The inventory section of COSTAR is quite extensive and equips you to handle the control of and managing of your inventory. This covers every element from Stock Counts to Item Maintenance, to Kit Maintenance to setting up packages. To ensure you’re doing this properly, here are five best practices for your automotive inventory management within COSTAR. Don’t forget to share these tips with your team to ensure a consistent workflow.
1. Treat all stock as inventory
Seems obvious but not everyone does. Usually, we find people thinking that it will save time but in the long run, it simply isn’t worth it. Being set up to receive electronic invoices from suppliers is a great way to have the Purchase Order automatically created or updated to save you having to enter the stock in.
2. Using COSTAR Standard
If you’re a COSTAR Standard user this means you can add the supplier’s invoice totals to a PO when receipting stock in. This forces you to balance the PO $ wise and in turn, this ensures that the costs on your stock are accurate.
3. Stock count regularly
We know, we know…no one likes the idea of staying back late and running a full stock count. So don’t! With COSTAR you can break down the stock count into smaller more manageable chunks. Stock count a particular brand, product type or size. This means your stock counts are faster and easier to complete so you’ll do them more often.
4. Review your sales WIP screens regularly
As you know, the purpose of this screen is to provide shop management personnel with the ability to quickly see the working status of Order Entry documents that are currently in progress or that have been scheduled for work.
Through having your sales team or whoever closes the invoice reviewing your sales WIP screens regularly will ensure that all completed jobs have been sold out. This will relieve the stock in your system, and you can then accurately rely on the QTY information displayed on Stock Check screens.
5. Sell invoices immediately
If the stock has walked out of the store; sell the invoice. Customer didn’t pay and is going to come back because they are ‘good for it’? Put that sale through as a POI (Pay on Invoice) transaction. That way, you’ll have a record of it on your AR ledger and the stock will be relieved.
As always, if you have any further questions regarding your inventory management for your Automotive Shop please get in touch with our Support Desk.
