Solutions
Stock, batches and expiry
Issue first-expiry-first-out, block the sale of expired batches, and move stock between godowns with both ends agreeing.
The problem
Expired stock reaches the counter because the person selling has no way to know, and a godown transfer is a phone call that one side later remembers differently.
What changes
Batches carry their expiry, stock is issued first-expiry-first-out, and the sale of an expired batch is blocked outright at the counter. Transfers between godowns require both ends to confirm, so the two stock positions cannot drift apart.
How it works
- Goods are received against batch and expiry, in cartons, packs or pieces.
- Issue follows first-expiry-first-out, so the oldest usable batch leaves first.
- An expired batch cannot be sold at the counter, the sale is blocked, not warned about.
- Transfers between godowns are confirmed at both ends before the position changes.
- A physical count reconciles against the ledger without closing the shop for a day.
What you get
- Expired goods stopped at the till rather than at the customer’s complaint.
- Unit conversion between cartons, packs and pieces, without a mental arithmetic step.
- Transfers that both godowns agree on.
- Stock counts that do not require shutting the counter.
In practice
Who it is for, and what setup involves
What batch tracking asks of your receiving process
Someone has to record the batch and expiry when goods arrive. That is the whole cost, and it is where the discipline either takes or does not. A shop that receives against batch for a fortnight and then stops has a ledger that is worse than no batch tracking at all, because it looks complete and is not.
The upside is immediate: expiry becomes something you can see per batch on the ledger rather than something you discover during a stock take, and margin is calculated against what that batch actually cost rather than a single average.
Why blocking beats warning
A warning at the counter is read during a queue by someone under pressure to keep the queue moving. It gets dismissed. Blocking the sale of an expired batch outright removes the decision from the moment it is hardest to make well.
The same logic applies to first-expiry-first-out. Asking a cashier to pick the right batch is asking them to hold information they do not have. Issuing it automatically is not a convenience, it is what makes the policy real.
Unit conversion, and the arithmetic it removes
Goods arrive in cartons, move in packs and sell in pieces. Holding the ratios once means nobody converts by hand at the counter or during a count, which is where most stock discrepancies in small operations actually originate.
Counting without closing
A physical count reconciles against the ledger while the counter keeps trading. Counting after hours costs you the staff time twice and produces a figure for a moment that has already passed.
What it costs
Batch, expiry and godown handling are part of the point of sale subscription at PKR 1,000 a month per register, with no separate inventory module to license.
Terms
Terms used on this page
Plain definitions of the words a buyer here actually searches for.
- Batch
- A quantity of stock received together, carrying its own expiry date and purchase cost so both can be tracked separately from other stock of the same item.
- FEFO
- First-expiry-first-out: issuing the batch with the nearest expiry date first, rather than the one received first.
- Unit conversion
- Holding one item in cartons, packs and pieces at known ratios, so you can buy, move and sell in different units without manual arithmetic.
- Godown
- A storage location separate from the selling counter, holding its own stock position that must agree with any branch it transfers to.
- Physical count
- Counting stock on hand and reconciling it against the ledger, done without closing the counter so it does not cost a trading day.
Questions people ask before they buy
Twenty minutes, your own data, no slides.
Bring a month of your own sales, a payslip you argue about, or last term’s fee sheet. We will show you what it looks like in MjFour.