Case in, bottle out: keeping stock honest

Stock arrives from the depot in cases and leaves the shop one bottle at a time. Between those two moments, a case has to become bottles in your records. When that step is done from memory at the end of a long day, the numbers drift.

Know your case sizes

A case holds a different number of bottles for each size. A case of 750 ml usually holds 12 bottles, 375 ml usually 24, and 180 ml usually 48. Record stock by brand and by size, never by brand alone, or a shortage in one size will hide behind a surplus in another.

Break the case in the system when you break it on the floor

The moment a case is cut open, the records should lose one case and gain its bottles. If your system does this for you when the first bottle is sold, even better. What matters is that there is one count, and that it changes at the same time as the shelf.

Count a little, often

A full stock take is tiring, so it gets postponed. Counting five fast-moving brands every morning takes minutes and catches a difference while everyone still remembers the day it happened.