Sage 50 Accounts For Dummies, 3rd UK Edition

Chapter 12

Keeping Track of Your Products

In This Chapter

• Recording a stocktake
• Building a bill of materials
• Processing stock returns
• Assigning stock

A lot of business money is often tied up in stock. Having proper control over your stock procedures makes good business sense. In this chapter, I give you the tools to manage your stock.

I cover recording a stocktake, which you can do with any version of Sage, in this chapter. I also explore the added features available only in the SagePlus and Professional versions.

Taking Stock

Every business should undertake a stocktake periodically – once a year at the very least – so the year-end accounts show an accurate stock position. However, actually carrying out a stocktake can prove a logistical nightmare, particularly if you have a vast array of products.

Usually, recording a stocktake is best undertaken when the factory or office is closed for normal business. Many a time I've rolled out of bed on a Saturday to help do a stocktake. Sage doesn't allow you the luxury of a weekend lie-in, but it does help you organise your company's stock methodically.

Before you run the Stock Take option in Sage, run one of the Sage stocktake reports to assist you with the physical stock count. I show an example of one of the Stock Take Report (by Stock Category) in Figure 12-1 – and you can see that Sage helpfully provides the quantity of stock as recorded in Sage followed by a blank box, where you can record the actual stock quantity.

Figure 12-1: ...