Recount in-house or by an outside team: how to decide

When a recount comes round, the owner always meets one question: do we count ourselves or bring in a team from outside? The thought "ourselves, for free" comes first but is not always right. An outside team, on the other hand, sometimes looks like a needless expense. The right decision is made not by feeling but by a simple calculation. Below we go through how to do that calculation.

In-house: the hidden cost

Counting with your own staff seems free, but there is a hidden cost: it does not show in the calculations. Build them up from these parts:

• staff working time, that is, the number of people multiplied by the number of hours;
• extra pay for working at a weekend or at night;
• sales lost while the shop is closed or running slowly;
• mistakes by tired or inexperienced counters, that is, time later spent on recounting.

A hypothetical example. 6 employees work 10 hours, 60 person-hours in all. At 15,000 so'm an hour that is 900,000 so'm. If the shop is fully closed for 3 hours and normally sells 400,000 so'm an hour, another 1,200,000 so'm of sales is lost. The total is 2,100,000 so'm, with mistakes not included. These figures are illustrative: put in the data for your own shop.

What an outside team gives and does not give

An outside team gives three things: speed (many people work at once), an unbiased eye (they do not see the goods as "their own") and ready tools (scanners, uniform sheets, a second-count routine). The result comes back in the format of your accounting system, for example a file for Excel or 1C.

But it will not do everything for you. Tidying the stock, closing documents and preparing the book balances remain your job. Finding the cause of a difference and deciding on a write-off are yours too. The outside team brings the facts complete and clean, and you work through them together.

When to count yourselves and when to call outsiders

Counting in-house is usually sensible if:

• there are few positions and counting fits into an hour or two;
• you know the goods well and the book balances are reliable;
• the staff are experienced and pulling them off sales for a count does no harm;
• recounts are held regularly, in small parts.

An outside team is worth considering if:

• a shortage is appearing and there is open distrust of the staff;
• the person financially responsible is changing and both sides need a neutral witness;
• there are many positions or several branches to count at once;
• the count has to meet an exact deadline, such as year end or an inspection.

A mixed approach

For many the middle path, a mixed approach, is the most convenient. You do the preparation yourself: tidy the stock, close the documents, mark out the zones. The outside team counts, and one or two of your staff take part as observers and referees. The opposite variant also works: you count yourselves, and the outside team does a spot check, recounting the most expensive or most often missing groups and testing your result. Such a check is much cheaper than a full count.

What to ask when choosing a team

Before agreeing terms with an outside team, find out the following:

1. What does it count with, and does it recheck positions with differences?
2. In what format and how quickly does it return the result?
3. What does the contract say about timing, price and confidentiality?
4. Who is responsible if goods are damaged during the count or the result contains an error?
5. Are there examples of its work and references?

The price depends on the number of positions, the area and the time. An exact figure can only be given after a site visit.

How to prepare for an outside team

Book the team at least a week or two before the count: before year end and the season it gets busy. Give the team a map of the shop, a list of product groups, the working hours and one responsible contact on your side. Have the book balances ready before counting starts. These three things cut count day by several hours.

Conclusion

Doing it yourself looks cheap and an outside team looks costly, but the real decision comes from counting hours, sales and trust. The Pereuchet team offers a full count, a spot check and a mixed approach, and quotes the price after a site visit.