5 Ways to Improve your Inventory Control Today
June 20th, 2017
Controlling your inventory can be one of the most frustrating processes of your small business’ operations. It’s tedious and time-consuming, but there are steps you can take that will streamline your processes and turn this chore into a competitive advantage for your company.
QuickBooks and Excel are great tools for businesses that are just starting out, but there are better ways to manage inventory, and an application that works with your current system will give you a head start in getting your inventory under control, and keeping it there.
- Take Stock with an Inventory Process
Tracking inventory from the loading dock to the moment it goes out the front door requires accurate inventory control. Without it, you could have thousands of dollars on your shelves or inventory losses due to theft or waste. This is the money you need to grow your business, and you can’t afford to leave it sitting on your warehouse shelves.
Whether you currently take inventory by hand on a legal pad, add it up tally the numbers in a ledger, or do it with QuickBooks or Excel, improved inventory management can be the key to your success. Creating a process that accounts for everything you buy and sell lets you know where your money is at all times. An inventory control process can be as simple as taking stock of copy paper in an office setting or as complex as tracking every piece that goes into a product that is comprised of 1000 pieces. Whatever your situation, you need to take stock today to value your inventory, and track it from the back dock until it is sold, and you need to be able to do it accurately. If your current method of inventory control is inefficient, adding AdvancePro software can give you more accurate inventory control.
- Manage Inventory on Hand
Having too much inventory can be as bad as not having enough. An inventory control system that gives you the ability to measure your usage will enable you to have the right amount of product on hand at the right time. It is difficult to have this level of control with hand counted inventory using only QuickBooks or Excel. AdvancePro will give you the ability to easily track your inventory on a daily basis.
- Manage your Products & Vendors
Knowing from whom to buy your product can be as important as what you buy, and AdvancePro will help you align vendors with the products they sell. Vendors will overstock your shelves if you let them, so monitoring your product usage can help curtail their urges. With inventory control software, you will have information readily available that shows you purchases and usage, so overbuying can be a thing of the past.
- Track your Inventory Movement
With a dedicated inventory control system, you will be able to track your inventory in real time. This gives you the added advantage of knowing when to order replacement product, and can indicate items that sell at a faster rate than others do.
- Track your Stock with Inventory Software
Inventory software allows you to take control of your inventory, immediately. Most of today’s products come to us with barcoding in place. With AdvancePro, you can use the manufacturer’s barcoding to track your inventory or create your own labels. This gives you the advantage of tracking by UPC, SKU, product, or vendor. Having a method to scan your inventory items into the inventory management software will increase accuracy in your inventory counts. The ability to track products through the supply chain by serial number can help small businesses track the lifecycle of their products for the purpose of warranties and recall and AdvancePro offers this feature.
Taking on the task of inventory control now, will save time, money, and lost productivity. Upgrading your current inventory control method with AdvancePro can begin today so that you can manage your inventory so that it does not manage you.
About the author
Inventory management is one of the most critical components of supply chain process as it can be responsible to affect the overall supply chain cost. These points mentioned above are quite useful but as far as the inventory control strategies are concerned, the process like cycle counts and demand analysis will be one of the best solutions to control the inventories and to manage them efficiently.