Stock-taking is an activity to recalculate stock items in the warehouse before they are sold to customers. Some companies also calculate inventory for cash assets, accounts receivable and payable together.
Stock-taking or also often referred to as stock take is part of a periodic inventory system, which is also needed as a company audit material. The implementation period of stock-taking depends on the policies of each company. Some companies calculate every year, and some are at the end of every month.
Stock-taking includes the process of identifying each item, quantity, and then presenting it in a table for easy reading. Stock-taking is crucial, especially for retail and wholesale businesses that store a lot of goods in warehouses.
Why do you have to make a Stock Take Count?
To meet market demand, companies cannot do so if they only rely on daily production quantities. Companies must have stock products whenever they can be issued to meet market demand.
There are times when a company cannot meet high market demand because of the small warehouse inventory, while the productive power is low. This, of course, will be a loss for the company.
On the other hand, if the company has low stock items while the market demand is also low, the goods will accumulate and be challenging to sell. Losses will be more significant if the items stored have a fast expiration date.
The calculation of the number of items in the warehouse serves to find the truth and accuracy of the company’s bookkeeping records regarding the number of items. By ensuring the number of items in the warehouse, management can calculate accurately and determine how many things need to be produced or supplied to meet market demand.
To reduce the risk of error, some companies use barcodes as item codes. The use of barcodes is useful for speeding up the process of calculating stock items.
Purpose and Benefits of Stock Take Count
From the problem of understanding stock-taking above, it can be seen that the purpose of the stock-taking activity is to prevent losses for the company due to ignorance/errors in calculating the amount of stock in the warehouse.
An accurate calculation of the number of items will facilitate the ease in arranging the entry and exit of goods to the warehouse. The results of these calculations can also serve as future department decisions.
For example, suppose it turns out that the stock-taking calculation is greater than the value of the cash inventory. In that case, the company can check the accounting journal to see if any transactions have not been written down or there may be writing errors. Conversely, if a deficiency is found, the relevant department can make adjustments to the entry for this deficiency.
Stock Take Count Period
The implementation time is generally held at the end of each year, or even at the end of each month depending on Company policy. Another company with a neat SPI usually does stock-taking is on a quarterly or quarterly basis.
Stock-taking is not only for inventory; it can also be done for assets, cash accounts receivable, and accounts payable.
Suppose you find a difference between a record and the amount of inventory on hand. In that case, it will usually be adjusted to the policy of the owner, whether to check records and other supporters if there is a possibility that a transaction is not recorded, or take other actions, namely:
- Record loss / damage as loss.
- Bookkeeping adjustments by the bookkeeper.
- Charged to employees or related departments to make up for shortages.
Suppose there is data manipulation that is feared by irresponsible parties from within the company. In that case, you can ask third parties such as institutional institutions that take care of stock-taking so that the processed data can be more guaranteed to be accurate than being processed by certain people who have bad intentions towards the company you have.
Stock-taking is an activity you need to do because good companies usually have useful reports and good financial records. Or in other words, a good financial record can affect the good condition of the company.
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