You reordered the product that keeps selling out. You restocked three others that have barely moved in four months. Somewhere there is a sticky note reminding you to call a customer about a special order from two weeks ago.
Running a store means being the buyer, the seller, the bookkeeper and the stock manager at once. Most owners keep inventory in their head and relationships in a notebook. It works until it does not.
Free: the Retail Inventory Without the Guesswork course. A short walkthrough from manual counts to real-time stock tracking. Start the course
What guessing costs you
Money is tied up in stock that does not move, while the items that do move run out. The special order that slipped becomes a customer who bought elsewhere. None of it shows up as a loss on any one day, and all of it adds up over a season.
Why it keeps happening
Three ordinary things cause it: you only see sales by product when you go looking, reorder points live in your memory, and customer requests are written wherever there was paper. Each is fixed by a short routine done on the same day each week.
The process: four steps from guessing to knowing
1. See what actually sold, weekly
Once a week, list the products by how many sold and how many are left.
Example: “Sold 14 of one item, 0 of another in four months.”
Pro tip: Mark anything that has not sold in 60 days. That is your slow-stock list.
2. Set a reorder point on your top sellers
Write down the level at which you reorder and how much you reorder to.
Example: “Reorder when 5 are left, up to 20.”
Pro tip: Start with your ten best sellers. You can add more later.
Free: the Retail Inventory Without the Guesswork course. A short walkthrough from manual counts to real-time stock tracking. Start the course
3. Log special orders the same day
When a customer asks for something you do not carry, record their name, number and the item, with a follow-up date.
Example: “Special order, Jenna, call Friday.”
Pro tip: Put the follow-up date on a calendar the moment you take the request.
4. Receive stock against the order
When a delivery arrives, check it against what you ordered and what the supplier billed.
Example: “Ordered 12, received 10, invoiced for 12.”
Pro tip: Check before you sign off the invoice, not after you have paid it.
Where this runs
The four steps work with a spreadsheet and a calendar. In the business system we set up for clients (Odoo Community), the point of sale and inventory share one product record, so each sale at the till updates stock as it happens. When you close the register, the sales and payment entries post to accounting, and reorder rules suggest purchases before you run out. The process is the point. The tool just keeps it going when you are busy.
Your next step
Do the weekly sales list once this week and set reorder points for your top ten sellers. If you want to see it working in a live system, the free Retail Inventory course walks you through it.
Free: the Retail Inventory Without the Guesswork course. A short walkthrough from manual counts to real-time stock tracking. Start the course