Knowing when to reorder

There is nothing worse than hearing a shelf is empty from a customer. You lose that sale, and the customer learns that you are not somewhere they can rely on for that item.

Reorder levels

Every product can carry a level. Drop below it and the product appears on the low stock list.

The rule for setting it:

level = days it takes to arrive × units sold per day

Soap sells five a day and the supplier takes three days: the level is 15. Below that, it is time to order.

For a busy month, or for lines the shop cannot trade without, add a few days on top.

Do not try to set a level on everything. Start with the fifty products that bring in the most money — the first group in the product report is exactly that list. The rest can wait until they matter.

Goods already on the way

If something has been ordered and has not arrived, the reorder list counts it. So you are not told to order the same thing twice.

This is why entering purchase orders pays for itself. Order over the phone without entering it and the list thinks nothing is coming, tells you to order again, and that is how a double delivery happens.

Stock takes

System stock and shelf stock drift apart. Things break, walk, sell without a bill, or arrive miscounted on a consignment. This happens in every shop.

The stock take screen is for closing that gap. You enter what you counted and the system records the difference, so you can see later where it went.

Do not try to count the whole shop in one day. It means closing, and it is still inaccurate. Count in slices instead — one shelf a week, or the most valuable lines once a month. Expensive and easily-lost things often; everything else rarely.

Numbers that mean something is wrong

• Stock below zero. Sales were entered and the purchase never was — a missing consignment.
• A product that never runs out. Either the level is set far too high, or it is not really selling.
• A product that runs out every month. Raise the level, or buy more at a time.