The number to watch
Sell-through by design within the season. Cloth is the trade where unsold stock hurts most, because last season's design does not become this season's. The figure that matters is what proportion of each design sold while it was current, not what sold overall. Designs below that line are next season's markdown, and knowing which they are in week six rather than week twenty is the whole difference in what you recover.
Metres, pieces and sets
Fabric sells by the metre, readymade by the piece, and some lines by the set. The same customer buys across all three. Holding the unit on the item means one bill handles it without arithmetic, and the stock figure counts what you actually have — metres on the roll and pieces on the rack are different things and should not be one number.
Design, colour and size
A design in three colours and five sizes is fifteen items, not one, and treating it as one is why cloth shops so often cannot say what is left. Separate items make the reorder list usable and stop the margin error of billing a premium design at a basic rate. It also lets you see which colours and sizes actually move, which is the buying decision for next season.
Season, festival and dead stock
Cloth is the trade where unsold stock hurts most, because last season's design does not become this season's. Movement reports over the same period last year tell you what to buy; the same report tells you what has not moved at all, which is capital you can still recover at cost if you act before it ages further. Most shops discover more of it than they expect.