What is stocktaking?

Independent Stocktaking Services in Kenya (or stock counting) is when you manually check and record all your business’s current inventory. It’s a vital part of Its inventory control, but it will also affect your purchasing, production, and sales. Much like any inventory aspect, the stocktaking process will vary hugely from company to company.

Despite the name, a stocktake is about more than just stock management. Any inventory that your business needs should be included. If you’re a manufacturer, your example, you’ll want to record the material you use to create your finished goods — because running out of these would be just as disastrous as running out of Stock.

GENERAL STOCKTAKING

Independent Stocktaking Services in Kenya can reduce your overall running costs by identifying stock losses or inaccurate pricing. Our stocktakes or Stock valuers will save you time and money by carrying out the Stocktake quickly, efficiently, and with as little disruption to your trading business as possible. Most people on hearing the words “Stocktaking” or “Sto” k take” run” and “ide because “e they envisage long hours of counting, reams of stock lists and stock counts, hours of collating and compiling of figures – with possible re-checks of stock counts, the final results being unsatisfactory, adding to the person-hours, overtime, and inconvenience caused to the business, it seems only good business sense to use a professional stocktaking company like ourselves, to take this milestone away and reduce the cost as well. Regular Stock Checks could stop any losses from escalating each year, affecting cash flow and continued profitability. 2Max Group is experienced in all trades, including Newsagents, Forecourts, Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Hardware, Pharmacy, Off Licence, Pubs, Clubs, Garden Centres, Warehouses, Stadiums, Local Authorities, and Leisure Centres.

In addition, we carry out work for Government Departments, Police, Fire, and county Governments – all of which require security clearance checks for our staff.

We provide comprehensive independent stocktaking services in Kenya to the Hospitality, Retail, Automotive, and Real Estate industries, among others.

Our independent stocktaking services in Kenya

Annual Stocktaking Kenya

In many companies annual stock taking services takes place, mostly at the end of the financial year and in some cases it takes place twice a year. It is a nightmare period for most organisations, having to close their doors to sales for the duration of the count.

There is an alternative method to the old annual stock taking way to counting stock and it’s known as cycle stock counting. There is a variety of cycle stock counting methods that are popular and used in many organisations. All methods have the same 4 fundamentals in common with each other.

2Max Group Stocktaking have a vast amount of experience in carrying out Annual Stocktaking services in Kenya.We have been carrying out Annual Stocktakes for numerous years using fully trained staff who are personally known by 2Max Group Stocktaking.

2Max Group Stocktaking will send a confirmation beforehand stating the agreed date, time of arrival and the cost for using our services.  Should the client require any further information one of our team will be available 7 days a week.

Retail Stocktaking Services

Retail Stocktaking services in Kenya examine, count, and value goods held by a store or Business. Stocktaking can include the actual counting and weighing of stock. If we have some interests on sale or return at the stocktaking date, they should not be included in our stock valuation.

WHY HAVE REGULAR STOCKTAKES?

1) Retailers are advised to seek regular retail stocktaking services in Kenya; if their Business is managed by staff, then we suggest quarterly checks.

It is common knowledge that the most significant area of stock losses can be through customer pilferage, stock not being checked in properly, shortages not being identified on delivery, internal staff pilferage, etc. So having quarterly stock checks acts as a strong deterrent as well as accessing which areas stock is missing.

If the owners run the Business, then six monthly or yearly is quite adequate.

2) Taking regular stocktakes enables you to monitor your gross profits and shows any areas where these profits are falling short and can therefore be adjusted quickly, minimizing any losses.

Security in any business is vital to its success; regular stock checks reduce and, in many cases, stop internal pilfering, which can save owners a lot of money; if pilferage remains unchecked, it will, in many cases, escalate to levels whereby the Business can fail.

Taking an annual retail stocktaking services check is vital to enter a correct closing stock figure in your accounts; estimation by accountants or guessing the figure yourselves is no longer acceptable to the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise; they like to see an independent company providing an accurate evaluation of stock presented on a certificate of valuation, failing to carry this out correctly can lead to investigations from both these departments which in turn could be extremely costly.

Regular stock checks also identify over stocking, under stocking, the stock lost through date expiry, and damaged or soiled stock.

3) Apart from as mentioned above with regards to the various government departments wanting to see an independent professional valuation, the benefits of using a professional stocktaking company experienced in your trade is that you can be sure of the accuracy, they will be quicker and qualified to access your stock professionally, if you take into consideration that professional stocktakes make a living at this profession. If they have been in Business for some years, it assures you that they are competent to perform the task correctly; otherwise, they would have ceased to trade.

Although we offer a wide range of services, retail stocktaking remains our core business.

Stock Audits Services in Kenya

Stock Audit Services in Kenya is a physical verification of stock and inventory and a very important tool for strengthening the internal control system. We have a dedicated stock audit team that ensures accurate counting of physical stock and its comparison with book stock. Even at third part locations like out bounded warehouses, consignment agents and distributors,

2Max Group can conduct physical verification of stock on the company’s behalf on a Monthly Basis. We are a leading Stock Audit Services firm in Kenya.

We ensure to take care of the following aspects while conducting the stock audit:

• Stock in transit
• Pilferage and old seasoned stock
• Storage Guidelines
• Stock movement procedures

We document the stock by taking photographs and randomly check the inward and outward stock movement process to mitigate the risk of the discrepancy. Also, we analyze the stock movement registers to eliminate any error or fraud on the part of stock keepers.

Our coverage under Stock Audit Services in Kenya:

• Understanding of Existing Software in place to get Recorded Inventory & Stock Information.
• Verification of Physical Inventory.
• Comparison with Physical & Recorded Inventory & variance analysis.
• Advising on the Best possible ways for Inventory Management.
• Issues resolution in current Stock Processes & Management
• Support in Documentation strategy including stock registers
• Rules & SOPs for Inventory, Storage, Stock loss & implementation of that into our system.

2Max Group is one of the leading Stock Audit Services in Kenya which has handled more than 70 volume based stock audit assignments across to Kenya. We have a dedicated team that can perform Stock Audit where time is the main constraint as this Stock Audit process hampers the entire day to day operations.

We have the capacity to involve a good number of team members to perform the Stock Audit services in minimal time so that the Company can resume their day to day operations at full capacity at the earliest. We are capable of handling complex stock audit assignments even.

Warehouse Stocktaking

2Max Group offer warehouse stocktaking service in many different formats, whether it be to the company that owns and runs the premises or to clients who sub let areas of a warehouse, via bin location and/or item location.

WHAT WILL A CLIENT GAIN FROM A WAREHOUSE STOCKTAKE?

Firstly, the stock would be recorded in several different ways, which includes manual inventory, spreadsheet count or by barcode scanners and laptops.

When we carry out this service, we firstly locate by bin number, product number and then the count, which as the stock count progresses it will highlight stock variances, which can be investigated immediately and resolved to client satisfaction.

Final reports are produced to the clients own specifications and in any format required, the only request we make is that the client provides us with any files or software required.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

All product/barcodes and descriptions must be up to date, as should the unit/case prices if you want the stock report to include section and grand totals.

This information/file should be available to us a few days prior to the stocktake.

LOCATIONS

The file/software that contains all bin locations and areas, where the stock is situated and in a sequenced order, for example A – Z or 1 – 100, and it should include any bins or areas unused or empty, so that if there is stock in these locations, we will know it has been put there by mistake. This will also help when compiling the final report and again, we would need this information/file should be available to us a few days prior to the stocktake.

CURRENT LEVELS OF STOCK

All stock movement must be suspended at the start of the stock count but can be resumed shortly afterwards once sections/locations of a warehouse have been successfully counted and signed off by the client and ourselves.

The Pharmacy stocktaking Services Kenya within this department are highly qualified and use up to date technology within this very accurate yet timely procedure.2Max Group’s Pharmacy stocktaking Kenya team can adjust figures to any date required.

We provide a complete, cost-effective and professional solution to all your stocktaking requirements, from simple counts through to fully formatted records, tailored to a level of detail which best suits your business needs.

We have many years experience within the retail and wholesale Pharmacy trades, working for a number of sole traders and companies. We have several regional offices which ensure we are able to cover the whole of the country with ease and efficiency coupled with the fact we have been trading since the nineties mean you will be dealing with an established company.

Our services ensure your workforce is free to concentrate on your core business and profitability. Our team provides an accurate, reliable check on all your stock and acts as a professional physical check to your computer stock lists. Our service provides vital information as to whether your all-important profit margins are being achieved. We can provide all reports, summaries and valuation certificates on site.

Two of the many ways 2Max Group carry out pharmacy stocktaking Services in Kenya

PROCEDURE 1 – MONETARY PHARMACY COUNT

We count the stock as retail monetary values on calculators whilst also splitting the stock into different commodity groups. As each commodity group will have various different profit margins and in some cases different levels of vat or no vat.

After the physical count has been completed we then input all the retail figures into our tailor made software program which then takes out the vat element, or not as the case maybe, and then the many profit margins from all the different commodity groups, to leave us with nett figures of each group, subtotals of standard, zero and dispensary etc through to a final nett holding figure.

We will then print off, on site, all the paperwork our client needs. So, this means the client has everything they need to complete or assist there accountant, bank or insurance broker etc in their work, before we leave, without having to wait for weeks for the stocktaking paperwork to arrive in the post. We can also include and show a stock write-off figure on the summary/breakdown sheet.

PROCEDURE 2 – PHARMACY SCANNING COUNT

We have again developed a software system which can incorporate any of our clients needs whilst containing all the most up to date prices from all the most recognised trade lists. To start we can either obtain a file from the customer with all the stock item codes on it or we would use our own comprehensive product list once this has been agreed, we would then scan all the stock items.

When completed we can then download the information back into the clients system or provide pharmacy stock reports in many different ways.

Extra services/ benefits carried out by 2Max Group while we are on site

Why are stocktaking Services important?

Any product-based business must ensure that its levels are 100% accurate from time to time as a part of its inventory control. In some countries, it’s even a legal requirement.

1. Seeing how well you’re tracking your inventory entirely on your system for accurate stock levels is usually a bad idea. By comparing the figures from a stocktaking to what you thought you had on hand, you can identify discrepancies and fix them before they become problematic.

If you aren’t tracking you aren’t well as you thought, then it may be a sign that you have poor inventory control. It’s worth fixing It sooner rather than later before they lead to more significant problems such as:

• Stockouts (when you run out of products to sell)
• Overstocking (when you have too many products on hand)
• Dead Stock (when your products become obsolete before they can be sold)

2. Discover stock issues

Cloud software lets you easily track your product levels and location, but it can’t do everything. For example, the cant system might not highlight a transit problem, whereas a manual check will.

Use a stocktake to identify problems your inventory management system might have missed: such as damaged products, missing orders, poor control, or theft. Sometimes these are one-offs that don’t cause too much don’t, but they can also be symptomatic of a deeper flaw.

3. Ensure your business is meeting targets

When it comes to monitoring the performance of your business, you don’t want to leave it to chance. For instance, calculating key metrics such as inventory turnover requires 100% accurate figures.

Once you know exactly how your inventory control is performing, you can refine your procedures and plans to increase efficiency and grow margins. For example, you might:

• Reduce the amount of safety stock you keep on hand in case of an emergency or surge in demand
• Change up your pricing to ensure all your products are selling quickly

Companies Avail the Following Benefits by Outsourcing to Us

• Unbiased and accurate information and verifies the validity of third-party market research data
• Offers timely and cost-effective primary research services that enable companies of all sizes to use original research data
• Latest research tools, techniques, and skillsets to provide market research results that are based on modern data analytics processes
• Comply with current industry-specific regulatory and legal reports and guarantee that your compliance departments are always aware of the latest legal changes in both existing and new markets
• Economic valuation experts provide fast turnarounds whenever you need taxation or accounting support for new market areas.
• Media research and advertising experts to help you optimize marketing expenditures for new products and markets
• Independent product research services that facilitate a prudent preview of consumer reactions and buying decisions before making final strategic choices

Reporting

We offer various services and packages as part of our stocktaking and consultancy services.

• A fully quantified stock holding report.
• A summary of suppliers in any one period and a detailed report showing each individual purchase or credit.
• A transfer report which shows records of any stock either in or out of loan.
• A till to actual sales reconciliation report; this analysis identifies stock variances which can then be reported to the client.
•  A general audit summary which gives you an overall view of your audit in layman’s terms.