Counting warehouses outside Tashkent: regional count logistics

The warehouse in Tashkent is counted once a year, while the one in Samarkand, Bukhara or Fergana can be put off for years because "someone would have to travel there separately". Yet part of the total figure head office sees belongs to exactly these distant warehouses. A regional count is a matter of travel, lodging and timing; with good planning several warehouses can be counted in a single trip. This article explains how to set that up.

Which warehouses need an on-site count?

Not every regional warehouse needs an outside team. An on-site count helps most when:

• the warehouse is being counted for the first time and its records have not settled;
• stock value is high, or the previous count showed a large variance;
• head office needs an independent figure.

In the other warehouses the local team counts for itself, and an outside team only carries out a check count in selected zones. Write down which route you chose in the count calendar.

When deciding, do a simple sum: does the trip cost less than a wrong stock figure would? Suppose, hypothetically, the warehouse holds 200,000 USD of stock and the previous count showed a 3 per cent variance; that is 200,000 × 0.03 = 6,000 USD. If travel and lodging come to well below that, an on-site count is a defensible decision.

Several warehouses in one trip

Draw the route on a map and put warehouses in the same direction into the same trip. The Fergana valley lies east of Tashkent, so it does not fit into the same trip as warehouses on the western line; it is planned as a separate trip. An illustrative case: three warehouses on the western line, each needing 2 days of counting.

• Counted in separate trips: 1 day travelling out + 2 days counting + 1 day back = 4 days; for three warehouses, 3 × 4 = 12 days.
• In one trip: 1 day out, 2 days counting, 1 day moving to the next warehouse, 2 days counting, 1 day moving, 2 days counting and 1 day back; 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 = 10 days.

The single trip saves two days, and the team and its equipment leave only once.

Before you set off

• Name a local lead for each warehouse: the person who will open the doors, close the slips and answer questions.
• Ask for the current stock list (an Excel export is enough) and a warehouse sketch at least a week before the count.
• Close the last receipts and issues together with the local accountant and the storekeeper; in a distant warehouse, "we will fix it later" is not an easy promise to keep.
• Take count tags, labels, tape, a measuring tool and a scale with you; in a distant city it takes time to find them at the last minute.
• Ask in advance about electricity, internet and a printer.

Timing and cost

Travel, lodging and daily allowances should be a separate line in the quote, apart from the counting fee, so that it is clear who pays for what. Ask about the regional warehouse's busy days (dispatch days, market days) and place the count outside them. Take local holidays and the season into account: in summer, midday hours in a hot warehouse are unproductive, and in winter working in an open yard becomes harder. Add one spare day to the trip; in a 10-day trip 1 day leaves a margin of about 10 per cent, enough for a recount or late slips.

Collecting results in the same format

Even if different people count the regional warehouses, the report format should match Tashkent's: the same columns, the same cut-off rule, the same variance cause codes. Head office should be able to set two warehouses side by side. A separate summary page is prepared for each warehouse, plus one page that totals them all.

In short

A regional count becomes a single job with a well-chosen route and a written preparation list. StockSystem writes travel and lodging for sites outside Tashkent as a separate line in the quote and sets the count day around your calendar.