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3 Spring-Cleaning Tips to Apply to Your Inventory
Regardless of the type of work you do, spring is a great time to get organised. If your job involves
stock, many of the organisational tips involved with spring-cleaning, can also be applied to that area of your business.
Here are three spring-cleaning tips you should be using to clean up your stock:
Consolidate records
When it comes to personal organisation, one way to consolidate records is to utilise one single calendar. Having multiple calendars not only creates clutter, but also has the potential to create confusion regarding the location of important details. It can be helpful to use a calendar that is cloud-based, allowing multiple people to access it if needed. Look for free cloud-based calendars such as
Google Calendar to help keep you organised and give you access to your calendar anytime and anywhere with an internet connection, or straight from your smart phone.
Similarly, it’s important to have information about your inventory located all in one place. According to the Wasp
2015 State of Small Business Report, 46% of small businesses either don’t track inventory or use a manual process to keep track of goods – such as an Excel spreadsheet or handwritten document. If you are using this method for tracking, consider moving to an stock management system, such as
Wasp Inventory Control. Not only will it simplify the process of recording this key data, but it will also ensure that data is all located in one place when you need it.
Identify a process
Getting organised is only step one; you also have to figure out how to keep it that way. This is as true for stock as it is for items in your home.
If inventory arrives and either just sits in boxes or goes straight to the shelves with no individual labeling, you will likely find yourself in need of reorganising when goods cannot be found, or begin running low. That’s why we recommend receiving stock, entering it into your Wasp Inventory Control system, and printing barcode labels before inventory is shelved. It’s a process that lets you keep track of stock quantity and location from the minute it comes in the door, until it leaves your business. It even allows you to record who or where you sent the stock to. Accurate record keeping and a standard process is essential to staying organised.
Get rid of what you don’t need
Spring-cleaning often involves getting rid of unused items like redundant supplies and clothes that don’t fit, by throwing them away or donating them.
When it comes to stock, having too much on hand costs you money that you could spend elsewhere, raises your storage costs, and as a result, the cost of goods sold.
When it comes to inventory, having too much on hand costs you money that you could spend elsewhere, raises your storage costs, and as a result, the cost of goods sold.
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If you are frequently ending up with excess overstock, you likely don’t know your up-to-date
stock levels. Knowing how the stock keeping units (SKUs) to have on hand per inventory item is vital to preventing too much inventory, and too little – which could also cost you money. The information is there in your database history if you have a
stock system in place.
So, this spring, consider getting rid of stock you don’t need, even if it has to be liquidated; but take this project one step further and prevent future overstocks and under-stocks by implementing an inventory management solution.
If this list of spring-cleaning tips has you thinking about how to better track inventory, make sure to download a
free demo of Wasp’s Inventory Control software.
