Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stocktaking
Minimising variances
Below are some suggestions on ways to minimise variances between the inventory records and
physical stock on hand.
• Use rolling stocktakes to progressively check different areas throughout the year, and match
the actual levels of stock against the recorded levels.
• Keep the records up-to-date, by ensuring that all stock movements are accounted for at the
time the movement occurs.
• Produce periodic reports on the inventory levels and check that they look right and that there
aren't any obvious discrepancies.
Learning activity
Discuss the following questions with other learners in your group and compare your
answers.
2. How do you make sure that no stock movements will occur while the stocktake is
underway? For example, do you shut the store for the day or do the stocktake
outside normal trading hours?
3. Which product lines are most prone to variances between the actual levels of
stock on hand and the recorded levels in the inventory system? What are the
reasons for this?