Tips
How do you make a good checklist?
A bad checklist gets ticked off quickly and tells you nothing. A good checklist leaves no doubt about what is in order.
Short answer
A good store inspection checklist is short enough to actually get done, asks concrete questions you can answer with yes or no, follows the order of your walk-round, and says for each question what needs to happen if it is not in order.
Ten tips
- Follow your route. Put the questions in the order you walk through the store: from outside to inside, along the shelves, to the till and the stockroom.
- Make every question concrete. "Store clean" is not a question. "Floor and entrance clean" is: everyone sees the same thing.
- One thing per question. "Chillers and freezer at temperature" is two questions. Otherwise you don't know which one failed.
- Measure what you can measure. Enter a temperature as a number with a limit, not as "ok". Then you can also see later how close it was to the limit.
- Flag what is critical. Some points must always be in order, such as out-of-date products. Let those turn the whole inspection red.
- Add weight. Not every question counts equally. A clean floor matters less than the chillers.
- Say what needs to happen. Each question gets an action for when it is not in order, with a deadline: "restock the shelves, today".
- Ask for a photo where it counts. Not on every question, but where you want to be able to prove what you saw.
- Keep it short. Twenty to thirty questions is usually enough for a full monthly inspection. A short daily round can be much shorter still.
- Review it after a month. A question that is always green can perhaps go. A problem that keeps coming back deserves its own question.
Good and bad questions
Swipe sideways to see everything.
| Not so good | Better |
|---|---|
| Chillers ok? | Fridge temperature, between 0 and 7 °C |
| Store tidy | Counter and shelves tidy |
| Hygiene in order | Toilets clean and restocked |
| Products fine | Nothing past its use-by date, sample of ten products |
Don't want to start from scratch? Use one of our example lists and adapt it.
Frequently asked
How many questions should a checklist have?
For a full monthly inspection, twenty to thirty questions is usually enough. A daily round can be much shorter, five to ten questions.
Can I still change a checklist later?
Yes. In Stipt you change questions, order and limits whenever you like; inspections already carried out stay as they were.