Stocktake query

suej

Hi

We're having our annual stocktake next week and our Auditors have requested that the stocktake sheets do not have the existing quantities printed on them as they usually do each year. I've got to go into a meeting tomorrow with the production supervisor and tell her that the quantities wont be shown this year but was wondering if there are any legal or accounting standards that I can quote to explain why it is not good practice to show the figures. Any advice would be appreciated.

Sue

Bluewednesday

No accounting standard, probably part of an auditing standard but I would be surprised if it was specifically listed.

It's not good practice to have expected quantities as it encourages staff to not count properly! If there are only 2 of something on the shelf but 3 are listed on the stock sheet the temptation is to just tick it that the 3 are there. Another example is 3 of one type of staple (for example) and 3 of another could be listed as 6 of one type if it matches what's on the stock sheet - this means any product file is incorrect and stock value will be wrong if the 2 items are different prices.

If there are no quantities written on there then they have to count properly and any discrepancies investigated rather than covered up.

does that help at all?

Toffeemadblue

It's certainly not an uncommon practice we did like it this for many years and it does encourage the checkers to examine the stock carefully and count it with no preconceptions.
The only reason we stopped was that with 7000 product lines we needed a method of quickly deciding which lines to re-check so we had a preprinted acceptable variance so when that was exceeded we automatically sent the sheet out for a re-check.

suej

Re stocktake query

Thanks alot, you've both been a real help.

Regards
Sue