Athletic Training Budgets

It is that time of year again when athletic trainers begin to think of purchasing  equipment and supplies for the upcoming year. In these tough economic times you may have seen a decrease in your budget allocation making it even more difficult to purchase the supplies that you need.  I will detail my procedure for trying to squeeze every dollar out of your budget. 


First, you need to start with an inventory.  I explained my process in a previous post. Hopefully, you have a couple of years of data to examine to discover trends, over supply, under supply, etc.  You then decide what you need and how much.  You certainly can put in some wish list items.  One of the best devices for saving money is the BID. I always bid, even if it is one item that I need during the year.  Call the company and ask for a bid price.  It will always be lower than the catalog. 


Some of you may already be required to bid on certain items over a certain dollar amount.  Bidding works best if you try to buy all your supplies for the year in one big purchase. I bid everything, down to the littlest nail clipper.  You get a better price because the retailer is selling you more items and a small profit on a lot is better than a small profit on a few items.  To do this you have to be organized.  That is where doing an inventory comes in.  You have a good idea of what and how much you need.    


Once you have a list of the items and quantity you need you then put it in list form with space for a retailer to place the unit price and the quantity amount.  You can group items by sections.  Tape, rehab equipment, various sundry items, rehydration,  braces & supports, etc. makes it easier for you and the retailer to review.   


You also have to be fair to the retailer in honoring their price.  Therefore, you need to be very "exacting" in the wording of your items.  If you only use brand X tape then you need to specify brand X "no sub" as in "no substitution".  If you are not concerned about brand but just price then you would put "ankle underwrap"  and get a variety of prices of different manufacturers product. You then purchase the lowest priced brand.  Another option is to list multiple brands of the same item.  You may not want the very cheapest two inch elastic tape but there are brands that are acceptable to you.  You then list that item with the specifications for each brand that is acceptable to you.  A great part about bids (other than good prices) is that you do not have to buy what you have put on your bid.  


You can bid your necessary supplies and also add your wish list items.  If you end up saving enough money you can then begin purchasing those items, also at a reduced price because of the bid. An important stipulation that you want to make in your bid is that shipping is included in the bid price.  This will save you additional monies.


This process is made easier when you keep your yearly bids on file.  It is very easy to go to last years bid make some additions or deletions, or change quantities and you are ready to send for this year.  


It can be a time consuming process but in the end you end up with  more supplies and possibly even some items that you thought you could not afford.  So in closing:


Do a yearly inventory
Develop a bid for your yearly supplies
Review prices and decide on purchases
Submit orders
Never pay catalog prices


Good Luck!

Inventory Time

Finished my annual inventory of my supplies this week. I have an Excel spreadsheet that I made with amount purchased in the summer, price paid, and amount on hand in January. I have accumulated this information for over twenty years making for a rather large spreadsheet that needs the hide columns feature to make it workable. In 1987, I paid $29.81 for a case of J&J Coach, this year I paid $37.42.

This process helps me in deciding what I will need to purchase next summer. It also helps to alert me if I may be running out of an important item before the next purchase cycle. This year I am running low on plastic wrap. I will probably have to pick up some more to make it through the year.

Inventory of your supplies gives you a snapshot of your program. Sometimes you find that you have more of something than you thought, sometimes less. It also alerts you to situations were people may be wasting supplies. Maybe someone is using an Elatikon or a Elatoplast type tape when just plain elastic will do. Sometimes I let things run out so everyone learns to do without. Something we all should do now and again as necessity is the mother of invention. Having this information also can help in justifying budget increases. Showing your administrator that your costs have slowly risen over the last couple of years will go a long way in convincing them to increase your budget.

I use to print out the spreadsheet and enter the numbers on paper and then transfer them into the spreadsheet. I now use a PDA. I download the spreadsheet into a PDA, do the inventory and then download the file back into my PC. It saves a lot of time.

FYI: I am kind of a geek. I like technology.

Another thing I do throughout the year is write down any item that I see we are getting low on. I do not wait for the inventory. This is kept in a file folder for next years purchases. This helps tremendously when I work on purchasing. My actual purchase procedure I will save for a later entry.