A delivery of 100 arrives. Two months later the shelf is empty and the sales records show 84 sold. Where did 16 go? In most shops the honest answer is “we do not know”, because nobody counted the 100 in, the sales were rung up loosely, and a stock take happens once a year, if that.
Shrinkage is not one big theft. It is a bag given to a friend, a price typed as 1.50 instead of 15.00, a box that was short on delivery and never checked, and yes, sometimes a hand in the storeroom. Each is small. Together they are often the difference between a shop that grows and one that just keeps going.
Why counting by hand does not stick
Everyone means to count. Then Saturday is busy, the count book is in the car, and the numbers from the last count were already wrong so nobody trusts them. Counting only works when it is not a separate job.
Stock that counts itself
With EasyBiz the count is a side effect of the work you already do:
- Receiving: the delivery is entered against the purchase order, so a short delivery shows up at the door, not months later.
- Selling: every sale at the till or on WhatsApp reduces the stock for that item, in that branch, immediately.
- Transfers: moving stock between branches leaves a record that both sides can see.
- Alerts: fast movers reorder before they run out; slow movers show up before you order more.
- Cycle counts: count one shelf a day on a phone; the system shows the variance for that shelf against what it expected, so a problem is found in days, not at year end.
When the system says 16 are unaccounted for, you know within the week, and you know which branch, which item and which period. That alone changes behaviour in a shop.
For workshops and manufacturers
The same leak exists in raw materials: flour, resin, steel, fabric. A bill of materials tells the system what each finished item should have used, so wastage above the recipe shows as a number, per batch, not as a feeling that “we seem to use a lot of flour”.
Which package
A single shop is a Tuck Shop or Shop package; multi-section retail with a storeroom is Retail; more than one branch is Chain, or add a location to any package for $15 a month. Workshops and manufacturers have their own packages with bills of materials and production tracking.