Time to Count

While the focus of this discussion is using Quickbooks in your business, the fact is some of the fraud prevention tasks have to be done manually.  Inventory is in the bulls eye for manual fraud prevention.  Look at it this way, it’s the place where you spend the most money and make the most money.  The consequences of incorrect inventory hit the bottom line of your business and your tax return.  This is a prime area to be careful.  It’s best to do some sort of physical inventory count at least once a month – if you can’t manage that try once a quarter and see what your results are like.  The level of variation you find from Books to Count should guide your next steps. 

You’ll want to focus on two areas of Quickbooks  -- the Physical Inventory Worksheet and Adjust Quantity / Value on Hand.   For this post we’ll concentrate on the worksheet.

 

You can find this sheet as a choice on the Inventory reports submenu.  It lists your items and sub-items in alphabetical order.  There’s a blank column for you to enter the actual count as you (gasp) handwrite the quantities on the sheet.  A couple of items to watch out for in terms of planning the count: 

(1)     This sheet only displays inventory items that are active.  Make sure what you have in the warehouse matches that definition for Quickbooks or your count will be off.

(2)    You can’t change the way these items are sorted, so if your storage layout is different,  you need to plan for that.

(3)    You can eliminate the preferred vendor column before you print out the sheet.  That’s likely to be wasted space for the physical count.

Remember, this may not be fun while you are doing it, but the results are tangible and quantifiable.  You’ll know it’s worth it in the end, even if you don’t count the value of peace of mind.