How to run a stock take in a phone shop
A stock take in a phone shop means scanning every handset physically present, comparing that list against what your records say you hold, and investigating each difference individually instead of adjusting the total.
Stock takes on serialised stock are easier than on ordinary stock, because you are matching lists rather than counting piles. The discipline is in what you do with the differences.
Before you start
Pick a time when stock is not moving. Before opening is ideal.
Decide whether you are counting the shop only, or the shop plus everything your agents are carrying. Both are valid. Mixing them up is not.
Make sure recent deliveries and sales have actually been entered. Counting against a stale record produces differences that are not real, and you will spend the morning chasing them.
1. Count what is physically there
Scan or list every unit you can see and touch. Not what the shelf label says and not what you expect. Only what is in front of you.
For serialised stock this produces a list of identifiers rather than a number, which is what makes the next step possible.
2. Compare against the record
Three kinds of difference come out, and they are genuinely different problems:
- Missing. The record says you have it and it is not there.
- Unexpected. It is there and the record does not know about it.
- Wrong place. It is there, but the record says someone else has it.
Counting by quantity alone gives you a net figure, which hides all three. A shop that is two short and two unexpected looks perfectly balanced.
3. Investigate each difference on its own
This is the part that gets skipped and the part that makes the exercise worth doing.
For a missing unit, look at its history. Who last had it, when, and what was meant to happen to it. Most are explainable: a sale not entered, a handover not recorded, a unit returned to the supplier. What is left after you have explained everything explainable is your real shrinkage, and it is usually far smaller than the raw number.
Unexpected units are nearly always a delivery that was never booked in. Find the delivery rather than just adding the unit.
4. Record the outcome, then adjust
Adjust the records to match reality after you have explained what you can, and write down why. An adjustment with no reason attached is a number someone will query in six months with nobody able to answer.
5. Change something
A stock take that finds the same problem every quarter and changes nothing is an expensive ritual. If handovers are the gap, fix the handovers. [How to prevent stock loss](/guides/how-to-prevent-stock-loss-among-sales-agents/) covers the common ones.
How often
Monthly suits most phone shops. Quarterly if stock moves slowly and the shop is small. Annually is not a stock take, it is an audit, and it will find a year of mixed-up problems nobody can reconstruct.
Doing this in StockRada
Stock takes scan what is present against what the system holds, show the three kinds of difference separately, and keep each unit's history one click away.
Questions people ask
How often should a phone shop do a stock take?
Monthly for most shops, quarterly if stock moves slowly. Annually is too infrequent to be useful. You end up with a year of problems mixed together and nobody able to reconstruct any of them.
What do I do with the differences a stock take finds?
Investigate each one before adjusting anything. Most are explainable: a sale not entered, a handover not recorded. What is left after that is your real shrinkage, and it is usually far smaller than the raw figure.