Definition of stock taking

Stock taking is an activity to count the stock of goods in the warehouse before being marketed. This activity is included in the Inventory Management category, ensuring that the amount of stock in the warehouse is the same as the amount of stock recorded in the books. In practice, this activity also includes direct inspection and arrangement of the position of goods so that it is easy for the outbound process.

What is the importance of doing stock taking?

Maybe this becomes a lot of questions, why is stock taking really important to do? As explained above, stock taking is carried out to ensure that the amount of stock available matches the amount recorded in the books. When there is a difference, the business process will be disrupted, thus affecting service to customers that is not optimal. However, this can be prevented by submitting adjusting entries.

Optimal stock taking activities will provide convenience for business actors to carry out evaluations and comparisons from previous years and find out what products are most in demand and are less interested in by customers. It is also easier for business actors to monitor stock management which can lead to buildup, consider whether it is necessary to provide more stock, and determine the right time to replenishment.

When does the company carry out stock taking?

Regarding when the actual stock taking will be returned to the policies that apply to each company. There is no provision that requires stock taking to be carried out every day. The implementation of stock taking is also readjusted to the life cycle and demand of each product. However, in general, stock taking is carried out over several time periods.

1. Daily & Weekly

Daily and weekly stock calculations are usually carried out by companies engaged in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector with fast life cycles, such as supermarkets. Other companies that usually do daily stock taking are restaurants, because they need to check the quality of raw materials to be processed.

2. Periodic

Periodic means that the company will carry out stock taking every 1 month, every 3 months (quarter), every 4 months (quarter), every 6 months or once every year. This is returned to the urgency of each company.

3. Events & Major Days

Not only based on a specified period of time, companies usually carry out stock taking when there are monthly promotional events such as HARBOLNAS or holidays such as Idul Fitri and Christmas.

Stages of Doing Stock Taking

Stock taking is not only done once and then immediately completed. It cannot be done alone, a team is required to carry out calculations and records. This activity requires several stages to reach the optimal point. Here are some steps that need to be done to optimize stock taking:

1. Early stage

This initial stage is carried out some time before the h day of stock taking, usually one week before. At this stage what needs to be done is communication with the team in the warehouse to:

a. Provide a label in the form of a barcode on the item to be counted.

b. Tidy up the arrangement of goods based on the barcode category that has been paired

c. Label and segregate items that are not counted

d. Make sure all items are tagged

2. Preparation phase

After carrying out the initial stages, then it is necessary to carry out the preparatory stages. This stage is usually carried out one day before the implementation. The preparations made are:

a. Conducting briefings to the team to provide a detailed division of tasks, so that they can be understood.

b. Completing all data regarding inbound and outbound up to the last operational hours before stock taking.

c. Ensure that you no longer receive requests for inbound and outbound processes when collecting data.

3. Implementation Stage

At the implementation stage, the things that need to be done are:

a. Ensure all data is inputted into the program system, to be printed and distributed to the accounting team and audit team.

b. Perform stock taking process by category. Put a mark on the goods that have gone through the process of checking and calculating.

c. After carrying out the stock taking process, provide data to the input team to then compare the amount of stock during the taking process and the stock in the program.

d. What if there is a discrepancy between the hospitalized data and the data in the program, do another check.

5. When finished, provide a recap of stock taking data to the accounting team to be adjusted to the system.

6. The team that carried out the stock taking made an official report to report that the stock taking process had been completed.

Conclusion

Based on the explanation above, stock taking is a very time-consuming activity and requires accuracy to avoid mistakes. Not only accuracy, in the era of digital technology, stock taking will be easier if each warehouse has an adequate warehouse management system. From now on, just leave your stock taking matters to Gudang2go. Because Gudang2go has adequate services to optimize your business operations. Check complete information at Gudang2go.