The rep is here on Thursday
A frame rep visits with a new collection. You like several styles. Before ordering, you want to know what sold from their last collection, what is still sitting on the boards after a year, and whether your exchange allowance with them is worth using. The answers are somewhere in the practice system's sales records, the frame drawer and the last delivery notes, and there is no time to pull them together before the rep arrives.
So the order is made on instinct. Good sellers are sometimes missed. Frames that never move stay on the boards because nobody is sure they are dead.
Why frames are hard to track
- Frames are identified by supplier, model, colour and size, and small inconsistencies in how these are entered break any report.
- Stock is physical and counted infrequently, so the system's stock figure and the boards drift apart.
- Some suppliers offer consignment stock or exchange arrangements, each with its own terms and dates.
- Sales data is in the practice system, but purchasing decisions are made in a conversation with a rep.
- Nobody records when a frame arrived, so its age on the board is unknown.
What that does to the business
Frame stock is one of the largest amounts of money an independent practice holds. Slow frames tie up cash and board space. Popular frames sell out and are not reordered promptly. Exchange allowances go unused because nobody tracked what could be sent back. And the boards gradually fill with frames that patients walk past.
| Question | Without data | With a frame report |
|---|---|---|
| What sells from this supplier? | Best guess | Sales by model over a period |
| What has not moved in a year? | Unknown | A list with arrival date |
| What can we exchange? | Check the terms again | Eligible frames listed against terms |
| Where are the gaps on the boards? | Walk the boards | Missing styles, colours or sizes flagged |
How we build the frame report
- We read frame sales and stock records from your practice management system, and clean up inconsistent entries of supplier, model and colour with you.
- A quick stock take, using barcode labels or a phone scanner, gives every frame on the boards a verified entry and, for new deliveries, an arrival date.
- Each frame's age and sales history build up from then on, updated automatically as sales happen.
- Supplier terms, such as consignment arrangements and exchange allowances, are recorded against each supplier.
- Before a rep visit, you open a one-page report for that supplier: what sold, what has not moved, what is eligible for exchange and which styles you have run out of.
- A monthly overview shows stock value by supplier and age, so you can see where cash is tied up.
We do not advise on which frames to buy or how to price them. The report puts your own sales and stock in front of you when it matters.
What changes on the shop floor
Rep visits become a conversation based on your data. Dead stock is identified and dealt with, through exchange, a sale rail or a return, as you decide. Good sellers are reordered before they run out. The boards look fresher because frames that do not move are rotated off. And the stock figure in the system starts to match what is on the wall.
Is this your frame room?
- Frame orders are made on instinct during rep visits.
- You are not sure which frames have been on the boards over a year.
- Exchange allowances go unused.
- Good sellers sometimes run out before anyone notices.
- The system's stock figure does not match the boards.