Auto Parts Inventory - March 12, 2024
Taking inventory of your automotive dealership is a job that is often viewed as being disruptive by your employees, not just those who have to do the physical parts counts, but also the teams that are affected while the inventory is in progress.
That is why the idea of doing inventory outside of your regular annual count for year-end can be daunting.
But ongoing oversight of your inventory offers better long-term optimization than the annual count, the main goal of which is to reconcile your physical inventory to your books for tax purposes and give your team a fresh start for the new year.
Perpetual inventory, also known as cyclical inventory, occurs on a regular basis throughout the year and allows you to validate your inventory records on an on-going basis. In turn, this allows your company to identify patterns and trends in your inventory that help you to optimize your ordering, decrease obsolescence and minimize missing (or stolen) parts.
In addition, conducting perpetual inventories reduces overtime costs and disruptions to operations. That’s because the actual inventory count is completed during work hours in small sections, with a focus on high-value parts, special order parts, or parts that seem to be prone to inventory mistakes.
hen it comes to conducting these cycle counts, you have two main options. The first is assigning the job to your automotive parts employees on a daily or weekly basis depending on the number of parts that are being counted.
Alternatively, qualified external professionals, such as Pro Count West, can be brought in to conduct perpetual inventory activities according to your schedule and needs. The benefit of having an external partner come in, is that your company has access to a professional expert who is able to reliably perform the service consistently throughout the year.
If you have any questions about perpetual inventory or are interested in scheduling our team to come in and perform cycle inventories, contact us today.
