counter writes down what is there, and the comparison comes later.

Count expensive and easily confused goods in pairs. One counts and the other writes, or both count one after the other and compare. It helps if at least one of them does not work in that zone every day — whoever stocked the shelf sees what they expect, not what is there.

Count in the unit the item is kept in. If screws are kept by the piece but stored in boxes of 100, write down the number of full boxes and the pieces in the open one. Do not do sums in your head at the shelf.

Scanner or paper

With paper, every number is written twice — once by hand and once in the program. That is where mistakes happen: an illegible digit, a skipped line, a wrong code. With a scanner or a phone, the counter scans the label and enters the quantity on the spot, and the program shows which items on the list have not been counted.

A scanner helps only if the labels are in order. If many items have no barcode, or two different codes, fix the labels before the count, not during it.

One example: in SellM8 Warehouse a stock-take can cover the whole warehouse, separate zones or only selected items, counting can be done with a scanner, and stock changes only when the stock-take is closed.

When there is a difference, count again first

When the count does not match the program, do not correct straight away. Send someone else to count the same location. Look at the neighbouring shelves and at the receiving area. Check the movements of the last few days: a delivery not yet received, an order booked out but not yet picked, a return put aside. Often the difference disappears right there.

An example. The program shows 40 tins of white paint and 20 tins of ivory, while the shelves hold 37 and 23. On paper that is two differences; in fact it is one: three tins were booked out under the wrong code. Correct the two separately and the figures will be right, but the booking mistake will happen again.

Only when the recount confirms the difference should you make a correction. Every correction needs a reason — broken, lost, booked out wrongly, received wrongly — and the name of the person who made it. "Stock-take correction" is not a reason.

What to learn from the differences

The point of a stock-take is not only to put the numbers right. The reasons behind the corrections show where the problem is. If differences pile up on one item, check its label and location. If they cluster in one zone, look at who stocks it and how. If a surplus on one item goes hand in hand with a shortage on another, look for mix-ups in picking.

After each count, fill in a short table: zone, how many items were checked, how many differences there were, the most common reason. After a few months you will see whether the differences are shrinking and which measure worked. Move items with a recurring difference into the group that is counted more often.