How to improve your stock tracking in 30 days

Nobody gets better stock records by deciding to. They get better by changing a few small habits and sticking to them for a month. The good news is that the habits are not complicated, and you can start this week with the tools you have today.

This plan is for a shop with a few hundred items and a handful of people. Pick a start date, and give each week one job. Skip the rest. You will be tempted to do everything at once, and that is how plans like this fail.

Week one: clean the item list

You cannot track what you cannot name. Spend the week making sure every item appears once, with one code, one unit of measure and one home on the shelf.

• Merge duplicates. 'Wood glue 16oz' and 'Glue, wood, 16 oz' are one item.
• Give every item a short code, following the same pattern.
• Write the unit you count it in: each, box, gallon.
• Decide on one location for each item, even if it is only a shelf name.

Week two: count the items that matter

Sort your items by stock value, which is cost times quantity, and look at the top twenty. Count those, blind, and compare with your records. Write down the result as a percentage: how many matched.

That number is your baseline. Do not be discouraged if it is not great. A first accuracy score of 70 percent is common, and it is the most useful number you will collect all month because it tells you how much to trust the sheet.

Week three: fix receiving

Most errors enter at the door, so tidy the door. Count every delivery against the order before the driver leaves. Record what actually arrived, not what the paperwork said. Put it away the same day.

• Check every delivery against its purchase order.
• Write short or damaged on the delivery note before signing.
• Record the receipt the same day.
• Keep a short list of what is still due from each supplier.

Most stock errors are born at the door. Tidy the door first.

Week four: set reorder points for your top items

Take the ten items you sell most. For each, work out the average daily use and the usual lead time from your last few deliveries, and set a reorder point using the formula in How to set a reorder point for an inventory item. Write the numbers where the person who orders will see them.

Then repeat the week-two count for the same top twenty, and compare the new accuracy score with the first one.

What to expect at day 30

You will not have perfect records. You will have a clean list, a baseline and an end-of-month score, a receiving routine that people follow, and reorder points on your best sellers. In most shops that is enough to cut the surprise stockouts noticeably.