Stock takes can involve counting items manually, using barcode scanning technology, or even employing automated systems or personnel to track inventory levels. The process may also include checking for damage, spoilage, or obsolescence, depending on the type of goods being managed.

Why is a stock take important for your company?

Accurate Financial Reporting: Businesses, especially those that are publicly traded or subject to certain tax regulations, are required by law to maintain accurate records of their inventory. A stock take ensures that your financial statements accurately reflect your inventory levels. By verifying that your captured inventory matches the actual stock, helps to prevent discrepancies that could lead to financial misreporting. Inaccurate stocktaking can expose a company to legal risks. For example, if stock is reported incorrectly in financial statements, shareholders, investors, or creditors could potentially take legal action if they believe they were misled by inaccurate reporting. Therefore, a stock take is crucial for ensuring compliance with accounting standards and for preparing accurate balance sheets.

Improved Stock Management: Regular stock takes provide valuable insights into your inventory management practices. By identifying slow-moving, outdated, or overstocked items, you can make informed decisions about ordering, restocking, and clearing excess inventory. This helps optimize stock levels, reduce waste, and avoid carrying costs

Preventing Theft and Loss: By conducting regular stock takes, businesses can identify discrepancies caused by theft, shrinkage, or administrative errors. This helps improve security and reduce losses, allowing companies to take necessary steps to address any issues with inventory control.

Informed Decision-Making: A well-executed stock take provides critical data that helps in decision-making regarding purchasing, pricing, and sales strategies. It gives business owners and managers the insights needed to adjust business plans, optimize stock turnover, and maximize profitability.

Why could this be a challenge for your business?

A stock take, while necessary for maintaining accurate inventory records, can present several challenges for businesses:

Time-Consuming Process: A full stock take can be incredibly time-consuming. It requires careful planning, coordination, and a significant amount of labor to physically count each item and verify records. Increased labor costs, potential overtime, and the possibility of errors due to fatigue or rushed counting. The longer the process takes, the more disruptions occur.

Disruption to Daily Operations:  Conducting a stock take often requires temporarily halting or slowing down regular operations, especially in businesses that rely on high volumes of sales or production. This can lead to delays in order fulfillment, reduced customer service, and overall operational downtime.

Inaccurate Inventory Counts: Manual counting or inaccurate capturing can lead to discrepancies between the physical inventory and the captured numbers. This could be due to human error, poorly trained staff, or inadequate counting systems. Incorrect inventory data can result in financial misreporting, inventory shrinkage, stockouts, or overstocking, all of which can affect decision-making and profitability.

Technology and System Integration: If your business uses outdated or inefficient stock taking systems, integrating stock take results with your existing technology can be a hassle. Discrepancies between manual counts and digital records can be difficult to resolve, especially if there is a lack of real-time data or automated tools.

Employee Training and Errors: Stock takes often require specialized knowledge or training, particularly when using technology such as barcode scanners or stock taking software. If employees arent adequately trained, errors in counting, data entry, or equipment use may occur.

Cost of Conducting a Stock Take: Conducting a thorough stock take involves costs beyond just labor, including the potential need for additional temporary staff, tools, and technologies (like scanners). If done during off-hours or weekends, businesses may also need to pay overtime.

How can COSYS streamline your stock take?

COSYSs stock taking expertise is built around its self-developed software, which includes two key components: the stock taking app and the COSYS backend. The app plays a central role in your stock take, allowing you to efficiently capture relevant stock data. It is compatible with various mobile computers, giving you the flexibility to use your own devices, purchase or rent new ones, or even use personal smartphones. The app features an intuitive, user-friendly interface that ensures smooth integration for staff, even those who may not be familiar with technical processes. This makes the entire stock taking process efficient from the very beginning. Usability is a top priority for us, especially when our customers need to avoid interruptions in their daily business or are skeptical about using their own staff.

The COSYS stock taking app offers several features that enhance the efficiency of your stock take. Stock data can be quickly and accurately captured using the barcode scanning function. With the Import and Export feature, you can easily import item master data into the app and transfer your captured stock take data to the COSYS backend. During the stock take process, features such as automated counting, an article list overview, individual count place lists, registration of articles requiring batch and serial numbers, and support for first and second counts can be highly beneficial. When conducting a stock take across multiple branches, there is also the possibility to separate each stock into individual data entries to prevent distorted results.

Once your stock take is complete and the data is exported to the COSYS Backend, you can evaluate it using the COSYS WebDesk. It also offers a variety of features for data processing and analytics. You can use various modules to further analyze your data by creating graphs and charts based on criteria that are meaningful to you. For example, you can extract time- and process-related information from your stock take data, such as staff performance or count accuracy. Once your analysis is completed, you can generate a stock take report and export it into your companys ERP system, supporting common formats.

In conclusion, streamlining your stock take process with COSYS software provides significant advantages for businesses, ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and seamless integration with existing systems. By using intuitive, user-friendly tools such as the COSYS stock taking app and backend, you can eliminate the challenges of manual counting, reduce errors, and avoid operational disruptions. The ability to analyze and export data efficiently helps in making informed decisions, improving stock management, and maintaining compliance with financial reporting requirements. With COSYS, you can transform the stock take process from a time-consuming challenge to a powerful tool for better business management.