The Future of Audits

Retailers spend much time and money accounting for inventory — keeping track of where it is, whether it is en route, in a warehouse or on store shelves. We all know this is required in order to minimize theft and ensure stock levels are maintained.

But there is a different sort of store asset that gets very little attention until it goes missing or is being counted during a yearly physical audit. These are referred to as the store’s capital assets.

In the modern, technologically intense retail environment, capital assets could comprise items like marketing displays, televisions, DVD players, scanners, mobile hand-held devices, computers, copiers and servers: the list is endless. In an increasingly strict Sarbanes-Oxley world, tracking and maintaining information on thousands of items located throughout hundreds of geographically dispersed stores is becoming more and more of a challenge.

Many retailers spend thousands of dollars to have third-party firms come in to each and every store location to inventory capital assets; alternatively, some retailers use in-store staff to collect this data during off hours. This process doesn’t account for human error or dishonesty from a disgruntled employee: Who really wants to perform an audit during off hours?

Avoid write-offs
These processes can lead to much time and energy spent trying to locate serialized items, verifying that they are where they belong in the store and that they match the associated record on file. This task is labor-intensive and relies on the individual to report accurate information. How often do retail stores simply write off a missing asset instead of truly locating it within the store? How do they know if it has, in fact, been removed from the store?

Now there is a way. By embedding an RFID reader in the POS system at checkout, the organization can — on any day and at any time — remotely scan the surrounding areas in-store, picking up information on each and every device that requires serial tracking. This data can be cross-referenced against a serial asset-tracking database stored locally, at a head office location or on a secure, remote server.

A similar type of technology is already in use today for in-store marketing: Retailers utilize RFID sensors to track items picked up by shoppers based on strategically placed incentive displays and marketing campaigns.

Eliminate walk-throughs
By utilizing a capital asset program in a similar way, retailers forego the stresses of data collection by continuously monitoring where assets are in the store and becoming alert to the disappearance of assets — prompting quick action, rather than discovering later that the items have disappeared.

The savings (in time and manpower) over a physical “walk through” is significantly more than the cost to deploy such a system. The year-over-year benefits will be far greater, as retail store managers only need to enter the information and tag a new item once.

As retailers’ adoption of technology increases, an RFID capital asset tracking program can help bring peace of mind by decreasing capital asset shrinkage, increasing employee satisfaction and meeting all requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley.