Four ways to make stocktake easy

Stocktake is one of the toughest times of the year for many businesses, and often it can bring with it many challenges that can put strain on you and your staff.

At Avery, we understand these EOFY challenges, like organising stock and staff, planning the appropriate measures that need to be taken to complete the process, and managing time to put aside out of your already busy working week.

We have come up with four simple steps that have helped our team at Avery glide through the stocktake season with ease because stocktake can be a breeze with a good strategy, and just a few Avery labels!

Four Ways To Make Stocktake Easy
warehouse stocktake 2

1. Plan ahead

Making sure all of the ins and outs of stocktake are organised well before your business enters stocktake season will help to alleviate a large amount of the pressure and ensure that you’re not left with any nasty surprises.

Before the busy period picks up, utilise that little bit of extra time that you have to allocating hours to staff so that you have your stocktake army well prepared ahead of time for the big job and you aren’t left short-staffed.

To make sure your team is performing at their best, have your stock sheets ready to fill in, all stock  and any other materials and tools that you’ll need ready to go and fully charged ahead of time. This will give you time to breathe during stocktake and allow you to focus on the more important details with accuracy rather than technicalities.

Avery recommends using our Avery High Visibility Labels to identify and categorise stock and documentation throughout the year leading up to stocktake. These robust labels will last all year round without getting torn off, meaning that stock that is moving around throughout the year in boxes or between locations can be accurately categorised without the fear of labelling falling off.

 

Avery Industrial Removable Labels

2. Organise your stock

Having a clear system in place so that there is no ‘mystery stock’ floating around during stocktake will be one of main things you and your staff will thank yourselves for.

Stock that is faulty, invoiced to customers but not yet delivered, not yet entered into the system, or general stock all needs to be clearly separated and labelled so that all staff can instantly identify it without any miscommunication.

At Avery we attach these handy Avery Removable Heavy Duty Labels to our shelving so that all stock categories are clearly identified. The removable nature of them means that after stocktake no sticky residue is left behind.

Another solution to assist you in categorising your stock quickly and easily are our Hold Labels, Rejected Labels, and Accepted Labels that are pre-marked and dispensable so that you don’t have to waste time writing on labels to categorise large amounts of stock.

Warehouse dots

3. Be accurate

We’ve all been in that position before where we think we can keep count of stock in our heads during stocktake, and then suddenly the number in our head goes fuzzy and we have to start from square one, or record an inaccurate number. Imagine how skewed the results must be if all staff members are following this same system!

Make sure you and your team and saving yourselves time and valuing precision this stocktake season by marking items in order as you go to avoid duplicate counting or common mistakes.

Avery recommends using these Avery Dot Stickers so that you can relax and let the stickers keep count for you. Labelling items with a sticker gives you a visual aid when keeping count and will allow you to complete your stocktake process with precision, speed and ease.

4. Keep your records straight

Even the most organised businesses run into some discrepancies during stocktake process, and that’s okay as long as they’re handled appropriately.

Make sure all discrepancies between what you have on the floor and what you have in your system are recorded accurately, and once you’ve finished stocktake, update these new figures in your inventory records. Being precise with this process will ensure that the same discrepancy isn’t inaccurately repeated next time stocktake rolls around.

If your system is paper-based, consider keeping a digital back-up and making sure that all results are clearly recorded and categorised. Make sure that the care you took during stocktake follows through to recording that information. We recommend using our Customisable Table of Contents Dividers to categorise and keep count of anything important that needs to be recorded in the system.

Don’t let stocktake get the better of you this season. Avery stickers and dividers can give you the helping hand that you deserve so that you and your business can cruise through the busy period with confidence.