What should I check in an AV installer’s inventory of cables and racks?

Cable looks like cheap stock until you see how much sits in a van and a back room. Ask where everything is kept, who signs items out, and whether anyone tracks it. If the answer is "the lead tech knows", you are buying that person’s memory, not an inventory, so find out whether they are staying.

Walk the racks. Some will be built and waiting for a client, some will be returns, and some will be demo units. Each needs a different treatment. Ask whether a deposit has been taken on any built rack, and whether the client or the shop owns the contents. Opened boxes, cut lengths and mixed connector types should be counted apart from sealed stock.

Check the paperwork against the shelves. Supplier invoices, return records and job costing should roughly agree with what you can touch. Large gaps point to waste, theft or jobs that were under-billed. Ask what is dead stock, and decide whether you want it at all, or whether the seller should remove it. Also look at storage conditions. Damp rooms, crushed reels and unlabelled bins suggest stock that may not test cleanly. Ask for a short count with you present, pick random bins, and note anything that cannot be matched to a job or an invoice.

Key takeaways

• Count a sample yourself instead of trusting the seller’s stock list.
• Separate client-owned racks and deposits from stock the shop actually owns.
• Compare supplier invoices and job costing against what is on the shelves.