Reasons Why Inventory Management System Is Worth Investing In

Running a business requires a strategic approach. To grow it and sustain that growth, aside from the required capital, selected strategic partnerships, marketable product or service, and proper management and intervention are necessary. However, business running is a bumpy journey. Along the way, there will be challenges you have to toughly face to stay in the competition.

One of these challenges is the lack of effective inventory management which is common for those who are not hands-on entrepreneurs. More often than not, these owners do not keep a watchful eye on the inventory which can eventually lead to a stock loss or mismanagement.

“When you are out-of-stock, this is a huge loss of potential earnings when you can’t sell to a customer who is ready to buy.”, says Henry Hoe who runs PetFoodCare

While this may appear like a controllable issue, as the business grows, this challenge actually magnifies, making it all the more important to invest in an inventory management software.

Basically, inventory management software will help you manage your inventory a lot easier, saving you money and time, and keeping your sanity along the way. The software will not function like a robot, nonetheless. Once your stock levels fluctuate, your intervention and decision making will still be required. What the software does is simplify this challenge and help you monitor your stocks and inventory processes easier such that you can come up with smarter decisions in no time.

Here are the reasons why inventory management software is worth investing in:

1. Timely Report Generation. Good inventory management software can generate reports depicting the inventory records, sales incurred, orders fulfilled and pending, fast selling items, and other important details in a few clicks. While this can be generated manually, the manual recording is obviously error-prone and may not be able to produce reliable reports that are important for decision-making.

2. Centralized Storage. Inventory management software is helpful especially for those whose business has multiple locations as these are hard to govern and manage. The right tool will help achieve centralized storage where availability of products and services can be easily tracked. This will also help inform customers right away about the status of their orders.

3. Automation of Inventory Processes. Manual inventory processes are not only time-consuming. They also require constant checking to make sure figures inputted are accurate, thus reliable. Inventory management software automates all these, allowing the staff to work on something else that can contribute to the business’s growth, leading to increased productivity and efficiency.

4. Overselling, Stock-outs, and Overstocking is prevented. Proper inventory management includes tasks that should be cautiously carried out like timely updating of stocks triggered by stock purchases and sales. Failure of monitoring on these aspects may lead to costly overstocking, overselling, or stock-outs which can disappoint and lose loyal customers. But thanks to inventory management software, all these updating will be automated such that every business owner can easily track low stock levels and be alerted when reordering points have been reached. This, in return, lessens the likelihood of stock-outs. And what makes it extra cool is that many inventory management systems nowadays are easily customizable with reordering and replenishment points easily editable. These also show how a product has been selling out, or otherwise, thus decreasing the occurrence of overstocking.

Its extra functions include fast inventory display, automatic order dispatching, label and receipts printing, and automatic updating of stockyards all from the same dashboard.

5. Accessible Monitoring. There is inventory management software that is sync-able on the web. This allows business owners to track their inventories even when they are out of town. Not only the system provides reliable assistance to the staff, it also offers convenience on the part of the business owner.

6. Can Be Easily Integrated With Office Systems. Inventory management software is usually integration-capable with back-office systems especially accounting and ERP systems who read stock related data. An open API system can be purchased as this allows custom connections to and between systems.

7. Huge Savings on Expenses That Can Lead to Increased Profitability. Good inventory management software is cost-efficient and economical in a lot of ways. First, it identifies the most effective use of space and labor, thus reducing resources that are often unused. Second, it helps identify assets like materials, equipment, and products that can better the inventory process. It also embeds correct warehouse principles like FIFO (First In, First Out), and LIFO (Last In, First Out) which give the warehouse men flexibility when it comes to efficiently running it. Third, it allows staff to work on other important tasks that were originally outsourced. All these will lead to an increase in profit.

8. Security is enhanced. Unlike in manual inventory recording which is easily accessible to anyone, inventory management software practices proper user control, requiring employees to use their own accounts when entering transactions. This creates an audit trail which strengthens data and process security, thus improving accountability and reducing chances of theft and other dishonesty issues. Moreover, access to important reports and managerial facilities are usually limited to managers and higher-ups. This boldly sets the line between employees and how each is expected to work. Most importantly, the competitive advantage is retained.

9. Labor Management Made More Efficient. Inventory management software helps the owner efficiently assign the daily task and understand his workforce broader. It can show labor forecasting and KPIs where areas that may need more or less staff can be easily identified. It also helps identify employees who have been committing errors and employees who have been working efficiently and error-free, who deserve rewards and promotion and who don’t.

10. More Satisfied Customers. Especially for online businesses where the exchange of goods and money is transacted online, good inventory management software allows the e-commerce website to respond quickly and accurately. It will also help customers track their orders as late notices are avoided, if not eradicated.

Inventory management system offers an all-in-one solution. More advanced inventory management software can facilitate shipping management, order management, and listing management functionality. They are also expected to streamline the entire inventory and selling process from product listing and ordering, up to invoice printing and marking of orders as shipped. A businessman is only considered wise if he is not afraid of tools for innovation such as this.