Jewelry Inventory Audit Best Practices: Step by Step

Why audits matter

In a jewelry business, inventory is the business. A single missing piece can wipe out a week of profit. Yet most jewelers still count once a year with paper lists and clipboards: slow, error-prone, and the store closes for days.

Why jewelry audits are different

Jewelry audits are different. A single tray can be worth six figures, and every piece is unique, with its own cost, certificate and history. Pieces move between the cases, the safe, the bench, memo and shows, and small, similar-looking pieces are easy to miscount.

How often to count

So how often should you count? Case counts every day at open and close, and the high-value cases and the safe every week, the memo-out list every month, a cycle count by department every quarter, and a full audit once a year.

The audit checklist

Here's a ten-step audit checklist. Freeze movement during the count, and reconcile memo first. Count each section on its own, use RFID where you can and barcodes for the rest, and match the count to the system's records. Investigate variances the same day, because stale variances become shrinkage, and have the counter and a manager sign off each section. Then adjust and post, and review the root cause of each variance: a mis-tag, theft, a piece at the bench, or a data-entry error.

RFID vs barcode for audits

Barcodes need line of sight, one piece at a time. RFID reads a whole tray in seconds, without handling fragile pieces. Most stores see RFID pay for itself within a year, in recovered labor and reduced shrink.

Common audit mistakes

And avoid the common mistakes: counting while still selling, skipping the memo reconciliation, letting the same person count and adjust, waiting until year end to investigate variances, and relying on paper lists instead of live scans.

Audits in WJewel

In WJewel, scan your pieces for a physical inventory, and see if anything is missing. RFID and barcode tags are both supported, inventory search shows what's yours and what's on memo, and which pieces are on layaway, or at the bench. And the inventory reports tie the count back to your records.

Contact us

You'll find the full guide on the WJewel blog. WJewel is fully web-based, and runs on PCs, Macs, tablets and phones. To learn more, visit www.wjewel.com, or call us at (646) 578-8300.