Recounting in a flower shop: counting perishable stock

In a flower shop the goods are alive, and they change every day. A rose that stood in the bucket in the morning can lose its looks by evening, and tulips that arrived today are sold at half price tomorrow. In other shops a recount answers the question "how many?". Here there is a second one: "how fresh?". So counting in a flower shop is both a stock check and a quality check.

The unit of counting: stem, bunch and plant

Cut flowers are counted by stem (piece), but they usually arrive from the supplier in bunches, say of 10 or 25 stems. The books may hold bunches while the bucket holds stems. So write the conversion down in advance: "1 bunch = 25 stems". A position is defined not only by the kind of flower but also by colour and stem length: a red rose of 60 cm and a red rose of 70 cm are priced differently and go on separate rows. Potted plants are counted by the piece and grouped by size.

Greenery and filler flowers (gypsophila, eucalyptus, pittosporum) are also sold in bunches. Record them as separate positions as well: they are often forgotten, yet consumption in bouquets is high.

The cold room and the buckets

Count in a way that keeps the flowers from going without water for long. Do not lift a bucket and tip the flowers on to a table; they get damaged. Standing at the bucket, split the flowers of each kind into bunches, count them by hand and put them back. In the cold room do not leave the door open and let the counters in by turns. Count the fastest-moving kinds, roses and tulips, first. Stick a label on each counted bucket: kind, number of stems and date. Then nobody counts it a second time, and the checker sees the result at once.

Freshness and write-offs

Stick the arrival date on every bucket. During the count sort the flowers into three groups: fresh, middle-aged (a day or two old) and close to wilting. Wilted flowers are thrown away, but this must not be done silently. Record the discarded stems and write them off at the end with a signed certificate, otherwise they show up as a shortage.

Example: the books hold 120 rose stems. The count finds 104 in buckets and 9 in ready bouquets, 113 in all, a difference of −7. It turns out that 5 stems wilted and were thrown out but not recorded. That leaves 2 stems unexplained. So the real shortage is not 7 but 2 stems. Agree the norm for natural loss with the owner in advance: anything beyond it is a reason to rethink purchasing or working routines.

In a flower shop stock gets cheaper every day: a count shows not only the quantity but also which flowers must be sold first.

Ready bouquets and orders

Ready bouquets in the window are counted as finished goods. Do not add the flowers in them to those in the buckets, or you will count them twice. Flowers set aside for prepaid orders should be marked "order" and counted apart from saleable stock. If your accounting program records the composition of a bouquet, the flowers are written off automatically when the bouquet is sold. If it does not, you have to check stem consumption against the number of bouquets sold, only approximately.

Vases, wrapping and gift items

A flower shop also has vases, pots, potting soil, wrapping paper, ribbon and cards. Count vases and pots by the piece and open a separate row for broken and cracked ones. Wrapping paper and ribbon go by roll or metre: estimate an opened roll in metres and write it down. It is worth counting them before holidays, for instance before 8 March, because consumption jumps in those days.

Conclusion

Counting in a flower shop rests on not mixing up stems, bunches and ready bouquets, noting freshness and writing off wilted flowers with a signed certificate. The Pereuchet team counts a flower shop quickly by bucket and zone, keeps ready bouquets and orders apart and hands over the result as a file for Excel or 1C.