Inventory tracking for small businesses: Inventory software tips

Many factors contribute to running a successful small business, but if you’re an inventory-centric company that wants to hit the ground running, there’s nothing more important than small business inventory tracking.

Running a successful small business, or start-up company, can be a rewarding business experience, but let’s face it – surviving in a competitive business world against more established companies is no walk in the park.

Inventory management is essential from the get-go to ensure businesses efficiency: From safety stock levels to purchasing and shipping, inventory software for a small business can help you boost your success rate!

It all starts with choosing the right way to go about inventory tracking – this means you should research to find a well-designed inventory control software for small business, that caters best to your particular business.

Inventory tracking for a small business: Choosing the best for you

Before you start visualizing all the ways that your new system can boost your efficiency, remember that successfully inventory tracking starts with finding a good software platform.

You don’t need to be an established business with a lot of money to spend on expensive inventory tracking for your small company.

Even organizations with small budgets can have access to the most innovative inventory technology software for the price of a monthly subscription.

Software-as-a-service – often referred to as SaaS – has changed how businesses operate on a subscription service; not only does the company have access to their software platform, but they also offer additional services to those who subscribe. Simply put, SaaS folks host inventory tracking software on their servers, but they also update the software regularly, cutting down on IT costs for you and keeping your system up-to-date.

Once you’ve picked out the inventory software that fits your small business best, the benefits are obvious. Here are a few other tips to consider to make inventory software best benefit you and your company:

Kick start optimization: Inventory tracking for small businesses

• Organize your stock room first 
  • Inventory tracking is the best way to guarantee optimization success, but don’t overlook the simple things, like kicking your stock room into gear. Money and resources often get lost in the clutter or tied up in the space you store your inventory – the best way to ensure productive inventory is to nip clutter in the bud.
  • Group products that are used together or need to be near each other create a streamlined storage process that’s unique to your business – whatever it is, develop a warehouse, or inventory storage space, that’s better able to support your inventory tracking software.
• Standardize from the start
  • We’re sure you’ve rolled your eyes at all the old tableaus about early birds getting worms, but when it comes to your small business, they certainly ring true. Getting a jump on standardization before you’re running a booming business is key to developing an efficient company. Don’t wait until your company has matured to invest in a good inventory management software – figure out what you need from the start so your start-up or small business can take off running.
  • Think everything through, from the way you order stock to how the stock is counted – if possible, consider hiring an inventory management consultant to help you get these practices in gear. Most importantly, leave room for your standardized plan to adapt – a flexible, progressive plan that may change is better than no plan at all.

Keep your system honest: Manual stock checks

Buying the best inventory tracking software for your small business, or subscribing to a software platform, is an excellent way to make sure you’re aiming for optimization, but you can’t count on it to do everything for you.

While your software should be doing its best to keep your system in check, it’s important to continue doing an audit routine and manual stock checks, to make sure the system is doing its job.

This practice will help you confirm what stock you really have in-house. This can help you account for cluttered, damaged, or stolen stock that your inventory tracking software may have skipped or even missed entirely.

Tracking accuracy: Think constant, think mobile, think integration

Your inventory management system is in place to keep track of every step in the supply chain – in other words, the more accurate and up-to-date your tracking system operates, the better it is. Consider a tracking system that works in real time with barcode scanning or mobile technology.

These systems can help you track your inventory, keep your stock accurate and provide you with ways to ensure you’re not wasting or misusing valuable resources.

As a small business, the last practice you want to fall into is wasting resources and using inefficient inventory management processes. Consider playing it safe and smart by investing in an inventory management software with integration possibilities.

For example, if you’re thinking of using accounting systems or Point of Sale systems, consider finding a software that integrates all of these processes together – this way, you can provide your business with one cost-efficient system that pulls all the moving parts of your business together.

To choose the right software, why not chat to our guru for advice?