The system says forty packs, the yard has thirty-one
A customer orders facing bricks for a job. The system shows plenty. The yard team goes to pick and finds the bay half empty. Somebody split a pack for a small order last month and sold loose bricks as a different code. A pallet was broken by the forklift and written off in someone's head. Three packs went to the next branch in a hurry and the transfer was never keyed.
The customer is told there will be a delay, and the stocktake at year end produces a variance that nobody can explain.
Where yard stock goes missing on paper
Builders merchant stock is harder to count than a shop's. It is bulky, outdoors, sold in packs and loose, cut to length, broken in handling and moved between branches on the same lorries that make deliveries.
| Movement | Why it is missed |
|---|---|
| Split packs | Pack sold as loose units under a different code |
| Breakages | Damaged goods written off verbally, not in the system |
| Timber cuts | Offcuts and cutting waste not recorded |
| Branch loans | Goods sent on a van without a transfer |
| Wrong code at the till | Similar products sold under the wrong code |
| Returns | Goods back in the yard but not back on stock |
Once the system is wrong, people stop trusting it and start walking the yard to check, which makes every order slower.
The cost of stock you can't trust
Customers are promised goods that are not there. Buyers reorder things you have, and miss things you don't, because the reorder report runs on the same wrong numbers. Staff spend time checking bays. And the year-end stock adjustment arrives as a surprise in the accounts rather than a known and explained figure.
There is a quieter cost in the yard team's confidence. When people know the numbers are wrong, they stop recording the small movements properly, because it seems pointless. That makes the numbers worse, and the cycle continues until the next stocktake resets it for a few weeks.
Counting little and often, and recording the causes
- A rolling cycle count plan is generated from your merchant system: fast-moving and high-value lines more often, slow lines less, with each branch's bays in walking order.
- Yard staff count on a handheld or phone, scanning bay labels and product barcodes where they exist and picking from a list where they don't.
- Counts are compared with system stock at that moment, allowing for goods picked but not yet invoiced, so a variance is a real variance.
- Quick screens let staff record the movements that usually go unrecorded: a pack split, a breakage with a photo, timber offcut waste, a loan to another branch.
- Variances above your thresholds go to the branch manager with the recent history for that product, to accept or investigate.
- Accepted adjustments are posted back to your merchant system with a reason code, and a monthly report groups variances by cause, product and branch.
A yard the system can describe
The counter trusts the stock figure again, so customers get the right answer on the phone. The yard spends a little time each day counting rather than a weekend each year. Variances come with reasons, which tells the branch manager whether the fix is training at the till, a better way of handling split packs or a problem with handling damage.
Signs your yard stock has drifted
- Staff walk the yard to check stock before promising it.
- Customers are told about shortages after ordering.
- Year-end stocktake variances are large and unexplained.
- Split packs and breakages are dealt with informally.
- Reorder reports are ignored because nobody trusts them.