Inventory or stock refers to the materials and goods that a business holds for the purpose of resale. Inventory can also be defined as non-capitalized assets like raw materials and finished products. Needless to say, keeping a good track of the inventory and managing vital aspects of it is desired. Software solution automates, adds greater value to tasks and operation associated with inventory management, and brings more orderliness and efficiency in the overall supply chain management.
First of all, let us start with what inventory management actually involves and why is it necessary to consider software help in this regard.
Inventory management: A brief introduction:
Inventory management encompasses all the tasks and the processes associated with ordering, storing, supervising and utilizing an organization’s inventory and stock. To form a better idea consider inventory as a product that you have already purchased in order to sell it to someone else for a price amount.
A well-planned and result-oriented inventory management system helps in identifying exactly how much product or goods you have and approximately when you will run out of stock depending on sales volume. This makes sure you get the time to replenish the stock without losing sales. Inventory management helps in planning ahead for buying more and improve cash flow.
Inventory management tools are not just for business tycoons to benefit from. The market is flooded with several reliable and cost-effective inventory management software for small businesses as well.
Inventory management software:
An inventory management software primarily automates and streamlines the tasks and processes involved in handling a company’s inventory/stock. Software solution always is always formulated to ease and enhance a given task. It introduces orderliness, ensures ease accessibility to inventory data, provides meaning insight into the inventory status to reach a prompt and informed decision.
A sound inventory management software features all necessary tools to-
- Create stock-related documents
- Ensure easy monitoring of stock operations
- Keep human mistakes at bay
- Exercise better control through centralized storage
- Acquaint the customers with their order status
- Never miss on delivery deadlines
- Avoid dead stock scenarios
- Conduct barcode scanning
- Avoid spoilage
- Derive meaningful insights through reports and stats in real-time.
A few selected inventory management software examples
HandiFox Online:
This inventory management software is especially suitable for small business owners and self-employed ones. The software comes packed with inventory management, warehouse, and order management functionalities. This is cloud-based inventory tool that helps you track sales, issue invoices, receive payments and verify your shipments. Easy integration with QuickBooks is possible.
HandiFox Online can also be considered as reliable barcode inventory management software because it helps in barcode scanning and barcode generating. Your staff members need not pursue any special training for mastering the software.
Zoho Inventory:
This is a robust inventory or stock management software that can cater to an organization of any size. As the software is web-based so it will not be tough to access it anytime and anywhere. The free version available allows one to use this inventory management software free of cost. Extensive software support for conducting accurate warehouse, inventory and order management is possible with minimal effort.
Zoho Inventory features barcoding or RFID, reporting, analytics, shipping management, location control, kitting, serialized inventory tracking, product categorization, stock optimization etc. From the purchase, packing to payment now everything can be streamlined with the help of this.
Odoo Inventory:
This cloud-based SaaS warehouse inventory management software is also available in its free version. It can be installed in Mac, Android, and Windows. Users will benefit from its multiple significant warehouse management and inventory management features, which include barcoding, demand planning, location control, stock forecasting, useful analytics, reporting capabilities etc.
Odoo Inventory helps you in ensuring accurate and timely inventory, orders, re-orders, returns, shipping, and multi-channel management. Integration with billing, purchasing, and sales is possible.
Delivrd:
If your eyes are searching hard to spot inventory management software open source then the quest is over now with Delivrd. This open source and free stock management system was officially introduced first in the latter half of 2016 and is new in the market. It, however, should not be considered a low performer in this segment. The free version with around 25 SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) and one location is ideal for specialty product retailers and e-merchants.
It features order management, barcoding scanning, and printing, integrations, analytics, multi-channel management, warehouse management etc. A major highlight of Delivrd is its built-in integration with Shopify and WooCommerce.
The four examples pinpointed and described here constitute only a fraction of the bucket full of options available. They are designed to ensure optimum inventory synchronization in real time across diverse locations and channels. Pick the ones to automate your inventory needs that not just can forecast sales & demand but also provide multi-warehouse support and streamline all necessary processes involved.
