Ideal Inventory Management Software

For companies with a huge volume of inventories, it is essential that good inventory management software is in place. Be it a manufacturer or a retailer, as the company grows to handle a large volume of inventories through registers or spreadsheets is difficult.

Inventory management software is becoming more popular these days because of the evident benefits see from better management of stock and warehouse cost reduction. Such software is used to the track the products, inventory levels, re-order points, an issue for production etc.

Key Benefits of Inventory Software

• It is used to avoid overstocking of goods and also to avoid stock shortages. Helps to maintain the optimum amount of stock required for the production/sales
• Orders can be automated as and when the stock reaches a particular level
• Eliminates the need for registers or massive spreadsheets and automation reduces major part of the manual workaround
• Generates various documents used in a warehouse and factories such as goods receipts, work order, bills of materials, issue order etc
• Improvises the way the inventories are organized and helps to  maintain accurate records of the stock
• Saves the time and money spent on manual or traditional stock maintenance
• Using the data, analysis can be done to find out the fast and slow moving products

Features of an Ideal Inventory Management Software 

There is lots of inventory software available in the market and the companies should be able to identify the right one suitable for the business. Listed below are some of the salient features of ideal inventory management software which is reliable and efficient:

Inventory Tracking

This is an important feature which any inventory software should have in-built. Tracking the inventory levels right from receiving, refilling, issue etc is essential and it has to be customized according to the company’s products. There are various features using which the inventories can be tracked such as a barcode, serial no, tags etc. The movement of the stock from the warehouse to production can be tracked without much manual interference.

Product Categorization

Using this featured product can be categorized based on their name, price, type etc, and Inventory management gets better with this control since product-specific demand and supply forecast. For example, the company with perishable products as its inventory requires critical monitoring of the time period due to expiry issues.

Automated Replenishment

Inventory software can be designed to process automated purchase orders based on the re-order points. When the inventory level reaches a minimum point, the system will automatically generate the required quantities of stock to be purchased based on the pre-programmed inventory levels. This feature saves both time and manual efforts for managing to a bill and tracking their projected sales in an optimized way.

Integration

It should be possible to integrate the warehouse data with the sales channels which will enable the entity to fulfil the order faster and more accurate. If the software is integrated with shipping process, it is easy to track the inventories on-site and would save companies a lot of time and effort

Scanning

Scanning and tracking assets electronically is a very useful inventory control which also facilitates electronic shipment and complete warehouse tracking. Using barcode scanning or other processes to put physical products into the system is the best way to save time and avoid errors. It is helpful to have such system when the entity deals with a product that has multiple products or serial numbers This feature enables electronic data interchange and caters for global selling trends

Secured

Date in the Inventory has to be protected and secured from hacking or theft. Loss of data is harmful and can disturb workflow. The software has to be inbuilt with a very goods anti-virus and other security features. It is also important to retrieve the data in case of unforeseen situations and hence there should be daily back-ups.

Reports

This is a very useful feature of inventory software which will help companies to increase its efficiency and creates a seamless workflow. Using this facility, various reports can be generated from the software to check the order history, sales trend, more profitable products, slow-moving products, transaction reports etc Entities can customize the software to obtain the desired reports and improve the business

Conclusion

There are varieties of inventory software in the market from free, basic to more expensive, all-inclusive features. Deployment is another important factor for which there are different types such as on-premise which are hosted on a local server, cloud –hosted on vendor server etc. The selection of user-specific software depends upon the business requirements, inventory volumes, price, and complexity in the daily transactions.

There is various industry-based software which is specifically designed for a particular industry and within the industry, there can be various specialization based on the size of the business. An entity should closely evaluate all the above-mentioned factors and select the inventory management software which is suitable for its business.