The count calendar with head office: dates, reports, approvals

Shortly before the cut-off date many threads converge in a stock count: approval of the count instructions, the count itself, the auditor's visit, the report to controlling and the year-end closing. Every date has a different owner, and nobody has the overview. A shared count calendar with head office prevents deadlines from overlapping and shows early where things get tight.

Which dates converge

• Draft and approval of the count instructions.
• Agreement with the auditor.
• Cut-off date, document cut-off and stock extract.
• Count and second count.
• Difference list, clearing and approval of the correcting entries.
• Visit by the auditor or internal audit.
• Reporting the result to head office.
• Local accounting deadlines known to your chief accountant.

Not all dates are equally binding. Some are deadlines on which a third party depends, such as the auditor's visit. Others are internal targets that can be moved if necessary. Mark in the calendar which dates are fixed, enter these first and plan the movable dates around the fixed points.

Planning backwards from the cut-off date

Take the cut-off date S as the zero point. The following proposal can be adapted to your warehouse:

1. S − 42 days: draft of the count instructions.
2. S − 35: agreement with auditor and head office.
3. S − 28: approval of the count instructions.
4. S − 14: count teams assigned and briefed.
5. S − 7: preparation in the warehouse completed.
6. S: count.
7. S + 2: stock reconciliation.
8. S + 5: difference list.
9. S + 10: clearing completed.
10. S + 12: approval of correcting entries.
11. S + 14: report to head office.

Check the plan against the calendars of both countries, because holidays and weekends move the dates.

The intervals are guide values. The count instructions must be approved before the teams are briefed, and the stock extract must be available before the reconciliation. Whether two weeks between count and report are enough depends on the number of differences and on how easily accounting can be reached. Work it out from the previous year or from a trial count instead of guessing.

The calendar as a single table

Keep one single table with the columns milestone, date, owner, dependency and status. The dependency is the most important part. Briefing the teams depends on the approved count instructions, the difference list on the stock extract, the report on the approval of the postings. If one date slips, you see at once which others move with it.

An illustrative example: if approval of the count instructions slips by five days from S − 28 to S − 23, nine days remain until the briefing of the teams at S − 14 instead of fourteen. That is still enough. If it slips by 15 days to S − 13, the approval falls after the briefing date, and the briefing has to be moved. With the table you see this consequence before it occurs.

Time zones and deadlines

Depending on the season, Tashkent is three to four hours ahead of Germany. A deadline "by 5 p.m." is therefore unambiguous only with a time zone. Note for each deadline which local time applies, and settle whether deadlines run in calendar days or in working days. For reports to head office it is worth building in a buffer of one working day.

Who keeps the calendar

Name one person who keeps the calendar and manages the versions. The calendar lives in a place that everyone involved can reach, and it carries a version number and a date. Changes are not agreed verbally but entered in the table with a short reason. That way it stays clear later why a date moved, should the auditor or head office ask.

In short

A shared calendar turns many separate dates into one common plan. AuditMaster agrees the cut-off date, time window and delivery of the documents with you, so that the inventory record is available in good time before head office's deadlines.