The process and importance of food and beverage stocktaking certainly needs no introduction; while determining the success, failure or current status of any business venture, particularly the food and beverage industry, we do so with the help of the stocktaking procedures! Provided the method of beverage stocktaking is appropriate and that its procedure is systematic, organized and regular, a lot of information about the entire venture, e.g. its transactions, its expected profits, its profit indicators, etc is revealed.

Although the name may portray a simple task, the process is actually not and can be quite strenuous on a companies resources! When the size and type of the venture differ, the stocktaking process will also differ and if the size is amplified, the process gets much more tedious. Understanding the old business saying “time is money”, several software programs are now obtainable which dramatically reduce the amount of time you spend carrying out repetitive stocktaking activities!

Choosing the method of beverage stocktaking
A continuous inventory system can help a great deal while performing beverage stocktaking! In any form, it would enclose of a method that controls physical stock by ascertaining the current stock level of each product sold and this is done in real time, with continuous updates. This process would usually involve the in-depth recording of all receipts, running balances and issues for every item!

If this comprehensive recording is managed well and ardently, frequent physical stocktakes can be avoided, for the stock level can be accounted for at all times. But to ensure that the recorded stock level and the actual stock level match, physical stocktaking becomes vital; this is to identify any discrepancies between both figures.

Now here, there could be two types of physical stocktaking: continuous or periodic. Continuous physical beverage stocktaking would be performed a few times in a year while the periodic one would be done just once a year, i.e. at the end of the accounting year. Once the physical stocktaking is done, the figures are compared with the recorded stock levels in the inventory system! It is easy to identify any problematic issues with the help of this quick comparison.

Identifying the discrepancies and selecting the right method
If there should lie any discrepancy between the recorded figures and the physical stock figures, it can be accounted to several reasons including natural wastage (like evaporation or breakage in bulk), pilferage, falsification in documents, clerical errors in the inventory system or warehousing errors (both clerical and physical)!

So, when compared, the continuous method stands a fairer chance of being selected than the periodic beverage stocktaking. Even though addition manpower and time stand as major disadvantages of the continuous method, it boasts of more advantages. It not only improves the quality of physical stocktaking (owing to the frequency), but also permits a complete investigation of all stock discrepancies, detects any unauthorized procedural change, eliminates incidences of production hold-ups and also helps maintain a higher work standard!

Summary: Stocktaking is a vexing job, as much as it is important. You could choose for continuous beverage stocktaking or a periodic one based on the type, size and need of your business venture. However, the continuous physical stocktaking is always advocated because it helps in measuring and controlling stock levels.

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