Moving stock to the venue and back
How an organiser moves drinks and merchandise from its store to the venue with stock transfers, records short deliveries and brings leftovers home.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Events businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Between your storeroom and the festival bar there is a truck, two loaders, a gate marshal who wants to see paperwork and a back-of-house tent with no lock. Stock that leaves the store on Thursday morning has several chances to go astray before a single drink is sold, and a few more on the way back on Monday.
Moving stock properly is not about distrusting your crew. It is about knowing, at every point, where the stock is supposed to be, so that when something is missing you can tell whether it went missing in the truck, at the bar or in the store. In Achekam that knowledge comes from stock locations and transfers.
The venue as its own stock location
With the Warehousing add-on, a business keeps stock locations on the server, such as warehouses, stores, bins and vans, with the quantity on hand at each. For events, create a location for each venue you trade at, or one per event if you run several at once. If a van spends the weekend parked behind the stage as a mobile storeroom, give the van its own location too.
The reason this matters on the night: several tills can run at once, and each is opened at one of your stock locations. A till sale takes the sold quantity off stock at that till's location in the same step. Bars opened at the venue location sell from the venue's stock, which is exactly what you want to see.
Name locations so that nobody can pick the wrong one in a hurry. "Main store", "Van 1" and "Kirstenbosch concert" are clearer than "Location A" and "Location B".
Transfers: draft, dispatched, received
A stock transfer moves quantities from one location to another in three stages, and each stage is a moment where a different person takes responsibility.
| Stage | Who | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Whoever plans the load | The transfer lists the products and quantities going to the venue |
| Dispatched | The storeroom, as the truck is loaded | The load is marked as on its way |
| Received | The bar or venue manager, on arrival | They count what arrived and record it at the venue location |
Split the jobs between people where you can. The person who loads the truck should not be the person who signs for it at the other end, for the same reason that the person who counts the till should not be the person who sold from it.
Send a copy of the draft list in the truck, on paper or as a photo of the screen. The receiving manager counts against it before signing anything, and writes on it if a carton is open or damaged.
Short deliveries recorded as wastage
If the venue receives fewer cases than were dispatched, the receiving manager records what actually arrived. Achekam records the shortfall on the transfer as wastage. That is the right outcome: the store has given the stock up, the venue never got it, and the gap is visible rather than quietly absorbed into the venue's quantity.
Investopedia's article on inventory shrinkage describes shrinkage as the gap between book and physical stock and lists its usual causes, from theft to error and damage. Recording a short delivery at the moment it is found is how you keep transit losses separate from what happens at the bar, so the causes can be told apart.
Investigate wastage on a transfer the same day. A carton left at the store, a case loaded onto the wrong truck for another event, or a pallet counted wrongly at dispatch can all still be found if somebody asks within hours.
Bringing leftovers back the same way
At the end of the event, leftovers go home by the same route in reverse: a transfer from the venue location back to the store, drafted, dispatched when the truck is loaded and received when the storeroom counts it in.
Before you draft the return transfer, count what is left at the venue. With the Warehousing add-on, a stock count sets the location's quantity to what was counted and records the difference as an adjustment. Count first, then transfer what you counted; otherwise the return transfer is built on a figure that includes stock that was drunk, broken or given away.
When the return is received at the store, the venue location should be empty. If it is not, something was left behind, or not counted, or not sent.
Why transfers do not post to the ledger
Stock counts, wastage, transfers and opening quantities do not post to the general ledger. Only till sales and till returns move the inventory account. A transfer moves quantities between locations; it does not move value in your books.
For transfers themselves that is harmless, since moving stock from one of your locations to another does not change what you own. Wastage and count differences are another matter: the stock is gone, but the inventory account still carries its value. Give your accountant the wastage and adjustment figures for each event, and agree a manual journal to write the value off. A posted journal can only be corrected by reversing it, so agree the figure before it is posted.
A checklist for the next event
- Create the venue location, and a van location if you need one.
- Draft the transfer from the agreed stock list, and print it for the truck.
- Dispatch when loaded; receive and count on arrival; record any shortfall.
- Open every till at the venue location.
- Count the leftovers, then transfer them back and receive them at the store.
- Send the wastage and adjustments to your accountant.
For setting up the tills and floats at the venue, see pop-up tills and floats. The count at the end of the night has its own routine in counting what is left after the event, and new products for the event are covered in loading event merchandise before the gates open.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
