Running the School Store: Stock, Reorder Levels and Requisitions That Add Up
It is the third week of term and the cook comes to the office with bad news: there is maize for two more days. The storekeeper's book says there should be enough for a fortnight. Somewhere between the delivery, the kitchen and the book, several bags have gone unrecorded. The bursar now has to buy urgently, at a worse price, from whoever can deliver tomorrow, and nobody can say for certain whether the missing bags were used, spoiled or stolen.
Every Kenyan school with a kitchen, a laboratory or a stationery cupboard runs a store, whether it calls it that or not. For a boarding school, food alone can be one of the largest costs after salaries. Exercise books, chalk and markers, cleaning materials, lab reagents, uniforms for resale and fuel all pass through it. Yet the store is often run from a hardcover book, a stack of delivery notes and the storekeeper's memory, which works until the storekeeper is away, the numbers stop agreeing, or the auditor visits.
This article covers how to run a store that adds up: the difference between consumables and assets, why every movement must be recorded, how reorder levels prevent the emergency purchase, and why a requisition needs more than one pair of hands.
Consumables are not assets
The first step is to separate two lists that schools often mix up. The asset register records things the school keeps and uses for years: desks, laptops, the generator, the bus. The question for an asset is which one and where. The store records things the school uses up: maize, beans, cooking oil, chalk, paper, soap, reagents. The question for a consumable is how many are left, and when to buy more.
Mixing the two creates confusion in both directions. Projectors counted as stock disappear from view once issued. Bags of rice listed as assets sit on a register that never changes. Keep the store as its own list of items, each with a unit the school actually counts in, such as kilogram, bag, ream, litre or piece, and keep durable equipment in the asset register.
Every movement is the record
A store balance is only trustworthy if it is the sum of recorded movements. Goods come in, goods go out, and occasionally a physical count disagrees with the book. Each of those is an event with a date, a quantity, and a person responsible.
Goods received record the delivery: the quantity, the supplier, the delivery note or invoice reference, and the cost. Goods issued record where the stock went: to the kitchen, to Grade 8, to the science department, with the person who collected it. Neither should ever be done by simply changing the balance, because a balance that can be edited directly has no history, and a store with no history cannot explain a loss.
The third movement is the adjustment. When the storekeeper counts and finds 37 bags where the book says 42, the right response is not to rub out 42 and write 37. It is to record an adjustment of minus five with a reason, such as spoilage, a counting error found, or a suspected loss reported to the principal. Over a term, the adjustments tell the board exactly where the store leaks, and a pattern of unexplained shortages becomes visible instead of quietly absorbed.
A store balance someone can overwrite is just a number. A store balance built from recorded movements is evidence.
Reorder levels end the emergency purchase
The maize crisis in the opening example is not really a theft problem or a supplier problem. It is a visibility problem. Nobody knew stock was running low until it ran out.
A reorder level fixes this. For each item, the school sets the quantity at which it should buy more, based on how fast the item is used and how long a supplier takes to deliver. If the kitchen uses ten bags of maize a week and the supplier needs a week's notice, the reorder level should be comfortably above ten bags. When the balance falls to that level, the item is flagged, and the bursar can order calmly at the normal price.
Reorder levels need revisiting. A school that adds a stream, starts a lunch programme, or moves into the dry season when prices rise will use stock at a different rate. A quick review at the start of each term, looking at what was used last term, keeps the levels honest. The point is not precision. It is replacing surprise with a warning.
Requisitions: three hands on every purchase
A requisition is a request to buy. In a well-run school, the person who needs the item raises it, someone else approves it, and only then is it bought and received. This is not bureaucracy. It is the same separation of duties that protects payroll, and for the same reason: one person should never be able to both ask for money and approve their own request.
A good requisition lists the items, the quantities and the estimated cost, and says who raised it. It moves through clear states: drafted, submitted, approved or declined, and finally fulfilled when the goods arrive, or cancelled with a reason. When the goods are received, the requisition becomes stock movements into the store, priced at the actual cost if it differed from the estimate. That closes the loop between the request, the money and the shelf.
Public schools also operate under the procurement rules that apply to public entities, including thresholds and quotation requirements set by law and Ministry guidance, and an internal requisition does not replace those steps. What it gives the school is a clean internal trail showing that every purchase started with a need, was approved by someone with authority, and arrived in the store.
Knowing what the store costs
Once purchases are recorded as movements with costs, a question boards ask every year becomes easy to answer: what did we spend on food, stationery, cleaning or lab supplies this term? Grouping items by category gives a spending picture without a separate spreadsheet, and comparing terms shows whether a rising cost is price inflation, more learners, or a leak.
This also helps fee setting. A private school deciding next year's boarding fee, or a public school preparing a budget within the Ministry's fee guidelines, is on far firmer ground with actual consumption figures than with last year's estimate plus a percentage.
Practical habits for the storekeeper
Software helps, but a store is run by habits. Record deliveries on the day they arrive, against the delivery note. Issue only against a named person and a destination. Count high-value or high-risk items, such as food and fuel, weekly, and everything else at least once a term. Record every difference as an adjustment with a reason, however small. Keep the store locked, with keys held by named people. And make sure someone other than the storekeeper reviews the adjustments regularly, because a review nobody does is the same as no review.
Count often, record every difference, and let someone else read the adjustments. That is most of store control.
Moving from the hardcover book
A school switching from a paper store ledger should not try to load years of history. Pick a clean starting point, ideally the start of a term or the day after a full count. Count everything, enter each item with its unit, category and reorder level, and record the counted quantity as the opening balance. From that day on, every delivery and issue goes into the new record, and the old book is kept for reference.
Expect the first few weeks to reveal habits that need fixing: issues made without recording who collected, deliveries accepted without a delivery note, items counted in bags one week and kilograms the next. Those discoveries are the point. A store that has never been measured cannot be controlled.
Where Opero fits
Opero includes a store in its finance area. Each stock item has a code, a name, a unit the school chooses, a category and a reorder level, and items at or below their reorder level are flagged on the stock list. Every change is a movement: goods in, goods out, or an adjustment that must carry a reason. The quantity on hand moves with each movement, and the movements remain the history of the item.
Requisitions are raised with lines, quantities and estimated costs, then submitted, approved or declined, and fulfilled or cancelled. Opero refuses to let the person who raised a requisition approve it, whatever role they hold, and approvals are audited. When the goods arrive, fulfilling the requisition records them into stock, at actual cost where it differs from the estimate. Spending on consumables can be viewed over a period by category. Opero does not place orders with suppliers or pay them; it keeps the school's record of what was asked for, approved, received and used, alongside the rest of the school's connected records.
Key takeaways
- Keep consumables in the store and durable equipment in the asset register; they answer different questions.
- Build the stock balance from recorded movements: goods in, goods out, and adjustments with reasons. Never overwrite the number.
- Set reorder levels from usage and supplier lead time, and review them each term.
- Separate duties: the person who raises a requisition should never approve it.
- Use recorded costs to see spending by category and to set fees and budgets on real figures.
Frequently asked questions
How often should a school count its store? Food, fuel and other high-value or easily lost items are worth counting weekly. Everything else should be counted at least once a term. Each difference should be recorded as an adjustment with a reason, not corrected silently.
What is a sensible reorder level? Enough stock to cover usage while a new order is delivered, plus a margin. If the kitchen uses ten bags a week and delivery takes a week, set the level well above ten bags. Review it whenever usage changes.
Who should approve requisitions? Someone other than the person who raised them, with the authority the school's financial policy gives them, commonly the principal or bursar. Public schools must also follow the procurement rules that apply to them.
Can the store be run without a computer system? It can, with a disciplined ledger and regular counts. The difficulty is that paper does not flag low stock, does not prevent someone approving their own request, and makes spending by category slow to work out.
See your own store in it
The best test is a real one: enter a handful of your actual items, record a delivery and an issue, and raise a requisition to see how approval works.
Book a demo and we will walk through the store with your own items and categories, from reorder warnings to a requisition that cannot be approved by the person who raised it.