Counting stock and writing off expired supplements
How a gym counts its supplement stock, takes expired tubs and bars off the shelf, and gets the value of the write-off into the books with its accountant.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Fitness businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Supplements look like an easy sideline for a gym: high margins, members who buy every month, and products that sit quietly on a shelf behind reception. Until someone picks up a tub of pre-workout and notices the date on the bottom passed three months ago. Then the questions start: how many more are there, did we sell any after the date, and what is all this stock really worth?
A regular count with expiry checks built in answers those questions before a member does. This article sets out how to count supplement stock in Achekam, what to do with expired products, and how their value leaves your books.
Counting a location with the Warehousing add-on
With the Warehousing add-on, a business keeps stock locations on the server, such as stores, bins, shelves and vans, with the quantity on hand at each. For a gym, sensible locations are the reception shelf, the café fridge and the storeroom where bulk deliveries wait.
Count one location at a time, at a quiet hour. Supplements are small, look alike and come in many flavours, so count by product and flavour, not by brand, and have one person count while another records. Count before the desk opens, or close the shelf for the few minutes it takes, because a sale during the count changes the figure.
The count sets the quantity and records the difference
A stock count sets the location's quantity to what was counted and records the difference as an adjustment. If the system expected twelve tubs of vanilla protein on the shelf and you found nine, the shelf now shows nine, and the missing three are recorded as the adjustment.
That matters to the till. A till sale takes the sold quantity off stock at the till's location, and it refuses to sell below what is on hand unless the business allows negative stock. After an accurate count, the till's idea of what is on the shelf matches the shelf.
Checking expiry dates on every count
Make the expiry check part of every count, not a separate job someone forgets. As each product is counted, the counter looks at the dates and sorts the stock three ways:
| Date | What to do |
|---|---|
| In date, with plenty of time left | Count it and leave it on the shelf |
| Close to the date | Count it, move it to the front, and tell the manager |
| Past the date | Take it off the shelf before counting the shelf |
Expired stock should never be on a shelf the till sells from. One clean way to handle it is a separate quarantine location, such as "Expired, do not sell". Move expired items there with a stock transfer, which goes from draft to dispatched to received, so the shelf's quantity drops and the quarantine location shows exactly what is waiting to be returned or destroyed. When the items are destroyed or collected by the supplier, count the quarantine location again so it shows nothing left.
Ask your suppliers whether they take back short-dated or expired stock. Some do, and any credit they give should be recorded with your accountant against the write-off.
Why counts and wastage do not reach the ledger on their own
Here is the step that is easy to miss. Stock counts, wastage, transfers and opening quantities do not post to the general ledger. Only till sales and till returns move the inventory account.
After your count, the quantities are right but the money is not. The inventory account still carries the value of the expired tubs and the three that went missing, because nothing has told the ledger they are gone. Left alone, your balance sheet overstates stock, and your accountant finds the difference at year end, usually with less time to explain it.
A journal for the value written off, agreed with your accountant
The IFRS Foundation's summary of IAS 2 Inventories explains how the cost of inventories is determined and why they are carried at the lower of cost and net realisable value. An expired supplement that cannot be sold has a net realisable value of nothing, which is why its cost has to come out of your stock figure.
To work out the value, start from the product's cost price. Cost of sales on every till sale uses the single cost price typed on the product, so the same figure is a consistent basis for the write-off. Multiply the expired and missing quantities by each product's cost price, and give the schedule to your accountant.
Your accountant then posts a manual journal, typically moving that value from inventory to an expense account such as "Stock written off". Keep expired stock and unexplained shortages on separate lines if you can, because they mean different things: one is a buying problem, the other a control problem. A journal must balance and cannot be dated in a closed month, and a closed month refuses postings from every source, so do the count and the journal before the month is closed.
Set a monthly count date for each location, add the expiry check to the count sheet, and create the quarantine location before you need it. For setting up supplement products properly in the first place, read supplements and drinks as stock, and because the cost price drives every write-off, see why the product cost price is fixed.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
