Performing Merchandising Audits

To clearly communicate how an account displays the company’s products, retail sales representatives perform merchandising audits. Merchandising audits allow representatives to record the status of a specific merchandising location at a point of time. They compare and record company criteria against the merchandising location.

For more information about merchandising locations, see Associating Account Products with Merchandising Locations (End User).

Note: You must add merchandising locations to the appropriate account before performing the following procedure. For more information about adding merchandising locations, see Adding Merchandising Locations to Accounts (End User).

This task is a step in Process of Performing Retail Activities (End User).

To perform a merchandising audit

1. Navigate to the Visit Execution screen, and locate your visit in the visit form.

2. In the Activities list, create a new record with an activity type of Merchandising Audit.

   Note: For information about adding an activity to an account visit, see Creating Retail Activities (End User).

3. In the Activity Type field, drill down on the Merchandising Audit hyperlink.

4. In the Merchandising Audit list, create a new record, and complete the necessary fields.

   The following table describes some fields.

   Field	Comments
   Name	The name of the Inventory location that you want to audit.
   Entry Compliance	Record the entry compliance against the company criteria.
   Exit Compliance	If you make any changes to the merchandising location that qualify for a status change, record your changes.
   Last Relay	(Optional) If you perform a full relay of the display, enter the current date. Recording the last relay date allows representatives to see the level of maintenance required to keep the display compliant over a period of time.
   Shelf Space	Record the percentage of the merchandising location allocated to the company’s products.

5. When you finish conducting the audit, select Done from the Status field drop-down list in the Account Activity form.