Would you know the position of your business at a given time? How regularly do you take stock of your business – regularly checking your outgoing business costs and your income as well as sales? Would you know if you have an issue with pilferage – do you know if your staff are abusing privileges or your trust? With out regular stocktaking, you would not necessarily know.

With the increasing challenges that many licensed business face in attracting and maintaining a steady flow of customers, balancing the books and being as cost effective as possible – it can be over whelming and extremely time consuming for business owners.

Stocktaking doesn’t have to be a chore

Many licensees believe that having their accounts prepared once a year by an accountant will keep their business on the straight and narrow. Sadly, many who follow this course are often shocked to find that they have not made as much money as they thought over year, then panic. Over or under calculating wastage can be doing harm to your bottom line that if you leave a full stock check till then year end, you will find it irrevocable.

The Sterling Group gives your licensed business peace of mind by performing a thorough check across the whole business. This not only tells you the current ‘cash-value of your business’, but also indicates where you could save money on vital utilities and ‘tools of the trade’. Having worked and lived in the licensed trade for many years, our fully qualified stock taking expert can also advise on areas to help keep you compliant and fulfil the regulations involved with owning a food or beverage operation.

Because the licensed trade is essentially a “cash” industry with relatively low value stock items it is wide open to abuse by unscrupulous staff. Regular stocktakes can identify this so that the client can take remedial action straight away. The Institute of Licensed Trade Stock Auditors backs the software that we use.

Our reports show:

• Surplus / Deficit – which indicates any possible pilferage
• Overall Gross Profit – Both as Value and a Percentage
• Stock holding value and number of days stock
• GP%. Purchases and credits for each section and individual stock items.
• This enables us to work with our clients to maximise their profit and minimise their losses.
• Our software can also cope with multi-bar sites, even if each bar has a different pricing policy.

As well as the normal period end reports we are able to produce various consolidated reports for operators of multi-sites giving an overview of the company and allowing easy comparison of each site.

What can a qualified stocktaker do for your business?

After cash, the most valuable and the most vulnerable asset is your stock. A regular stock audit will ensure that any shortages, thefts or wastage are quickly highlighted, enabling action to be swiftly taken to minimise any loss.

The stock auditor is on site many times during the year providing up-to-date information on the state and profitability of the business. This contrasts markedly with the end of year accounts prepared by the accountant, which must be viewed historically. A competent stock auditor can also offer advice based on many years experience analysing just what the figures mean to your business.

In the coming years it is going to be even harder to make a business pay and you need all the help that you can get. They will give you the answers to the following queries:

• How much stock am I carrying?
  Too much and it risks draining your cash flow, much harder to control and can cause increased wastage. Too low and you run out of stock items risking loss of trade or buying on impulse.
• What G.P. % am I achieving?
  How does that compare with similar businesses and is it the maximum that can be attained? Often a 3% variance in gross profit can mean the success or failure of a business. A good stock auditor will explain the implications of the estimated, as well as the actual gross profit percentage.
• If the G.P.% is under-achieving, how do I improve on it?
  Often the stock auditor will be able to give pertinent advice on prices in a particular area and how to maximise profits.

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