Stock control for salons: back-bar, retail, recipes and counts

Stock control for a salon means knowing, for every product, how much you have, how fast it goes and where the rest went. In practice: keep back-bar products (used in services) apart from retail (sold to clients), record stock in the units you actually use, agree how much each service uses, count on a schedule, write off breakages with a reason, and reorder from real use rather than from a gut feeling. A salon that does this stops running out of developer on a Saturday and stops wondering why colour costs so much.

Back-bar and retail are different jobs

Some products are both, like a shampoo you use at the basin and also sell. Mark it as both, but think of the two uses separately when you look at the numbers.

Units and pack sizes

Count back-bar in the unit it’s used in: ml for liquids, g for wax and powders. Retail is counted in pieces. A 1-litre developer bottle is really 1,000 ml, and “3 packs + 250 ml” is far more useful than “3.25 bottles”.

When stock arrives, record the cost too. Without costs you can count bottles but not money, and it’s the money that tells you whether a service is priced right. See pricing salon services.

How much each service uses

Agree a recipe for every service that uses real product. For example, “Global colour: 60 ml colour, 90 ml developer”. Then each bill takes that much out of stock by itself, and you can compare what the recipes say against what really went.

Recipes are a guide, not a rule. Long hair takes more colour. Let the stylist note the real amount for the client in front of them, and look at the pattern over a month, not one bill. A product that keeps going 30% over its recipes month after month is a training conversation. A sudden jump is worth a closer look.

Counts and write-offs

Count on a schedule people expect: retail weekly, back-bar monthly, and everything before you close the month’s books. When the shelf and the record differ, write down why: used more than the recipe, damaged, entry mistake, expired, found more. The reasons tell you what to fix.

Write off what you can’t use or sell, the day it happens: the bottle that fell, the tube that dried out, the shampoo the staff use themselves. A write-off with a reason is information. A shortage found at the count is a mystery.

Make counting quick. Count one shelf or one brand at a time, in the quiet hour before opening, with two people: one counts, one writes. Count open bottles by eye to the nearest quarter; nobody needs a measuring jug. Thirty careful minutes a week beats a whole tired Sunday once a quarter.

Reorder levels from real use

A low-stock level is the amount at which you order more. Work it out from the last 28 days of use, how long your supplier takes, and a few days’ safety:

Reorder level = daily use × (supplier’s days + safety days)

Example (sample numbers): wash shampoo went down by 2,800 ml in the last 28 days, which is 100 ml a day. The supplier takes 5 days and you want 5 days’ safety. Reorder at 100 × (5 + 5) = 1,000 ml, one bottle.

Look at it again before wedding season and festivals, when use jumps, and after a slow month, when it drops. Four weeks is long enough to smooth out a quiet Tuesday and short enough to notice a change.

Suppliers and purchase orders

Write down each supplier’s name, phone and GSTIN, and send orders in writing, even on WhatsApp. When the delivery comes, check it against the order: part deliveries are common, and “we sent it last week” is easier to settle with a numbered order. Keep track of what you owe each supplier, and pay against bills, not from memory.

If you pay a supplier in cash from the drawer, record it as part of the stock coming in, not as a separate expense as well, or you count the money twice. Cash from the drawer shows in the evening tally.

Transfers and expiry

With two branches, stock moves. Record a transfer as “on the way” until the other branch says it has arrived, and note any shortfall when it does. Otherwise one branch’s numbers look too high and the other’s too low. See opening a second branch.

Note expiry dates when deliveries arrive, and look every month at what expires in the next 30 days. Use it first at the basin, or sell it with a small offer, before it becomes a write-off.

Shrinkage, and staying kind about it

Shrinkage is stock that disappears without a record. Most of it is not theft: it is generous pouring, unrecorded staff use and breakages nobody wrote down. Clear recipes, a write-off habit and regular counts fix most of it. If a real loss keeps showing at one person’s station, talk to them first with the numbers in front of you. Charge a shortage to someone only when you’re sure, and tell them before it reaches their payslip.

Stock in Frizzi

On every plan: products for selling, services or both, in pieces, ml or g with pack sizes; stock in with cost; “I counted”; write-offs; a low-stock alert per product per branch; stock value at average cost; and a “Running out soon” strip worked out from the last 28 days of use. Pro adds recipes, suppliers and purchase orders sent as PDF or on WhatsApp, transfers between branches, expiry dates, planned counts with reasons, a flag when a product is used well over its recipes, and charging a shortage to someone through payroll. See stock and inventory, and the stock reports in reports.

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