Inventory is traditionally associated with retail sales, but it includes raw materials for production, real estate in a portfolio, and various other examples. Inventory even includes the depth of labor available for future utility.
One of the many ratios used in business, the inventory turnover rate is often misunderstood, miscalculated and misused. The traditional business course in academia explains that ideally the inventory turnover ratio (rate) is the highest number possible. This higher value means the business operation is selling the product as fast as possible. This in turn signifies that the business is getting the best return on its financial investment into inventory.
Most small businesses use the annual inventory system to determine ending inventory value. Any adjustments are to the income statement inside the cost of goods sold formula. This is acceptable if management only wanted accurate financial statements once a year. But this is unrealistic for a small business.
There are several methods used to manage and track inventory in retail. One of the most accurate inventory management tools is the specific identification method. In this system each piece of inventory is monitored and tracked throughout the process.
Gross Domestic Product is defined as the total production for the country. It is measured by including all the dollars spent to purchase products/services from all the various sellers of goods. The largest purchaser of products/services is consumers. Coming in behind consumers are businesses, remember they are buying goods too. This includes everything from office supplies to the raw materials to make the products the consumers ultimately purchase.
The quick ratio is a formula used in business to identify the ability of a business to pay its current liabilities. It is also known as the ‘Acid Test’ formula (ratio). In the large markets this formula is one of the financial industry ratios used to value the stock of a corporation. In the arena of the small business, you should only use this ratio as a means to gauge ability to pay your bills right now.
Almost all retail based operations require a Point of Sale (POS) System to properly record the customer and product activity. What is a Point of Sale System? How is it set up? What information should we get from this system? How does a small business owner benefit from this system?
In financing a small business, there are a multitude of tools available. One way to finance inventory is by using the 30 day pay program with your vendors. Another tool is seasonal payment program and a third tool is exercising a line of credit tied to receivables or sales history.
Current assets carry the most value to the small business entrepreneur because of the cash conversion aspect.
I spent a lot of time on the internet researching the industry as a whole. There are about 220,000 machines in the US that are owned by non-banking companies and individuals. My first thought is that this is about 1 machine per 1,000 individuals (there’s about 220 million adults in the US/220 thousand machines and you get 1,000 adults per machine).
In business, liquidity is defined as the period of time it takes to turn assets into cash. It takes 20 minutes to turn the balance in the checking account into cash. You head on down to the bank and present a check. You get cash. But most businesses run on just more than the cash in the bank account.
