Keep track of the storage, stocking, and selling of items with Lumiform’s free, digital inventory checklist. Find out the true definition of an inventory checklist, how to use one, and what to inventory in the article below. Stay ahead of the game with Lumiform’s instantaneous documentation!
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An inventory checklist is used by companies to record the stocks of goods, merchandise, land, or building materials. In this way, you can keep a comprehensive overview of all kinds of purchases. Accountants use it to check whether the inventory list of deliveries and purchases corresponds to the actual number of available products.
Keeping an inventory checklist helps you to evaluate the working capital and determine whether the stocks are sufficient enough to meet the company’s delivery needs as well as avoid overproduction, product spoilage, or insufficient deliveries.
1. Meaning of the inventory checklist
2. 5 types of inventory categories
3. The importance of an inventory list template
4. A digital solution for inventory checklists
You should use a toolbox inventory spreadsheet to manage your products and services sustainably and to optimize your billing. If you want to create such a checklist, you should add all relevant properties of an item to the inventory list. Since usually several employees do the inventory, it will be best to come up with standardized way of doing things.
In the following, the components of an inventory checklist are named:
Raw materials are components or items used to produce finished products. They can be produced by the manufacturer or sourced from a supplier. For example, a business that makes t-shirts will need print designs, fabric, and thread as raw materials for manufacturing their products. If you are in the food service business, you can take advantage of a food inventory checklist template.
Work-in-progress (WIP) inventory refers to the unfinished items or components currently in production, but not yet ready to be sold. This type of inventory is seen in retailers that manufacture their own products. For example, a furniture business may have tables that have been put together but are still waiting to be painted.
Finished goods are items that are complete and are ready for selling. These items may either be manufactured by the company or purchased from a supplier. If you are a retailer, you most probably purchase items from a supplier at a special wholesale price or maybe you have products customized for you by your supplier.
In the retail industry, it is useful to group finished goods into a few other types in your process inventory template. This allows your business to improve allocation and management.
MRO goods are items used throughout the manufacturing process but are not part of the final product.
MRO goods include:
Some of these goods may seem small but MRO is inventory purchased from a supplier that is stored somewhere and must be included in financial records.
Packaging materials are anything you use for packing and keeping your products safe while in storage or while shipping to your customers. Packaging materials may include:
Many businesses don’t give enough importance to their packaging materials when managing and controlling their inventory. However, packaging items are used regularly. They must, therefore, be properly maintained and included in your inventory checklist and your accounting.
An inventory checklist is a vital part of your company's inventory management. An efficient inventory management system is crucial to keeping your business profitable, productive, and organized. By definition, inventory management is the process of ordering, stocking, storing, and selling your inventory.
The main goal of keeping proper inventory management is to ensure your business can easily and efficiently manage the ordering, stocking, storing, and using of inventory. Effective inventory management guarantees that you are updated about what items are in stock, how many of each item you have, and where you stored those items.
Powerful inventory management allows you to find out how you use your inventory and understand shifts in demand. You can focus your time and efforts on exactly what you need and eliminate what’s not so important. This measure helps you avoid wasting your resources.
Inventory forms, therefore, are necessary for practicing inventory control. It is a way of ensuring you always have enough stock on hand to meet demand, while at the same time, reducing costs on ordering and carrying inventory.
With the help of a digital app, you can easily perform an inventory check when receiving shipments, preparing goods for sale, and replenishing inventory. Lumiform is a digital solution for checklists, inspection, and audits that replace mountains of paper inventory forms. Easily record item quantity and total cost digitally. Benefit from the advantages of a digital application for your inventory checklists:
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