Page 174 - DMGT553_RETAIL_STORE_MANAGEMENT

Unit 9: Store Finance and Controls

Notes
discussing various aspects of the plan and its
implementation with other members of the
Management Team.
The plan will also be reviewed by Financial
Management at Head Office. For example,
they might question certain figures or
identify areas which might not have been
considered by the Store Management Team,
e.g. knowledge of a new system roll-out. Once
the plan has been agreed, the Financial Manager’s role is to ensure that the store performs
to the targets identified by the plan.
Monitoring and Controlling Performance
While the Commercial Manager is
generating enough sales to meet the forecast,
and the Personnel Manager is controlling the
agreed staffing budget, the Financial
Manager will monitor all other costs. Costs
are broadly broken down into direct costs
and indirect costs. Direct costs are those
clearly identified with the sales volume.
They include carrier bags, food waste and
staffing costs. Indirect costs include
stationery, telephone expenses, security and
electricity.
Making the store more profitable involves
looking not just at the large direct costs but
also examining the smaller indirect costs. (Savings in stationery in one store may be
small, but across the whole Marks & Spencer Group, it may represent a considerable sum.)
Some costs are easier to control than others. For example, notices near light switches may
be a simple way to save electricity by encouraging staff to turn off unnecessary lights. The
use of stationery may simply be limited to the amount ordered. Costs such as theft and
loss, however, may take up much more time, involving maximising the benefits of close-
circuit television, using security guards efficiently to deter crime and deciding how to use
store detectives. With around 35 tills in an average store, possibly being using by up to
eight to ten staff each day and with large volumes of stock coming in at the back door, it
will also involve close scrutiny of all areas of business organisation.
Line Manager

The Financial Manager is also a Line Manager with established responsibilities for decision-
making. Every store has an administration office comprising a team of people dealing
with expense-related issues. The team may be between 2 to 25 staff (depending on the size
of store) and may include a Finance Supervisor reporting directly to either the Financial
Manager or Assistant Financial Manager. The team will also be responsible for security
staff.
The administration office is responsible for various information systems, such as Food
Stock Management, Textile Ordering and Point-of-Sale information from the tills. Although
staff across the store uses these systems, reports from the systems will be extracted by the
Financial Team for accounting purposes, for example, information from the tills provides
Contd....

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