Taking the time to find out which software is recommended for inventory management for a small business is essential.
As an SME manufacturer dealing in tangible goods, effective inventory management is a crucial component of your business operations. Knowing how much stock is available in the warehouse is only one aspect of this. In addition to that, there are several delicate nuances you need to supervise, to ensure seamless inventory management. When you have expert inventory management software at your fingertips, you can better track and organize your stock. You can also manage purchases seamlessly as required, with real-time indications of low stock across all your stores using an inventory management tool.
Manufacturing business owners can efficiently manage orders and address issues such as product overstocking or shortages by utilizing inventory management software. While managing inventory effectively may be initially challenging, it can enhance company profitability and improve customer value.
In this blog, we discuss valuable inventory management software features, outline which software is recommended for inventory management, and why SMEs must adopt it at the earliest.
Which Software Is Recommended for Inventory Management?
TranZact's cloud-based inventory software is the most recommended solution for inventory management for Indian SMEs. It enables you to track all the goods and raw materials in your warehouse with ease. Due to TranZact's smooth integration with Tally, BUSY, Excel, and numerous other solutions, it emerges as the best small business inventory software.
Find Out How TranZact's Inventory Management Software Works
It offers an accurate mechanism to determine product prices and oversee inventory movement. Moreover, this tool for inventory management provides capabilities for automated, real-time updates, barcode scanning, and in-depth inventory reports for SME business owners.
TranZact's user-friendly interface enables you to quickly digitize end-to-end inventory processes, making it the best software for inventory management.
Managing inventory levels at a profitable level is a common challenge for Indian manufacturers and should be tackled early on in the business. Inefficient inventory management often leads to overspending on the excess stock.
To address these issues, advanced inventory software for a small business such as TranZact is beneficial. It helps minimize inventory inefficiencies and fulfills SME inventory management requirements effectively.
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What Is Inventory Management Software?
Inventory management software is an automated tool used by businesses to track sales, inventory movements and lower total carrying costs within a business. The software tracks goods as they go from a vendor to a warehouse, then from one warehouse store to another, and finally to a retail facility or directly to a consumer. With the best inventory management software, you can keep track of all incoming and outgoing stock items in real time and get notified when there is a shortage. Only using a spreadsheet to keep track of all inventory operations can become very challenging for SMEs. An inventory management software is key for connecting inventory information to other data platforms that your company uses.
While ‘inventory management' may sound like a straightforward way to keep track of what you have in stock, small business inventory management software actually goes far deeper. A minimum of one other back-end office system, such as your production planning, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) program, or materials planning system, should be integrated with the software for maximum benefits.
In order to know the value of the items you have in inventory for accounting and other important purposes, an inventory management system should be able to do the following:
- Track stock items through acquisition, sales, and other processes
- Locate them across one or more stores
- Price the inventory
When Do You Need to Use Inventory Management Software?
The most important times to use inventory management software are when tracking multiple item movements, monitoring stock levels, and determining pricing. You can save time and gain complete visibility into your purchase planning and fulfillment operations by using a cloud-based inventory management solution. Some businesses may use a Point of Sale (POS) system with inventory functionality. However, to manage the assembly process, manufacturing companies need an optimum software system to track sales and update all channels with real-time inventory status.
Due to financial constraints, small business owners are reluctant to invest in inventory management software. But with TranZact, you can sign up for free and explore the software's expert inventory management functionalities to help you cut down on time and minimize revenue loss. You can upgrade only when you want to access advanced features in the software.
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Importance of Inventory Management Software
Due to the interconnection of inventory with all core processes in a business, many firms frequently feel pressured to overstock their shelves. This results in things going bad, loss of money spent on them, and wastage of resources like stockroom space. On the other hand, understocking can result in a lot of disgruntled customers and delayed delivery. Both situations could be disastrous for a company. In order to satisfy anticipated demand, it is essential to manage your inventory optimally. This also helps you to fill orders promptly, keep warehousing costs in check, and stock up the right amount of goods.
Dynamic market trends are necessitating the need for cloud-based inventory management software to reduce manual effort and enable increased cost-effectiveness. By using a free inventory management software like TranZact, you can view your inventory levels in a hassle-free and quick manner. It is also a simple way to track the current stage of each item in your inventory process.
Every inventory software comes with distinct features. Which inventory management software features and functions should your business look out for? Let's find out.
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Key Functions of Inventory Management Software An inventory management software will assist you in streamlining and automating fundamental inventory processes. This equips you to concentrate on growing your business without constantly worrying about inventory control. The following are key functions of efficient inventory management software:
- Enhanced productivity and efficiency by saving significant time in printing shipping labels, controlling the stock process, dispatching orders, and updating the listing.
- Increased profitability by monitoring excess stock and saving working capital.
- Multi-level stock management to prevent incidents of understock or overstock as manual maintenance is time-consuming.
- Easy inventory management by making well-informed purchase decisions.
- Tracking low stock levels and automating the re-ordering process.
- Better quality management to identify delays in shipment.
- Enhanced analysis and oversight with automated inventory reports.
Cloud-based software for inventory control aids in better communication among different business departments. Such seamless inter-departmental communication makes it simpler to determine when to restock, and which client orders have been dispatched, leading to enhanced customer experiences.
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Benefits of Inventory Management Software
In addition to saving precious business time, there are several other benefits that your business gains, when you choose an effective inventory management software. These benefits are as follows:
- Minimized errors thanks to reduced manual work
- Enhanced effectiveness
- Improved inventory cycles
- Reduced labor, insurance, and transportation costs
- Higher profits at lower costs
- Enhanced customer experience
- Data security
- Better insights into sales trends
- Reduced static and aged inventory
In this manner, an effective tool with the best inventory management software features enables you to determine optimum break-even points, accurate estimates of profitability, along with identification of bottleneck operational problems. These are only a few of the reasons why you should choose the best small business inventory management software for your company to track inventory.
Having seen which software is recommended for inventory management and the benefits of inventory management software, next, let's understand the cost of small business inventory software. We will also explore add-on features by TranZact and see how it's different from any other inventory tool.
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How Much Does Inventory Management Software Cost?
The following factors affect the cost of inventory management software:
- The total number of users who need access to the system.
- If it's a cloud-based inventory solution or an on-premises solution.
- If you're installing an all-in-one inventory and production system or only an inventory solution.
- Whether you need to link it with any other systems that are already in place.
- Any requests for particular features.
A majority of inventory management tools base their costs on various factors like volume of orders, size of the business, and the scope of locations required to be covered.
But with TranZact, you get all the capabilities of advanced inventory management software at a fraction of the conventional cost. Moreover, you can sign up for free, explore all the base inventory management features of the platform and upgrade only when you're ready.
TranZact – Best Free Inventory Management System
Due to the dispersed storage of your raw materials, keeping track of all that inventory can seem burdensome. This is especially true if you're still using Excel or any other traditional tool.
By upgrading to an intuitive inventory management software such as TranZact, you can access real-time inventory updates about shortages and stock usage, on the go. It empowers accurate automation of inventory operations and documentation processes, making real-time inventory tracking incredibly simple. TranZact's highly-customizable Business Intelligence dashboard equips users to keep a tab on all inventory activities, in addition to other business operations seamlessly. This enables data-driven decision-making and precise analysis with real-time data.
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Transform Your Inventory Management With TranZact
No business wants to spend all of its time managing existing inventory. To avoid this, the best inventory management software for a small business accommodates purchases, sales, and production requirements, and integrates this with the inventory practice of the business. It's critical to evaluate the software based on the unique requirements of your business, your inventory valuation approach, and emerging marketplace dynamics. Small manufacturing businesses are typically adept at multitasking and quick to adapt to change. However, to streamline their everyday operations, they still require sophisticated, secure, and supportive inventory management software.
TranZact is a comprehensive business digitization tool, specially designed for SME manufacturing businesses. With the help of this cloud-based inventory management software, over 10,000 Indian SMEs have digitized their end-to-end business process, from client inquiries to shipment and invoicing.
Real-time stock level updates, provided by a cloud-based inventory management software like TranZact, enable manpower and time savings, generating greater returns on investment. It offers customized inventory management software features that are simple to use and consume by everyone on the team, empowering your business to scale!
FAQs on Inventory Management Software
1. Which inventory method is best for a small business?
The First-In, First-Out (FIFO) method is commonly recommended for small businesses as it ensures older inventory is used or sold first, reducing the risk of obsolescence and minimizing holding costs.
2. What does TranZact Inventory do?
TranZact Inventory streamlines your complete inventory function by providing access to features such as item history, and insightful inventory reports. It enables automated stock transfers, bulk upload of items, physical stock reconciliation, and negative stock restriction, to help you save time and effort.
3. What is Inventory Management Software?
Inventory Management Software is an automated tool that enables businesses to efficiently monitor, record, manage, and control their inventory levels. It ensures optimal stock availability, reduces costs, and improves operational efficiency.
4. How does Inventory Management Software work?
Inventory management software works by centralizing inventory data, and automating key processes such as stock tracking, replenishment, and order management. It provides real-time visibility into inventory levels, generates reports and analytics, and integrates with other systems like sales and procurement.
5. Can Inventory Management Software help with demand forecasting?
Yes, a modern inventory management software can offer demand forecasting capabilities, allowing businesses to predict future inventory needs based on historical data, market trends, and sales forecasts.
6. What is inventory management?
Inventory management is a strategy for maintaining the appropriate inventory, in the required quantity at the correct time, with the right inventory cost. By leveraging effective inventory management, you can monitor your stock in real-time to speed up inventory operations.
7. What are the 4 types of inventory management systems?
The four types of inventory management systems include the periodic review system, perpetual inventory system, just-in-time (JIT) system, and materials requirement planning (MRP) system.
8. What is the best way to keep track of inventory?
Using reliable and user-friendly inventory management software is the best approach to tracking your inventory. TranZact's modern inventory management module allows you to automate time-consuming processes and provides live notifications, useful inventory analysis, improved traceability with barcoding functionalities, and more.
