Good inventory management in Lebanon comes down to three habits: find the stock that is not selling and turn it back into cash, reorder the fast movers before they run out, and make sure no purchase, transfer or adjustment changes your stock without a second person checking it. This guide shows how to do all three in a shop or warehouse, with simple formulas you can apply this week.
If you are still choosing a system, start with our broader inventory management software guide for Lebanese businesses. This post is the practical follow-up: what to actually do with the system once your items are in it.
Why stock control is harder in Lebanon
Most inventory advice is written for markets with stable prices and predictable shipping. Lebanese businesses deal with a few extra problems:
- Imported goods with long and uneven lead times. A container can arrive in three weeks or in eight. Reorder too late and you lose a season.
- Cash tied up in dollars. Most stock is bought in USD. Every carton sitting on a shelf for a year is fresh dollars you cannot use for anything else.
- Several branches and a warehouse. One branch runs out while another has the same item sitting untouched.
- Informal stock moves. An employee takes ten pieces to another branch "for now", nobody records it, and the count is wrong for months.
None of these is solved by a nicer screen. They are solved by a few rules that the system enforces every day.
Step 1: Find your dead stock
Dead stock is any item that has not sold for a long period while you still hold it. Slow-moving stock is the step before that: it still sells, but far slower than you bought it. Both quietly eat cash, shelf space and warehouse rent.
Pick your thresholds
There is no universal number. A practical starting point:
| Business type | Slow-moving if no sale in | Dead if no sale in |
|---|---|---|
| Fashion and footwear | 60 days | One full season (about 6 months) |
| Electronics and accessories | 45 days | 4 months (models get replaced) |
| Hardware, tools, spare parts | 6 months | 12 months |
| Grocery and cosmetics | 30 days | Before the expiry window closes |
Adjust these to your own sales speed. The point is to agree on a number so the report means something.
Rank it by money, not by quantity
Two hundred keychains are not a problem. Twelve laptops are. Sort your slow-moving list by stock value at cost, and work from the top. In most shops a small number of lines holds most of the frozen cash.
Decide what to do with each line
- Move it. If one branch sells the item and another does not, transfer it. This is the cheapest fix.
- Bundle it. Pair a slow item with a fast one at a small discount.
- Mark it down on purpose. Run a clear, time-limited promotion instead of random discounts at the till.
- Return it or swap it with the supplier if your terms allow.
- Write it off if it is damaged or expired. Record it as an adjustment so your books show the loss honestly.
Then do one more thing: stop buying it. Check the purchase history for each dead line and find out who ordered it and why. Most dead stock is created by a purchase decision, not by bad luck.
Step 2: Set reorder points that survive import delays
A reorder point is the stock level at which you place a new order. When an item drops to that level, it is time to buy. The basic formula is:
Reorder point = (average daily sales × lead time in days) + safety stock
Take a hypothetical example. A two-branch clothing shop in Jounieh sells about 4 pieces a day of a basic white T-shirt across both branches. The supplier abroad takes 30 days from order to shelf, but sometimes 45.
- Normal demand during the lead time: 4 × 30 = 120 pieces.
- Safety stock to cover a 15-day delay: 4 × 15 = 60 pieces.
- Reorder point: 120 + 60 = 180 pieces.
When the shop gets down to 180 T-shirts, it orders. Not when the shelf looks empty.
Three rules that keep reorder points honest
- Use real lead times. Measure from the day you sent the order to the day the goods were sellable, including customs and clearing. Your purchase history has these dates.
- Review them every quarter. Sales speed changes with the season. A reorder point set in December is wrong in July.
- Only fast and medium movers get one. Slow and seasonal items are bought by decision, not by formula.
Reorder quantity
The reorder point tells you when to buy. How much to buy depends on supplier minimums, cash and shelf space. A simple rule: order enough to cover the lead time plus your normal review period. If you review purchases every two weeks, add 14 days of sales to the order.
Step 3: Put approvals on every stock move
Most stock losses in small businesses are not theft from customers. They are unrecorded or wrong internal moves: a transfer typed twice, an adjustment that "fixes" a count, a purchase entered at the wrong cost. The fix is called maker-checker: one person prepares the document, a second person approves it before it changes stock or the books.
Put an approval step on these documents:
| Document | What can go wrong without approval |
|---|---|
| Purchase | Wrong cost, wrong quantity, duplicate invoice, buying dead stock again |
| Branch transfer | Goods leave one branch and never arrive in the other |
| Stock adjustment | Losses hidden as "count corrections" |
Approvals do not slow a well-run business down. The person who approves sees the document, the quantities and the cost in one screen and accepts or rejects it. What they do stop is the silent drift between what the system says and what is on the shelf.
Step 4: Count regularly, not once a year
An annual stock count is a big, tiring event that finds problems months too late. Cycle counting works better: count a small group of items every week, so every item is counted several times a year. Count your most valuable items more often.
When a count shows a difference, do not just correct it. Look at the item's movements since the last count. A difference that keeps appearing on the same item usually points to a process problem, such as sales scanned under the wrong variant or transfers received without checking.
Step 5: Know your real cost
Dead stock decisions and pricing both depend on knowing what an item really cost you. For imported goods, the supplier price is only part of it. Freight, customs, clearing and local transport all belong in the cost. These extra charges are called landed costs. If you skip them, your margins look better than they are, and you may discount items below what they really cost you.
How MAPOS handles dead stock, reordering and approvals
MAPOS is an ERP and POS built in Beirut. Its inventory module covers each step above:
- Slow-moving and dead stock reports show which items have stopped selling, so you can act on the most expensive ones first.
- Procurement forecast helps you see what to buy next based on how items are selling.
- Purchase price history shows what you paid each supplier over time, and who ordered what.
- Maker-checker approvals on purchases, transfers and adjustments, so stock only moves once a second person accepts it.
- Multi-branch stock and transfers, including transfers by pack, so you can move slow items to the branch that sells them.
- Stock counts and stock-as-of-date reports, so you can check what you held on any past day.
- Landed costs added to imported purchases, so item cost includes freight and customs.
- Variants and barcodes for size and colour, with custom labels.
- Bulk seasonal promotions to clear old stock in a planned way, instead of discounts typed at the till.
- Arabic help text on every report, so staff who prefer Arabic understand what each report shows.
Stock, sales and purchases sit in the same system as the POS and the accounting, so a write-off or a transfer does not need to be re-entered anywhere. One sportswear and footwear retailer we work with runs two branches on one POS and one stock in MAPOS, with size and colour variants, branch transfers and an online store on the same live stock.
For more on running stock in specific sectors, see MAPOS for retail and MAPOS for fashion.
A simple monthly routine
- Week 1: run the slow-moving and dead stock report. Pick the top 10 lines by value and decide what to do with each.
- Week 2: review reorder points for your fast movers against the last month's sales.
- Week 3: check pending and rejected approvals. Rejections show where your process breaks.
- Every week: cycle-count one group of items.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is dead stock in inventory management?
Dead stock is inventory that has not sold for a long period, such as a full season for fashion or a year for spare parts. It ties up cash and space and should be moved, discounted, returned or written off.
How do I calculate a reorder point?
Multiply your average daily sales by the supplier lead time in days, then add safety stock to cover delays. For imported goods in Lebanon, base the lead time on real past orders, including customs.
What is a maker-checker approval for stock?
One person prepares a purchase, transfer or adjustment, and a second person approves it before it changes stock. It stops typing mistakes and hidden losses from reaching your books.
Does MAPOS show slow-moving and dead stock?
Yes. MAPOS has slow-moving and dead stock reports, a procurement forecast and purchase price history in its inventory module. They cover all branches in one place.
How much does MAPOS inventory software cost in Lebanon?
MAPOS is quoted per business based on modules, branches and users. Book a demo on WhatsApp at +961 71 725 270 to get a quote.
Want to see your own slow movers and reorder list in MAPOS? Book a demo or message us on WhatsApp.
