A week of typing up
At the end of each period, someone sits with the warehouse book, fill sheets, a folder of removal notes and a spreadsheet. They record every cask filled, every cask moved to another warehouse, every removal for bottling, every sample drawn and every cask that left to a customer or a third-party warehouse. Numbers have to agree: what was there, what came in, what went out, what is there now. They rarely do on the first try.
The records matter, and the person doing them knows it. That is exactly why the week is stressful.
Why the ledger falls behind
Warehouse events happen on the floor, and records are made in the office. Between the two there is paper, memory and good intentions. A busy filling week produces a stack of sheets. Casks moved between warehouses are noted on a whiteboard. Removals for a bottling run are written on the run sheet, which lives with the bottling team. The ledger is built afterwards from all of these.
- Fill details are written on paper at the filling store.
- Transfers between warehouses are noted informally.
- Removals for bottling are recorded on the bottling run sheet.
- Samples and small removals are easy to forget.
- The ledger is only reconciled at period end.
What the late ledger costs
A week of skilled time each period that could be spent elsewhere. Stress and a real risk of mistakes when figures are reconstructed. Awkward moments when a visit or query comes and the records are not yet current. And a dependence on the one person who knows how all the paper fits together.
What the records must contain, how they are kept and what is declared are for you and your adviser to decide. Our part is getting the movements recorded accurately at the time they happen.
Recording each movement where it happens
- Every cask and every spirit tank or vessel in scope has an identifier, and every warehouse and location has a code.
- Filling a cask is recorded at the filling store: cask, spirit, the readings your team takes, date and destination.
- Moving a cask between warehouses is a scan of the cask and the new location, with the time and person recorded.
- Removals for bottling, sale or transfer are scanned against the bottling run or order they belong to.
- Samples and other small removals get their own quick entry, so they are not forgotten.
- A movement ledger builds from these events, showing opening position, movements in and out, and closing position for any period, laid out in the form your adviser asks for.
- Differences found during checks are recorded as adjustments with a reason and an approver, never silently overwritten.
| Event | Recorded where before | Recorded where now |
|---|---|---|
| Cask fill | Fill sheet | Scanned at filling |
| Warehouse transfer | Whiteboard or note | Scanned at the move |
| Removal for bottling | Bottling run sheet | Scanned against the run |
| Sample drawn | Often not recorded | Quick entry per cask |
| Period position | Built by hand | Report from the ledger |
Period end without the stack of paper
The ledger is current every day, not just after a week of typing. The person who used to build it now reviews it, checks the flagged differences and prepares what the adviser needs. A query about a cask is answered from its movement history. Knowledge of how the records work sits in the system, not in one head.
We make no promise about any inspection or return. What changes is that the figures you rely on are recorded once, at the time, by the person who did the work.
Does this sound like your period end?
- Warehouse records take days to bring up to date.
- Moves between warehouses are noted informally.
- Samples and small removals are sometimes missed.
- Opening and closing positions need detective work to agree.
- One person is the only one who can do it.