Inventory
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1
What is inventory and why manage it?
Inventory is cash that has changed shape. You paid money and it became goods, and it will not be money again until it is sold. Every day it spends on the shelf costs you something, even if you never see it on an invoice.
9 min read -
2
What does the sales function do?
Every department in a business spends; one brings money in. And the sales function is not about "persuading people to buy" — it is about turning market interest into revenue that is collected and repeated.
9 min read -
3
What does the purchasing function do?
To add a hundred thousand to profit, sales must win a great deal of extra business. Purchasing needs to save a hundred thousand and no more — because what is saved on a purchase goes to profit in full.
9 min read -
4
The warehouse, its movements and documents
A stock balance in the system is not a number somebody types. It is the result of documented movements. Every item that comes in or goes out without a document creates a difference that will surely appear on the day of the count.
10 min read -
5
The sales cycle and the funnel
A deal does not close suddenly. It passes through known stages, and at each stage a number of buyers drop out. Understanding exactly where they drop out matters more than doubling how many enter at the top.
11 min read -
6
Defining the need and the specification
Most buying problems are not born at the negotiating table but in the first line of the request. A vague specification produces a vague offer and a wrong delivery — and then the supplier gets the blame.
10 min read -
7
Stock levels and reordering
"When do we order?" and "how much do we order?" are two entirely different questions, each with its own answer. Confusing them is why a warehouse can be overfull and short at the same time.
11 min read -
8
The quotation and terms of sale
A quotation is not a number in a message. It is a document the business is bound by: what we deliver, for how much, when, on what payment terms, and for how long any of it still stands.
10 min read -
9
Selecting and comparing suppliers
Three offers on the table at different prices. And the question that seems obvious — "which is cheapest?" — is the worst one to start with. Start with: which of them is compliant at all?
11 min read -
10
Item classification and performance measures
A warehouse holding five thousand items cannot give the same attention to every one of them. Classification decides where your attention goes, and the measures tell you whether you were right.
10 min read -
11
Managing accounts and targets
A customer living in one salesperson's memory is not a customer of the business. When that person leaves, half the market leaves with them. Account management is turning a personal relationship into an asset the business owns.
10 min read -
12
Negotiation, contracts and supply terms
Anyone who negotiates on price alone leaves more on the table than they win. Price is one clause out of ten, and it is the other nine whose cost shows up after signature.
10 min read -
13
Stocktaking and inventory costing
Two questions close a financial year: how much do we actually have? — that is the count. And at what value do we carry it? — that is costing. An error in either gets both the profit and the balance sheet wrong.
10 min read -
14
From order to cash
This is where sales meets the warehouse and accounting, joined by one cycle: order → issue → invoice → collection. Every weak link in it shows up later as a dispute with a customer, a difference in stock, or a debt that is never collected.
10 min read -
15
From requisition to payment
Three documents protect a business from paying for what it did not order or did not receive: the purchase order, the goods receipt note and the supplier's invoice. Matching the three is the simplest control there is, and the most effective.
10 min read