‘Taking Stock’ is another way of saying stocktaking or completing an inventory. It is a process of counting the amount of stock in your hospitality or catering business. The stock counted will include things like food, drink, linen, cleaning products and other items. The quantities of stock are then matched against the cost of each stock item, compared to the delivery notes and orders, and then a report is completed.

This report will allow you, as a business owner, to see how much of each stock item you have on the premises, what the value of each item of stock is, and the total value of stock in your premises, and any stock discrepancies. You can then look at this stocktaking report and a previous stocktaking report, and then compare the data.

We meet many business owners that only complete their stocktakes once a year and when asked why the main reasons are because they don’t feel the value of stock changes that much so there is no need to keep checking it or they feel the stocktaking process is too time consuming.

However, by only completing a stocktake once a year you are unable to keep track of stock losses. There may be theft of stock that you can’t see until a year later, and by that time you can’t do much about it. Chefs may be over-serving on meals and you have lost money due to not being aware of this.

By completing monthly stocktakes within your catering or hospitality business you are able to keep track of stock losses and you can put changes into place, such as retraining or CCTV to reduce the risk of stock losses the next month.

If you feel the man hours just aren’t available to complete stocktakes then why not hire an independent stocktaker to complete the stocktakes for you? By hiring the services of a professional stocktaker you know you have the correct data, they can offer advice and guidance to help with any concerns and you’ll have the stocktaking report in your hands, with all the information you need.

Here at Sterling Stock Auditors we appreciate that taking stock is not the reason many people choose to run their own catering or hospitality business. So if this is a chore on your list of things to do, that you put off, then why not call in the professionals?