With New Year’s Day just ahead, now is the time that many jewelers choose to conduct a thorough annual inventory of all their jewelry stock.
Performing this task at least once each year is an important step in protecting your business.
Having a detailed and itemized listing of all physical inventory will save you time and money in the event of an insurance claim. If you have a loss, your inventory records will prove what inventory has been lost and its value so that your claim may be settled quickly.
Recovering insured losses isn’t the only reason to establish proper inventory records. They are also useful in planning. Good jewelry inventory management can help you determine when to reorder merchandise and can help you know what’s selling and what’s not. Your records can also alert you to missing items and errors in entry, and they help deter internal theft.
Keep these tips in mind for conducting your annual physical inventory and for your ongoing inventory record-keeping efforts:
- Your inventory system should contain a detailed listing of all owned stock for sale, customers’ goods, memorandum goods, and merchandise temporarily away from your store.
- Be sure to include inventory or jewelry lines carried by sales people in the annual physical inventory.
- Maintain a computerized perpetual inventory system or an equivalent system.
- Keep in a safe and secure location backup copies of your purchase invoices, sales receipts, and your record of the annual physical inventory list of your stock. Storing records at an off-premises location is a good idea. For electronic files, be sure to have backup copies that you can retrieve from a secured medium or a secured online site.
- Update your records regularly.
- Ensure that you are exact and accurate in your record keeping.
- Ask your accountant to review your inventory system.
