School store and inventory management

Nobody knows what is in the store

Ask most schools what is in the store and the honest answer is that somebody has a rough idea. Stock is counted at the end of the year, if then, and the count rarely matches the book. Items are issued on a verbal request. Donations arrive and are never recorded at all.

The cost shows up as buying things the school already has, and as the slow disappearance of items nobody was tracking closely enough to miss.

How Enaton handles it

Stock comes in through purchasing or as a donation, and both are recorded. Issuing to a department is a record against a person, not a conversation. The closing stock figure is therefore built from actual movements rather than from a count somebody did in a hurry.

Because purchasing feeds the store directly, what was ordered, what arrived and what is on the shelf are the same chain rather than three separate books.

Stock

• Items with their units of measure, so a carton and a piece are not confused
• Stock received, whether purchased or donated
• Issues to departments and to named people
• Individually tracked items where that matters, such as equipment

Where things are

• Store rooms and sections, so a large school with several stores can find things
• Suppliers and donors recorded separately, because donated goods have different reporting needs

Reporting

• What is held, by item and by store
• What was issued, to whom and when
• Closing stock at the end of a term or a year, built from movements
• Spending on stock against the right vote head

Who this is for

Storekeepers get a record instead of a book. Bursars stop approving purchases of things already in stock. Auditors get a closing stock figure that traces to movements. Directors see what departments actually consume.