You can have the smartest staffers, the best hardware and software, and all of the experience in the world – but that still doesn’t guarantee an accurate count of inventory under your roof.

And if you can’t reconcile what you have on hand with what you’re supposed to have on hand, it’s liable to come back and bite you in the wallet, sooner or later.

It’s always at the worst possible time that you learn you need more of a certain item than you actually have on hand — production slows, costly expedited shipping is incurred, and it’s likely you’ll have dissatisfied customers on your hands. Do it enough times, and those folks will be ex-customers.

But there are five steps you can take, before and as part of your next inventory, that’ll help pick up problems before the pop up on the floor and stall your count-in-progress.

All five steps concern actions you can take before the actual counting begins. This way, people can hit the ground running on Counting Day and keep momentum going.

Take over publicity. Tell everyone, loud and long, ahead of time, that Inventory will be closed at a specific time for you to count what’s there.

Whether it’s your internal customers or external customers, let them know far enough a head of time that people can grab what they need. That way, work flow is less likely to be interrupted and outsiders won’t be throwing you off with “emergency” requests that aren’t really emergencies. Of course, you’ll still be able to accommodate true emergencies.

Post signs at several locations, and send e-mails to Sales and Production. Remind people when you see them. By the time you actually do close the doors — say, Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. — everyone should know what’s going on.

Review your layout. Is everything labeled — shelves, boxes, bins — that should be labeled? If not, do it far enough ahead of time, before the count. Break down products into more useful chunks, by manufacturer, by function, by customer, etc.

Make room for errors. There will be mistakes. As we all know, nobody’s perfect. But turn those mistakes into learning opportunities. Whatever system you use to record results, be sure to leave enough space to where you can write or type in an explanation for the error. (Could be broken, missing pieces, damaged articles, etc.) Closely tracking the errors is the best way to solve them and prevent repeat problems in the future.

Testing, testing. Check any equipment you’re going to use — usually calculators and/or scanners — before the day of the count, to make sure everything’s in working order. And locate back-up power sources, too — batteries or AC adaptors.

Create a labeling system. You’ll want a way that the people who are counting can mark specific problems they come across, without breaking the work flow. Most pros find that color coding is the best way to do this. You can use colored stickers or markers to label problems such as: damaged product or something that needs a manager’s attention; you should also find a way to label goods that already have been counted. As with everything involved in physical counts, the simpler it is the more successful it’ll be.

Tags: counting, customers, inventory, production, scanners, shipping