Cadence
Counter hour prep
Prep right before any supplier counter hour, no matter if it’s with Jabulani Tiles in Ermelo or a hardware in Randburg.
Ask about cadences
When to use this card
Counter hour prep sets you up if you’ve booked time with a supplier, whether you’re buying timber in Randburg for R3,200 or checking tile stock in Ermelo. Pull out this card the day before your slot, especially for trade counters that expect their order by close of business. If you’re using one of our starter kits and sending docs to a supplier hub in Woodstock or Sandton, this keeps everyone on schedule. It’s also handy for remote orders and year-end clear-outs when accounts get hectic and it’s easy to miss a step.
Prep rhythm: slot by slot
The rhythm follows a simple order. Tweak it for your supplier’s opening hours and courier cut-off (in Ermelo, PostNet runs till 16:00, while in Randburg, Fastway cuts off at 14:30). Double-check with the calendar if load-shedding or public holidays mean you need to shuffle things up. Here’s the default flow.
- D-1 AM: Owner confirms appointment slot by email (supplier contact)
- D-1 mid-morning: Ops lead drafts checklist of items to bring (owner to review)
- D-1 lunch: Owner checks for any missing PDFs or hardcopy cheques needed
- D-1 15:00: Book transport or courier for sample returns/trade stock (ops lead)
- D-1 16:30: Owner emails final list to supplier, CC to ops lead
- Counter hour day (D): Owner brings reference docs and proof of payment
- Counter hour day: Ops lead on standby to action follow-up requests
Adjusting for Eskom and school terms
If Eskom pings stage 4 at midday, always bump your delivery slot up by two hours, or send digital backups via email before 13:00. For Ermelo and most Gauteng towns, Friday before school holidays? Suppliers usually close early. The trick is to use our FAQ for SME starters to cross-check public holiday calendars, especially for April and December. And always confirm your courier’s cut-off if a long weekend or heavy storm is brewing, forgot that one once myself and had a bunch of stocking samples stuck in Germiston till Monday.
Sample from a local business
Let’s say you run "Nathi’s Paints" in Ermelo. You’ve booked a counter hour at a Randburg hardware on the 25th for a R7,500 trade account top-up. Here’s how the card fills out:
D-1 AM: Nathi emails Randburg Hardware to confirm the 09:30 slot. Mid-morning, Thandi (ops lead) lists the purchase order, VAT201, and proof of payment needed. By lunch, Nathi checks the FNB PDF for last month (lost it, had to re-download, whoops). By 15:00, Thandi books a City Bug courier in case samples need to be sent back. At 16:30, Nathi emails the checklist and CCs Thandi. On the day, Nathi brings all docs, breathes easy and the counter hour goes smooth.
See other local rhythms in our cadence library, or browse regular ops routines via weekly ops rituals.
Need more prepping tools?
For more checklists and supplier-ready forms, head to our supplier notes or browse full toolkits under resources. If you want to dig into the basics of prepping for a counter hour, we cover it in all our starter packs. And if you’re not sure which doc goes where, or what to organise before month-end, the notes there will point you in the right direction.
