free online inventory management for small business

FREE ONLINE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT FOR SMALL BUSINESS SERIAL
FREE ONLINE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT FOR SMALL BUSINESS UPDATE

Your central system must account for products at all facilities as costs can vary, and so inventory counts are updated no matter the order origination point. The ability to track and trace products a step forward or backwards empowers the business to quickly locate any items that may have been created with faulty materials.įulfillment: You could be a business with a single location or one with multiple locations choosing to ship from the warehouse closest to the customer.

FREE ONLINE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT FOR SMALL BUSINESS SERIAL

Products might be assigned serial numbers, lot numbers or batch numbers to track groups of products created with the same materials and at the same time. Inventory software will remove raw material or product from inventory used to create them to ensure items used up in production will be reordered when the counts drop to a predetermined number. Production: Someone in production might take that item and create an assembly, a build, or a kit. SOS Inventory allows you to generate and print out barcode labels that can be scanned with any mobile device on location. A great deal of information can be associated with a barcode. Scanning information stored in a barcode hastens the process and reduces human error. As each product is created in the system, it becomes available for other to access. Warehousing: Whether you buy, sell or manufacture products, the raw materials and/or products delivered to you by suppliers must be logged upon arrival by entering item name, category, description, expiration date, cost, and more. It is an invaluable tool for structuring information from every department to generate one clear picture of the entire organization. SOS Inventory is the perfect operational stock control system for the small business. That way they can be confident you are working with accurate data to support accurate decision making. Investors will be looking to see that you have implemented an integrated business system as a platform for growth. If you are seeking to attract investment for growth, you will not get far with a business running on spreadsheets. Investment: An Important Role for Inventory Management Software for Small Businesses Track sales, costs, produce invoices and reports, and communicate all information to accounting Track products, batches, and lots for the entire duration a raw material or product is located at the business’s facility Maintain enough stock to account for normal increases in demand Know when items are expiring and when promotions may be needed to move stock prior to that date And each department’s set of goals can be achieved with a single small business inventory tracking system: Each area of the business talks to the other, ensuring production keeps pace with demand.Īll the specialized functions performed by each department can be aggregated and housed in the business’s inventory software setup. Sales trigger other actions, and when enough sales of a certain product occur, levels drop to reorder points, then triggering a purchase order. When an item is sold, it is instantly removed from inventory.

FREE ONLINE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT FOR SMALL BUSINESS UPDATE

Each can enter information and update that same data set to a central system to generate the same numbers for sales as it does for warehousing.

You need an integrated business system where everyone is singing off the same hymn-sheet where data is entered only once, and where everyone is relying on a single version of the truth.Ī simple inventory system for small businesses will unify information from every department so each is working with one data set.

If you want to create a joined-up company, then you need to underpin that effort with a joined-up system, and that is where spreadsheets fail. Spreadsheets are great, but they are only great as a local departmental solution. But when management receives different numbers because each department logs inventory activity at different stages of production, having accurate information to make decisions about the future is next to impossible. Both are doing their best to maintain accurate inventory information when reporting their data to management. For example, warehousing sets up one system. You just need a change in staff for systems to be disrupted. Sometimes the calculations and formula are limited to a single person in the company, which creates a point of weakness. Startups, new businesses, and businesses on the path to growth and expansion often begin managing inventory in a simple, inexpensive manner such as using an Excel spreadsheet for working with department specific data and formulas. Small business inventory management will evolve over time as a company grows and/or adds additional products.

Free online inventory management for small business