Who Orders Office Supplies?

Your office supplies are likely a very small part of your overhead so it is easy to assign control of this small item to staff.   Sometimes this task does not even get assigned, someone just does it and because the cost is small it flies through the process and suddenly you have a supply closet full of colored pens, heavy duty paper clips, oversized hole punches….  Next come bulk order of copy paper and printer or copier toner.  I once worked for a company where a pool secretary (it was before secretaries became administrative assistants) took over ordering the supplies. No one noticed

One day the bookkeeper received a bill for copier paper.  It was from a new supplier although the invoice included a signed receipt from one of the company’s employees.  By luck it happened to be a slow day and our bookkeeper pulled previous orders. The price of the paper was twice the price from the other supplier.

This triggered a complete review of the office supplies.  The supply closet was fully stocked with not only frequently used items but over stocked with rarely used items. The secretary had begun ordering from a company where her daughter worked and after a good deal of investigation it turned out she was getting a “commission” from the office supply house. The prices were higher than the original supplier but not a lot, perhaps just enough to cover the commission.

So what does that have to do with the bulk paper shipment? It seems the supply house sold its customer list. This was before email and spam was the issue it is today. The supplier who bought the name simply called the contact and asked what type of copier the company used. This second supplier then shipped bulk orders of paper and toner unsolicited. The shipping ticket included an order form so accepting the shipment became an order.

This is a small hole in your profit picture but an easy one to plug. Look at who orders your supplies. Make sure at least two people are in the order chain and set inventory guidelines. Sometimes just letting people know you are looking will help.  

Original contant copyright 2010 Thomas Robinson