Effective inventory management

Inventory management associates with many administrative tasks. Depending on the size and complexity of your business, they may be done as part of an administrator's duties, or by a dedicated inventory controller.

For security reasons, it's good practice to have different staff responsible for finance and inventory.

Typical paperwork to be processed includes:

* delivery and supplier notes for incoming goods
* purchase orders, receipts and credit notes
* returns notes
* requisitions and issue notes for outgoing goods

Inventory can tie up a large slice of your business capital, so accurate information about stock levels and values is essential for your company's accounting.

Figures should be checked systematically, either through a regular audit of stock - stocktaking - or an ongoing programme of checking stock - rolling stocktake.

If the figures don't add up, you need to investigate as there could be stock security problems or a failure in the system.

Health and safety aspects of Inventory management are related to the nature of the stock itself. Issues such as where and how items are stored, how they are moved and who moves them might be significant - depending on what they are.