Consignment Inventory Tracking

[KnuckleKiss]

A question for those who do consignment: Have you ever run into a shop that will not include a sales list with their payment?

I have a couple of consignments accounts that work this way. One pays bi-monthly, the other sends a monthly check. Neither of them will include a list of the sold items, apparently because they have no easy system to track this stuff. Seems kind of odd, and also makes it harder on me because I like to track the sale of every individual item for my bookkeeping and tax purposes.

This hasn't been my usual experience. Most shops give me a list of some sort so I know what's been sold that month. I'm surprised because these are pretty established businesses.

What do you think?

[Former_Member]

I think it's up to the owners to decide how they want to consign, and unfortunately it sounds like you have a couple who don't want to keep track for you (which honestly can be a huge undertaking for shops that have lots of consigners).

I've been in this situation before and the way I did it was a running notebook/chart that had every single item and qty listed that I consigned with the shop - I'd go in once a month and take inventory of my own items and determine what had sold (or what was stolen).

Why do you need to know exact items that sold for tax purposes?

[KidEssence]

I have a shop I consign at as well that doesn't give me a list. They are a new shop, but the owner has had her own business for years. The shop is only 15 minutes away from me and I'm actually there weekly to pick up my CSA order so I have a notebook and bring it with me each week. I used to ask for a list and they could give it to me, but it was jumbled with other artist's sales so it was a lot of work for them and me to find our sales and even then it wasn't very detailed, just x number of stuffed animals, x number of felt sets, etc. Not exactly which ones sold.

[KnuckleKiss]

Thanks for sharing, Tricia and KJ.

KJ, I need to know what I've sold because I use it to track my COG.

[PrairiePrimitives]

I don't understand why consignment shops wouldn't at least use 2-part price tags. Give the consignor some tags, they write the info & price on each half (or even just the price on the store's half), then the store owner/clerk could tear off the bottom half of the tag when the item sells and give that to the consignor along with their check.

There has been POS software for consignment stores for at least 20 years now, so I'm surprised more stores aren't using that.

[SweetBackflip]

What kind of POS system, if any, do they use? If they have an old school cash register, then they might sort items by a "seller code' to make their inventorying lives a little easier, and manually enter the price when a customer purchases something. When seller payment time come, the cash register would sort income by that code.

If it's Quickbooks or Shopify POS, then they're either lazy or don't know how to use it.

[KnuckleKiss]

Good points, Tavie and Tana. Seems there are many ways to track inventory these days. I'm sure it can be a big undertaking, but seems like it should be part of the consigner/consignee transaction.

[KathrynMDuncan]

I have consignment agreements with two shops, and both give me a list of what has sold monthly, along with a check. I code my items, and they let me know what items codes have sold, along with prices. That information helps me track what's selling well, and what needs to be replaced. It also lets me know what images people like. I use small peel-off labels, enter my item codes, my name, price, and print them up.

[KnuckleKiss]

Kathyrn, I wish all shops did this. I have four consignment accounts and two of them provide sales lists each month. I also include an invoice with SKUs, product names, and prices with each batch of product I drop off. One shop prefers that I include price tags and packaging, the other does not.

One thing that strikes me about not including a monthly sales report is that you won't be able to easily keep track if something is stolen.

[KathrynMDuncan]

Yes, your right. It would make it very difficult to track your items, if you weren't informed about what items sold. I like the idea of a two-part price tag system, where one part gets pulled off when the item is sold. That system seems like it would be pretty easy to manage, so consignees could be provided sales information each month.

I do visit the shops I do consignments with to bring replacements, etc. and provide them with an updated inventory list. That gives me a chance to check on my shop inventory, verify, and adjust my records, if needed.