Is FIFO mandatory for a salon?

Not legally, but when purchase prices change, FIFO is the only way to know the real cost of a service. It is critical for high-margin consumables like color, developer, and keratin.

What about products without an expiration date?

FIFO still applies: the method is about write-off order, not just dates. The item purchased earlier is written off first.

How do I handle existing stock before rollout?

Register it as one opening batch at the current average price with today’s date. The system will write it off first — exactly per FIFO logic.

Can I do FIFO in Excel?

Theoretically — one sheet per batch. In practice it breaks within a month: a check must write off from several batches in seconds, which is impossible to do by hand.

FIFO Consumables Tracking for Salons: Why Batches Win

FIFO in Plain Words

FIFO — First In, First Out: the batch that arrived earlier is sold and written off first. For a salon, it means the tube of color bought in June is used before the one bought in September.

The method matters beyond bookkeeping rigor: consumables have expiration dates, and purchase prices change. If you write off “an average cost”, service costs drift and you no longer know which service is actually profitable.

Why Excel Spreadsheets Lie

In a spreadsheet, one product equals one row with an “average balance”. The sheet has no idea that three batches of developer sit in the cabinet at three different prices with three different expiration dates.

The consequences are predictable: expired batches surface during stock counts, the “average price” inflates or deflates hair color costs, and reordering happens by eye because the table never shows the real balance in grams.

How Batch-Based Inventory Works

In batch tracking, every purchase is a separate batch: quantity, purchase price, date, expiration date, warehouse. A sale automatically writes off the balance from the oldest batch (FIFO).

Service cost is calculated from the real price of the written-off batch. If developer gets 15% more expensive, you see it not in the accountant’s monthly report but in the margin of the very next check.

Rolling Out FIFO in a Week

Day 1: export your product list with current balances from whatever sheet you use. Days 2–3: create product cards and register batches from recent purchases at real prices.

Days 4–5: define usage norms per service — how many grams of color and developer a short and a long hair coloring consume. Days 6–7: start processing checks through the system and compare the calculated cost with what your spreadsheet used to show.

What It Means in Money

In a salon with $3,000–5,000 in monthly revenue, materials typically leak 5–10% of revenue: over-ordering, expiration, and “invisible” usage. That is $150–500 every month, visible only with batch tracking.

Slotly runs a batch-based warehouse with built-in FIFO: a purchase creates a batch, a check writes off the balance, and expiration dates surface before a product goes bad.

FIFO Inventory Tracking: Why Batches Beat Spreadsheets

FIFO in Plain Words

Why Excel Spreadsheets Lie

How Batch-Based Inventory Works

Rolling Out FIFO in a Week

What It Means in Money

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