Mariano Rodriguez’s Post

Why is calculating inventory turnover ratio important? Keeping a close pulse on your inventory turnover rate — one of many health metrics for any business — can help you better understand areas of improvement. Here are just some of the important use cases for calculating your inventory turnover ratio.  Measure business performance In the most general sense, the more sales your business makes, the more successful your business is. Inventory turnover ratio speaks to how quickly a business is selling through its inventory, some businesses use it to check the pulse of sales performance. Reduce obsolescence and dead stock If you’re not tracking inventory turnover, it’s tempting to keep reordering the same SKUs in the same amounts over and over again.  However, doing so may lead you to invest in products that are very slow to sell — or worse yet, that won’t sell at all anymore. This results in obsolete inventory or dead stock that increases holding costs, and costs time and money to move out.  Conversely, by calculating inventory turnover ratios for your products, you’ll know exactly which products to discontinue, as well as when and how many units to reorder for low-turnover SKUs. How to calculate inventory turnover ratio. To calculate inventory turnover, complete the following 3 steps: Identify cost of goods sold (COGS) over the accounting period. Find average inventory value [ beginning inventory + ending inventory / 2 ] Divide the cost of goods sold by your average inventory Here’s the simple inventory turnover formula: Inventory turnover = COGS / Average inventory value For example, if your COGS was $200,000 in goods last year, and your average inventory value was $50,000, your inventory turnover ratio would be 4. [CP_CALCULATED_FIELDS id=8] You can also calculate your inventory turnover ratio by looking at units, rather than costs: Inventory turnover = Number of units sold / Average number of units on-hand  If you sell 1,000 units over a year while having an average of 200 units on-hand at any given time during that year, your inventory turnover rate would be 5. What is an ideal inventory turnover rate? For most retailers, an inventory turnover ratio of 2 to 4 is ideal; however, this can vary between industries, so make sure to research your specific industry. A ratio between 2 and 4 means that your inventory restocking matches your sale cycle; you receive the new inventory before you need it and are able to move it relatively quickly. The more SKUs and units you have that aren’t turning over quickly, the more you’re paying for warehousing and the more capital you have tied up in unsold goods that may lose value over time (when you may need that capital for more pressing things).

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