| Inventory Control & Merchandise Management |
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Effective Inventory Management - The Importance of Planning Tim Smyth
The ongoing challenge for every independent specialty retailer is the constant need to increase sales, control expenses and improve profitability. Because of these key business factors it is more important than ever for today's retailer to effectively manage their largest investment: inventory.
How To Set Up a 4-5-4 Retail Accounting Calendar Tim Smyth
The 4-5-4 Calendar is ideal for merchandise analysis and planning as it divides the year into comparable periods of time.
A Formula in Need - Balancing Inventory Plans Gerald Smith
Often times there is a need for an objective way to distribute inventory between two or more stores or departments or classes or sizes, etc. Rather than using a seat-of-the-pants or traditional method (we have always done it this way) there is a mathematical model to solve this dilemma.
4-5-4 Retail Accounting Calendar Gerald Smith
A business cycle is the minimum period of time which permits the performance of all the activities related to the function carried on by a particular business. As it relates to retailing, a business cycle is that period of time between the ordering of merchandise for a selling season and the order of merchandise for the next selling season; or that period of time from the beginning of a sales season to the end of that sales season.
Physical Inventories: The Importance of Physical Inventories Tim Smyth
One of the least enjoyable aspects of retailing is performing physical inventories. It is a laborious and tedious task that requires extra hours when you and your staff are most tired and irritable. Frankly, it's about as much fun as brushing your teeth with battery acid! While this overstates the obvious, what isn't always obvious is that most of the work and burden is not in the actual count itself but in the preparation, audit and analysis of the inventory.
Physical Inventories: Cycle Counts vs. Complete Inventories Tim Smyth
Proper accounting procedures and Federal Income Tax Regulations require that all inventory items are counted at least on an annual basis. While most retailers count their inventory at the end of their fiscal or accounting year (usually at the end of January or July), this is not required and may not be practical, especially if the fiscal year ends on the calendar year (required of all Individual Proprietors, Partnerships and Sub S Corporations) before final holiday clearance events and during a busy holiday and return season. As long as the entire company's inventory is counted at least once each year, it is acceptable. Technically, even cycle counts are allowed as long as all inventory is counted during an annual cycle. Yet cycle counts may not be the best or most accurate way to count inventory.
Physical Inventories: Procedures for an Effective Physical Inventory Tim Smyth
The most important element to a successful and accurate physical inventory is proper planning and preparation. Written procedures that are understood by all involved is a good first step that will help to assure a well controlled and disciplined count and allow you to focus on an accurate count which will be more efficient and take less time. The more time you spend on the preparation of a count, the less time it will take to perform the count and the more likely you will have an accurate count and minimize re-counts.
Physical Inventories: Analyzing Physical Inventory Results Tim Smyth
While the first step is to identify the total amount of shrinkage, a true understanding of the number can only come by identifying the source of the shrinkage so that direct action can be taken to reduce the likelihood of reoccurrence in the future. This is perhaps the most difficult task as there can be so many causes of discrepancies and identifying the source is more of a process of elimination than identifying direct cause and effect.
Inventory Valuation Methods: Cost and Retail Inventory Methods Gerald Smith November 2004
Prior to the early part of the last century, when Professor McNair at NYU developed the Retail Inventory Method (RIM), the only method of evaluating the cost of inventory on hand was the Direct Cost Method (DCM). The DCM involved marking the actual invoice cost of each item in code on the item price tag. The laborious task of taking inventory involved recording the coded cost of each item and then manually transcribing it into dollars and cents in the office.
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