Question from a newbie

[vickyd]

Hi everyone,
I am in the process of setting up a small shop, and need advice about how best to organise my stock. Is it best to use barcodes? Is there special software available? If I had a till without a barcode reader would I type in a number for the particular stock item and it would record what I'd sold on a receipt which I would then have to go through at the end of the day? Basically I know nothing about cash registers, so if someone could enlighten me!
Also, what accounts software would anyone recommend for use in retail, employing 2 or 3 people?
Thanks,

Vicky :)

[Alpha]

Vicky

Firstly the answer would depend on the volume passing through your shop and the value of each SKU(Stock keeping unit or stock item).

Do you have such a volume passing through your shop that you cannot control it manually and is the value of the stock held such that tight control is required.

There may be obvious other benefits such as profiling your sales to see things such as seasonality, and other buying trends.

Many shops begin by simply recording purchases on a a manual imprest system. eg qty currently in stock, add purchases, less stock at end of period(week, month, year) to work out what they have sold and simply use the till to record the value of sales.(all that is typed into the till is the sales value and sometimes an analysis code)

Is this sufficient for you or do you need better control(and can afford it?)

Scanning software and hardware today is relatively cheap, the most important thing that is needed is the software to control stock (I believe that there is a membver on the forums who supplies such software and I'm sure he may post something regarding this soon).

It would also be helpful if the stock control software is able to integrate into your accounting package (not absolutely neccessary if you do not mind re entering information as journals but if you want to reduce work then go for it).

It would be better to give more insight into what your business will be doing so that we can suggest a better solution than the very general outline above.

Please don't hesitate to ask further

[vickyd]

Hi, thanks for replying.
It will only be a small shop, selling mainly maternity clothes, so I don't expect to have hundreds of sales in a day. Is it adequate to have a cash register which simply adds up the total for each sale, and lterally write down in a book what has been sold? I suppose this would then involve entering the sales figures onto a computer so that I knew what items I had sold so that I knew I needed to reorder, but if it is only a small number of sales per day then this probably wouldn't be too difficult as long as i kept on top of it!
I suppose initially I don't want to spend too much money, in case it doesn't work out, so I would guess a barcode type of system would be a little too much than is necessary to start up.
Ideally I'd need a system of keeping track of what I'd sold so I could reorder, but I suppose this could be done on Excel, rather than with a special package??
My main aim with having some accounts software is so I can calculate wages, tax and NIC for my employees a little easier than using Excel, but I may be wrong with this, i just imagine that this might be easier.
I suppose it is this "background" work of running a shop that I don't know very much about, but I'd imagine it is a steep and very rapid learning curve!
Vicky

[Alpha]

Vicky

For stock control in a small shop you could empoy a simple visual(kanban) system. All you need is a piece of paper or card on the front of each box/rack describing what the item is and how many. When items are sold just cross through the old figure and replace it with the new. You could even make a better form using the rows and columns of excel.

As far as till sales again all you need to do is record your sales each day (if provided by your register) or simple use your banking figure.

What is your knowledge of payroll and also personnel?

When employing people you should give them a written contract, handle paperwork regarding IR such as P45/6. Complete end of year returns etc.

If you are comfortable with this there are some relatively cheap (but good) packages that I could recommend.for your payroll.

If not you could outsource the payroll but often there is a minimum charge per run.

As always if you want further advice please dont hesiatate to ask either on the forums, via e mail or telephone.

[glowmaternity]

Hi, thanks for replying.
It will only be a small shop, selling mainly maternity clothes, so I don't expect to have hundreds of sales in a day. Is it adequate to have a cash register which simply adds up the total for each sale, and lterally write down in a book what has been sold? I suppose this would then involve entering the sales figures onto a computer so that I knew what items I had sold so that I knew I needed to reorder, but if it is only a small number of sales per day then this probably wouldn't be too difficult as long as i kept on top of it!
I suppose initially I don't want to spend too much money, in case it doesn't work out, so I would guess a barcode type of system would be a little too much than is necessary to start up.
Ideally I'd need a system of keeping track of what I'd sold so I could reorder, but I suppose this could be done on Excel, rather than with a special package??
My main aim with having some accounts software is so I can calculate wages, tax and NIC for my employees a little easier than using Excel, but I may be wrong with this, i just imagine that this might be easier.
I suppose it is this "background" work of running a shop that I don't know very much about, but I'd imagine it is a steep and very rapid learning curve!
Vicky

Hi,
I also have a maternity wear shop based in North Devon, if you want to chat and exchange tips and ideas please e-mail me


Thanks
Kate