The most common way to do inventory is by section
At Dove Christian Supply , Donna also does regular counts on various categories , such as books , Bibles and church supplies , throughout the year . Then , either on New Year ’ s Eve or the day after New Year ’ s , they close the store for one day to do a hard count of all gift items for year-end inventory . The next day , they will start inventory on all other categories while the store is open . Donna says it normally takes one to two weeks to finish the other categories , depending on how many staff members are available and how busy in-store traffic is .
How Should You Do Inventory ? The most common way to do inventory is by section . For example , Donna divides her store into sections by category and assigns various teammates to complete each section .
Another way is to utilize your store ’ s POS system . Rachel has a spreadsheet for each quarter , broken down by category , with dollar amounts before and after counts and total variance . The spreadsheet saves the variances throughout the fiscal year and gives them a total at completion .
Before and after the inventory count , they print the IVP ( in Bookstore Manager ) and fix any discrepancies . The hard copies of their report are stored for two years ( or until the auditors no longer need them ) and the digital files are stored indefinitely . At the end of the fiscal year , they run an end of year IVP and send the Excel copy to their accounting department .
Krista does a combination of methods . One method pulls from Bookstore Manager for the items entered into her store ’ s system . “ This gets us close enough to actual numbers most of the time ,” she says , “ But every few years , we do a hard count of what ’ s on the floor .” The second method is for “ Green Tag ” items , or anything else that is not entered in their POS system , which for them includes Hallmark items and counter cards .
To count items on the floor , Krista prints inventory sheets to calculate totals in various categories . Each person takes a section and goes shelf by shelf tallying items . When a section is done , they put a sticky note with their initials on that section so it doesn ’ t get counted twice . This also helps the team visualize which sections still need to be done . Once all sections are complete , Krista takes home the inventory sheets and adds them up . These calculations help reconcile counts in QuickBooks with their POS , plus it makes it easier for their accountant to do her job at the end of the year .
Ultimately , when you do inventory and how you do inventory are up to you . But why you do inventory is an important part of preparing for the coming year . And , it may just be a little fun after all . CRA
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