Importance of Annual Inventory Cleaning for Retail Business

Introduction

The annual count is essential for managing inventory all year long. A yearly inventory count enables you to organize your records and gives your company verified records to manage. The conclusion of a season or a quiet time of the year is typically when stores decide to do their count. You have a lot of inventory to manage as a store, so conducting the annual inventory count properly is essential to later making wise purchasing decisions. Let’s explore some tactics for optimizing your inventory count this year before you close the store for the annual count.

Article Content of Inventory Cleanup-

1. Benefits of Annual inventory cleanup
   
2. Tips on how to optimize your Inventory count
   
3. How SWIL POS can help you manage your inventory
   
4. Conclusion

Benefits of Annual inventory cleanup

• Physical inventory counts are crucial in maintaining accurate and up-to-date inventory records. Better sales and purchase estimates may be made with accurate inventory records, which also guarantee that you always have the proper amount of stock on hand.
• Your customers will benefit from a physical inventory, and precise physical inventory counts are essential. In this day of instant satisfaction, no end-user consumer, retailer, or wholesaler wants to deal with ambiguous stock levels.
• Customers’ needs must come first. Updated inventory levels guarantee that you can swiftly fulfill customer orders or let them know when they can be fulfilled.
• By physically counting your inventory, you can also make sure you understand the loss and can make plans for it. Losses may result from theft or destruction.
• The value of an object reduces every day it is kept in stock. The risk of the expense of storing the object outweighing its value increases as its value declines.
• Physical inventories increase your overall revenues. Certain things in your warehouse might be designated as obsolete inventory, which is a helpful way to decide which products to promote and stock for immediate sale.
• Additionally, this procedure lowers liability and, at the very least, breaks even for doubtful products.

Tips on how to optimize your Inventory count

1. Arrange your inventory:

• You should spend some time arranging your inventory before even considering calculating it all. Use this chance to get everything back to how it should be since maintaining the inventory’s organization is a significant task in and of itself. Inspect to see that all of your stock is accessible while you are organizing. Nothing ought to be hidden away in the back.
• Your inventory needs to be arranged in a logical sequence so that it can be counted effectively. Move all objects to a different location if they are not included in the count. The downtime during the count will be as small as possible due to this effort.

2. Avoid counting stocks twice:

• Double counting stock is the worst thing that can happen. You are left with a mess that you will have to clean up later. Before the count, it’s critical to recognize problematic stock and take the appropriate action to prevent the problem.
• The first step is to separate any dead or obsolete stock that shouldn’t be counted in your final inventory figures. A few days before the annual count, those objects need to be counted, noted, and either stored or disposed of.
• The next thing you need to do is figure out how to handle inventory while it’s being transported (the products you have ordered and are waiting to receive).
• One method to handle those goods is to wait till they are received, count them, and then subsequently add them to your calculations. They shouldn’t even be on your count if those in transit items haven’t been processed through your accounting or inventory systems.
• Finally, once your count has begun, avoid moving your stock about. Send your staff to each site if you have stock at many locations rather than having the stuff delivered to them.

3. Create controls for inventory counts:

• An inventory count involves a lot of different steps. Each component needs to be defined precisely and correctly allocated to your staff. Normally, your entire staff is required to do the annual inventory count. Everyone taking part in the count should be provided with a clear set of instructions and held responsible for following them.
• Separating tasks assists you in maintaining order. Spot inspections are another effective strategy to guarantee accuracy. Giving everyone pre-numbered count sheets as a general guideline for your staff to follow is a popular and efficient tactic.
• Any commotion or confusion during the actual count will be avoided due to these measures.

4. Rectifying inventory variances:

• While variations are inevitable, you may minimize them by being prepared. There will be discrepancies between your ledgers and your actual product during your count. Don’t freak out if this happens.
• Simply begin by categorizing the deviations’ relevance. Have another staff member count the item if it’s off by a few because there might have been a counting error. After the count is complete, a closer inspection will be needed for the greater variations.
• A big difference could have various reasons, but the majority of them are administrative mistakes that require time to identify and fix. Following the count, you can take your time to fix any important discrepancies.

How SWIL POS can help you manage your inventory

SWIL POS software provides advanced inventory tracking software. Inventory control is essential to the profitability of any organization. SWIL POS software assists in keeping track of your current inventory and sends notifications. Your warehouses and supply chain inventory systems operate more effectively.  

SWIL POS software provides a full point of sale solution for small and midsize retailers. For multi-store businesses, it is a potent software package that automates the POS procedure and gives shop operations centralized control. Thus, SWIL software still has additional features, including many amazing features. If you’d just like to know how we can help you with this process, you can also view the SwilERP demo.

Conclusion

It’s a good idea to clean up your inventory, especially after busy seasonal times like the holiday season or the summer vacation. Use these ideas and suggestions from experts to make your upcoming inventory cleaning go more successfully.