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How a shop keeps its numbers
What you need to know to run the inventory and the numbers of a business that sells products. Written so you can do it all with a notebook if you like, and with no sales pitch along the way.
Inventory · 8 min
How to keep track of your business's inventory, step by step
What to write down, how to work out cost, when to count and what to use: a notebook, a spreadsheet or an inventory system. With a free template to start today.
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Your money · 7 min
How to do your business's end-of-day cash count, step by step
What a cash count is, what you need before you start, the six steps to make it balance, the mistakes that throw it off and a free template to close your register every day.
Sales · 9 min
How to keep track of your business's sales (free template included)
Selling isn't the same as making money. What to record for every sale, how to close out the day, how to do it in a notebook, a spreadsheet or an app, and a free template to start today.
Sales · 8 min
How to sell at a market and keep track of your sales
What to prepare beforehand, how to take payments and log sales during the day, and how to tell at the end whether the market made you money or just kept you busy. With a free template and tips for holiday markets.
Sales · 7 min
How to keep track of customer orders (free template included)
What to write down for every order, how to handle deposits and delivery dates, and how to always know what you still have to deliver and how much you're owed.
Getting started · 9 min
What to sell: how to pick a product to sell from home, at markets or on WhatsApp
Product ideas to start selling, what to watch out for with each, and four filters to pick yours before you spend money on stock.
Sales · 8 min
How to make a WhatsApp catalog that actually brings in orders
The three ways to have a catalog on WhatsApp (the built-in WhatsApp Business one, a PDF and an online page), how to set up each, what to put on every product and how to keep it current.
Inventory · 6 min
What does the stock you sell really cost you?
Buy the same product at two different prices and «what it cost me» stops being a single number. Weighted average cost is how you turn it back into one, and it takes a single division.
Inventory · 7 min
How to do a stock count without closing the shop
Counting everything on a Sunday with the shutters down is the most expensive way to do it. You can count by zones, in quiet hours and without stopping sales, if you do it in the right order.
Inventory · 5 min
What a kardex (stock ledger) is, and why nobody should be able to erase it
It's the file on every product: what came in, what went out, when, at what cost and who moved it. All of its value comes from a single property: nobody can change it afterward.
Your money · 6 min
Your real margin isn't the price minus what you paid
Between the price on the tag and what you actually keep there are three things: sales tax, properly valued cost and the discounts you gave at the counter. Here's how to work out all three.
What you read here, Arca does for you
Your cash count, your inventory and your numbers, up to date and without spreadsheets.