Inventory Tracking
I will start this post off by saying that record keeping is NOT one of my strengths. It doesn’t come easily to me and a good system was hard for me to come by. I’m more of a artistic person and less of a number-cruncher. Fortunately, my husband has been a manager of a retail paint store for a number of years and has been willing to help me with the record-keeping side of my business. I think I’m finally starting to accept (after he’s drilled it into my head for several years) that controlling inventory is important and necessary and will save time in the long run. I really hope he doesn’t read this blog, because I hate to ever have to admit that he’s right…..
The system I use to track my inventory is an item-by-item system. If I’m getting ready to tag some items, here’s what I have with me:
My calculator, a pen, my clipboard where I write down inventory numbers and cost, and my two types of tags. First I have plain marking tags (bought this huge box of 1000 at an office supply store over 3 years ago and still have some left) and I also have a Dymo label printer.
My system is pretty simple, I started with number 00001 and number each of my items sequentially. So every tag gets the inventory number on it and the price I paid for the item.
The picture above shows an example of each of my tags, the clothing item on the left was an EUC item I picked up at a consignment store. I used the blank hang tag to write my inventory number and cost, then looped the tag through the brand hang tag. The item on the right is a NWT item, so I used my Dymbo label printer to print out a label and stuck it on the hang tag of the item.
I usually sit down and label a bunch of items while I’m watching TV, hence the clipboard to write down inventory numbers and prices. Then once my clipboard paper gets full, I sit down at my computer and enter them into an Excel spreadsheet, which ends up looking like this:
When I sell an item, I remove the tag prior to packaging it up. The tags get put in my little “collection area” on my desk and they stay there until a large pile builds up.
Once that happens I go back into my Excel spreadsheet and delete out the sold items. Where I find this comes in handy is when I am forced to do inventory once or twice a year. I can print out my Excel spreadsheet and take it down to my basement and quickly go through my inventory, marking off items. I have ALWAYS caught mistakes doing this….either I made a tagging error, or found some items that accidentally made it down into my stored inventory with no tag, etc. The Excel spreadsheet is also invaluable at tax time. Come January 1st, I just print out a copy of it and that’s my total amount of inventory I have at the beginning of the year.
I hope this is helpful in giving you some ideas of ways to track your inventory. I’m certain my method isn’t the best, fastest or easiest, but it’s the one I use and it’s better than nothing! I’d love to hear comments on how you track your inventory and if you have a faster way of doing it….I’m all ears!
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9 Responses to “Inventory Tracking”
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Wow; I am really impressed.
Again I am not keeping record of each item seperate but maybe this is a better way to do it … hhmmm you got me thinking!
Jolanda
What a really neat system. Mine is similar – but different. When I purchase something It goes in a “to be entered/listed box” – I take the receipt (if NWT) – enter the item#/Bin#(or shelf or whatever)/description/& price pd. Then after listing the items they go in a clear poly – item # is put on outside of poly – item is placed in appropriate location.
Then when sold I go to the same spreadsheet and enter date sold – sale price, fees – profit, and when I am really on the ball – the purchaser’s info. –
At end of ea month I sort by sale date – cut them out of the master sheet and past into the monthly sheet – this shows me my monthly sales, etc.
This also leaves the master sheet at the end of the year with just my current inventory. Hope this makes sense. I probably left a bit out.
I like this idea! I am afraid that I would forget and leave my cost on an item when I ship though. I do look over the clothes again before mailing, but…I wouldn’t put it past me to mess up!
Great post!
Great system! I can see myself using something like this in the long run! Thanks so much for the excellent post!
Very impressed and maybe that is something I might take on. Especially as I do more consigment and need to keep track of different items from different clients.
Right now I have a 3 ring binder with different tabs (toys, girls 2T, girls 3T, boys 2T, women…) and then I enter each item I purchase and how much I paid for it in a spreadsheet in the correspondent tab. So it is usually a written down by hand spreadsheet. When I sell something it is easy to find it in my binder under the right tab and see how much I paid for it. Then I cross it out. It is also easy to find when I have it as BO and I need to know how much I can come down.
I’m really impressed by this, Jaci! You are one organized lady!! Thanks for a great post.
I like the idea of actually tagging the item. I used to keep mine in spreadsheets with tabs for NWT, used, toys etc. I also put the price paid into the custom label on eBay so it is easy to see what I paid when I had a BO or wanted to run a sale.
I worked in retail forever too, so giving each item its own SKU is something I have considered, but not implemented. I thought of grouping them with a starting number that coincides with the type of merchandise: for example 1 for boys clothes, 2 for girls, 3 womens, 4 mens, 5 toys, etc.
My problem is the follow up with entering into the spreadsheet after the sale!
Sounds like your system is great for inventory!
Can’t wait to hear more ideas from everyone.
I need major help in this category!! Thanks for the ideas
I do something similar to Anna but I like her idea better. I write down in a spiral notebook immediately after coming home from a shopping trip a brief description & amount I paid. I also check off when the listing is done in SSB and when I actually list it. Then I go in and highlight when it has sold. I like the 3-ring binder idea better, would be much easier to find the item I am looking for.
I don’t always do this and my receipts tend to be scattered everywhere. Why is it so hard to stay organized all the time?