Stock is usually the largest asset a shop owns and the one with the least attention paid to it between counts. The remedy is not more reports; it is a small number of reports read on a fixed day, each tied to a decision. Here are the five that repay fifteen minutes every week.
1. Stock value by location
What it shows: the cost value of everything you hold, by branch and by category, with the trend against last week and last month.
Why it matters: this is the cash tied up on the shelf. If sales are flat and stock value is climbing, you are buying faster than you sell and the money for rent or payroll is sitting in cartons. If stock value is falling while sales hold, you are running the shelves down and stock-outs are coming.
The decision: set a target stock value per branch as a number of days of sales, and adjust next week's purchasing towards it.
Remember the accounting basis: under IAS 2, inventories are measured at the lower of cost and net realisable value, so stock you can only sell at a discount should be carried at that lower figure. A stock value report that ignores write-downs flatters the balance sheet.
2. Slow movers and days of stock
What it shows: products ranked by how many days the current quantity would last at the recent rate of sale, with the longest first.
Why it matters: a product with 200 days of stock is a product you have paid for and will not see cash from until next year. Slow movers also occupy shelf space that a faster line could use, and in food or pharmacy they are tomorrow's expiry write-off.
The decision: for each line above your threshold (ninety days is a common one), choose: mark down, return to the supplier, transfer to a branch where it sells, or stop reordering.
3. Fast movers and stock-outs
What it shows: the products that sold most by value and by quantity, alongside the products that reached zero stock during the week and for how long.
Why it matters: these are the lines that bring customers in, and an empty shelf on one of them sends a customer to the shop next door. URA's EFRIS guidance lists monitoring product sales to ascertain fast moving goods and low stock alerts among the stock benefits of its own system, which tells you how central this report is.
The decision: raise the reorder point or the order quantity on any fast mover that ran out, and check that the supplier's lead time in the system matches reality.
4. Adjustments and variances
What it shows: every stock adjustment posted in the week, by reason, by user and by branch, with the value, plus the results of any section counts.
Why it matters: this is where shrinkage becomes visible. A rise in "damaged" adjustments at one branch, a cluster of unexplained shortfalls in one section, or a user posting many adjustments late at night are patterns that a monthly review would miss. IAS 2 treats inventory losses as an expense in the period they occur, so every line on this report is already in your profit figure.
The decision: pick the single largest variance by value and find its cause this week.
5. Margin by product
What it shows: gross margin per product and per category, calculated from the actual cost price of what was sold against the price it was sold at, with low or negative margins at the top.
Why it matters: with inflation running at 4.6 percent in the year to September 2026 according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, cost prices move more often than shelf prices. Negative margins are almost always a pricing or receiving error; shrinking margins on a category tell you suppliers have moved before you have.
The decision: reprice the lines whose cost rose this month and whose shelf price did not.
Make it a routine
Pick a fixed day, Monday morning works for most shops, and read the five in the order above. Each one should produce a single action, written down, with a name and a date. Over a quarter you will have made sixty small decisions, and the shop will be carrying less stock, running out less often and losing less to shrinkage, without any of the drama of an annual stock take.
Finally, export the five reports each month and keep them. They are your evidence when a supplier disputes a return, when a manager explains a variance and when you sit down to plan next year's stock.
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