Streamlining Warehouse Operations: Visualizing Inventory Processes

If you’ve ever worked in a warehouse, you know how vital inventory management is. Nevertheless, with so many distinct procedures involved, keeping everything organized can be difficult. This is where inventory process visualization comes in. You can ensure that everything is in its right place and that nothing is lost or misplaced by using a combination of tools and strategies.

Using inventory management software that allows visualization in inventory processes is one method to streamline warehouse operations. Businesses can obtain important insights into their operations, discover areas for development, and make data-driven choices by generating visual representations of data and processes. Aside from that, it can be easier to do the day-to-day processes. In this blog, we’ll look at the benefits of using visualization to streamline warehouse operations and present a step-by-step strategy for establishing visualizations in your own company.

Types of Inventory Processes in a Warehouse

Inventory processes at a warehouse can be broken down into different categories. These are some examples:

Receiving inventory – Process of accepting and checking in fresh inventory shipments.

Put-away – The actual movement of merchandise to its assigned storage location.

Storage – The process of holding inventory in a designated location until it is picked.

Picking – It entails finding and retrieving inventory that has been requested for transportation or shipment.

Packing – It is the preparation of the selected inventory for shipment.

Shipping – The process of delivering packaged products to customers.

Returns – This includes processing and replenishing any returned inventory.

Each of these operations is essential to the effective operation of a warehouse and needs keen monitoring of every detail. You can ensure that each step is completed efficiently and precisely by visualizing these operations.

Benefits of Visualizing Inventory Processes

So, why is it so important to visualize inventory processes? There are several benefits to doing so. The following are some of those benefits:

  • Improved efficiency: By streamlining the different inventory management processes, you can speed up the entire process.
  • Increased accuracy: You can reduce the possibility of errors by making it clear to see where inventory is supposed to go.
  • Improved decision-making: Having a comprehensive picture of your inventory levels and operations allows you to make better ordering and stocking decisions.
  • Cost savings: By enhancing accuracy and efficiency, you can cut inventory management costs.

Different Ways to Visualize Inventory Processes

There are several different methods for visualizing inventory processes, including:

Floor markings

You may make it easier to tell where inventory is supposed to go by using colorful tape or paint to mark off different regions of the warehouse.

Signage

By strategically installing signage throughout the warehouse, you can communicate where merchandise is supposed to go and how to handle it.

Labels and Barcodes

By labeling each piece of inventory and tracking it with barcodes, you can verify that everything is in order.

RFID Technology

You can track inventory in real time and see where everything is by using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology.

Visualization Software

Inventory visualization software allows businesses to track and manage their inventory levels in real-time using graphical representations of the business’s daily operations. It often offers maps that represent either the locations or the actual processes (receiving, storage, packing, etc.) in a warehouse. Visualization softwares allows you an overall view of the inventory operations even when you are not physically located in the warehouse. You can track not only the inventory levels, but also the products’ locations and the processes they go through the warehouse.

Mapping Inventory Processes

Inventory mapping is a useful tool for visualizing inventory processes, and it is available in some inventory management software. An inventory map is a graphical representation of the layout of your warehouse or storage facility, and it shows the location of each item in your inventory.

Warehouse Inventory Demo Map

By using an inventory map, you can also quickly and easily locate items in your inventory, reduce the time it takes to pick and pack orders and optimize your warehouse layout. Some businesses also use an inventory map feature to map their processes, allowing them to easily follow the flow and record footprints of their everyday business.

Inventory mapping should not be limited to mapping a single warehouse. If your business operates in multi-location and has different distribution channels, it should allow you to map out all those things too. You can build locations on your map for the warehouse section, retail, and logistics depending on your business needs. Some businesses even their actual warehouse management processes suce as receiving products, picking, packing, and logistics.

Conclusion

In conclusion, inventory management is critical to the operation of a warehouse, and visualizing your inventory processes can be game changer. You can streamline your processes, decrease errors, and save time and money by utilizing various methods such as floor markings, labels, RFID technology, virtualization of inventory locations and processes. Inventory mapping is another useful technique that can help you find goods in your inventory and optimize your warehouse layout. Overall, with the correct visualization techniques and resources, you can increase the efficiency and productivity of your warehouse, allowing you to focus on growing your business.

Multi-Location Inventory Management and How CyberStockroom Can Help

Inventory management across multiple locations gets increasingly challenging as businesses develop and expand. Keeping track of inventory quantities, movements, and locations can be difficult, particularly if the company uses a manual inventory management system. Fortunately, there are software solutions available to assist organizations in successfully managing their inventory across numerous locations. One such tool is CyberStockroom.

What is Multi-Location Inventory Management?

The process of managing inventory across various locations is referred to as multi-location inventory management. This includes both physical locations like warehouses, and retail storefronts and virtual locations like e-commerce platforms or online marketplaces. Multi-location inventory management entails tracking inventory levels, movements of products, and their locations to ensure that the company has the appropriate products in the right places at the right time.

Challenges of Multi-Location Inventory Management

Inventory management in several locations can be a big burden for businesses. Among the difficulties are:

  • Lack of visibility: It might be difficult to acquire a clear view of inventory levels and movements when inventory is scattered across different locations.
  • Difficulty in accurately tracking inventory movements: When inventory is transferred between places, it might be difficult to follow the movement, especially where there are no footprints or activity history to check. 
  • Lack of traceability: Tracing the source of inventory issues such as stockouts or overstocking can be difficult when inventory movements are not accurately documented.
  • Inventory management inefficiencies: Handling inventory across various locations can be time-consuming and inefficient, primarily if the company uses a manual inventory management system. Doing things manually is prone to human error. 

How CyberStockroom Can Help?

CyberStockroom is a software solution that helps businesses and organizations efficiently manage inventory across different locations.

The following are some of the characteristics that make CyberStockroom an appropriate solution for multi-location inventory management:

  • Inventory visibility: CyberStockroom delivers real-time inventory visibility across all locations. This can assist firms in promptly identifying and correcting any inventory problems such as discrepancies in reports from each location and difficulty finding products.
  • Inventory map: Businesses can use CyberStockroom to build a visual map of their business locations and sub-locations. This map serves as a business dashboard, allowing companies to instantly view the quantities in any of the locations or sub-locations.
  • Traceability: CyberStockroom maintains a full activity history for all inventory transfers or movements and inventory check-in and out, making it simpler to pinpoint the source of any inventory issues. 
  • Integration with barcode scanners: CyberStockroom connects with barcode scanners to help ensure that inventory movements are accurately tracked. 
  • Report generation: CyberStockroom enables businesses to create reports that provide information about inventory levels, movements, and general product details. This can assist businesses to make data-driven inventory management decisions.

Best Practices for Multi-Location Inventory Management with CyberStockroom

To make the most of CyberStockroom for multi-location inventory management, businesses should follow these best practices:

Set up locations and sub-locations that make sense for your business: The inventory map in CyberStockroom is highly customizable, so take the time to set up your locations and sub-locations in a way your business looks like from warehouses to bins, pallets, and cabinets.

Use barcode scanners for accuracy: CyberStockroom integrates with barcode scanners, which can help ensure that inventory movements are accurately tracked. Using barcode scanners avoids human errors as it gets the information by scanning instead of manually typing everything from the computer. 

Train your team on how to use CyberStockroom effectively: CyberStockroom is user-friendly and its functions are on-point and require no rocket science. But it is still best to make sure that everyone who will be using CyberStockroom for inventory management is trained on the system and understands how to use its features to ensure you are all on the same page on how those functions can help in day-to-day operations. 

Regularly review and update inventory levels: Take the time to regularly review inventory levels across all locations to identify any potential issues or areas for improvement. This will also help to avoid stockouts or overstocking. 

Use reports to make data-driven decisions: Use the report generation feature in CyberStockroom to make data-driven decisions about inventory management. This can help you identify areas for improvement and make adjustments as needed. 

Conclusion

Multi-location inventory management can be a serious problem for businesses, but inventory management tools like CyberStockroom can assist ease the process. CyberStockroom makes it easier for businesses to manage inventory across multiple locations efficiently by offering real-time visibility into inventory levels, allowing businesses to generate a visual map of their locations, and providing complete activity history for all inventory movements. Following best practices such as setting up locations and sub-locations that make sense for your business, employing barcode scanners for accuracy, and routinely checking and updating inventory levels will help businesses get the most out of CyberStockroom for multi-location inventory management.

Overall, organizations can successfully manage inventory across numerous locations and guarantee that the right products are available in the right places at the right time with the right tools and processes in place. CyberStockroom is a strong tool that can assist organizations in accomplishing this goal while also streamlining their inventory management operations.

10 Tips for Getting the Most Out of CyberStockroom’s Inventory Management and Tracking Capabilities

Any business that wants to maintain efficient operations and maximize revenues must practice effective inventory management. You can effortlessly keep track of your inventory across various locations with CyberStockroom’s powerful inventory management and tracking features, assure accuracy with barcoding, and receive insightful information with real-time tracking and reporting.

In this blog post, we’ll provide 10 tips for getting the most out of CyberStockroom’s inventory management and tracking capabilities.

Tip #1: Set up your locations and sub-locations correctly

Setting up your locations and sub-locations appropriately is the first step to using CyberStockroom effectively. As a result, you’ll be able to arrange your inventory map in a method that benefits your company.

Create your primary locations (such as warehouses, stores, or offices) first to get started, and then create sub-locations inside of each main location (such as specific rooms or areas within the warehouse). Make sure to give the hierarchy of your locations and sub-locations serious thought so that it makes sense for your company.

Tip #2: Use barcode integration for faster inventory management

Barcoding is available through CyberStockroom. It helps speed up and improve the accuracy of inventory management.

You need to set up a barcode scanner that is compatible with the system and give your items barcodes in CyberStockroom in order to use this feature. After doing this, you will be able to quickly scan products into and out of your inventory and locate them in your locations.

Tip #3: Make use of the activity history feature

CyberStockroom’s activity history function lets you keep track of inventory changes and movement over time. This will help you spot trends in your inventory and troubleshoot any problems that could recur. In the top right side corner of your CyberStockroom account, click on the button that looks like a clock, and it will take you to the activity history page.

Tip #4: Customize the inventory map to suit your needs

Its customized inventory map is one of CyberStockroom’s most significant features. This serves as a dashboard for managing inventory, and it allows you to perform some incredibly simple tasks like zooming in on any area to see what’s inside or dragging and dropping products between locations.

Your inventory management software will function at its best if you add custom fields to your products in addition to personalizing the design of your map. You can also get the data you need fast when you rearrange the columns or the custom fields.

Tip #5: Use filters to quickly find specific items

It can be challenging to rapidly locate certain goods in a huge inventory. Filters can help with it. You may filter your inventory map in CyberStockroom using criteria like location, product name product number, or SKU. This can make it easier for you to swiftly find the things you require.

Tip #6: Take advantage of the transfer feature for quick inventory movements

Setting up your inventory in the system is the first step in maximizing your inventory management with CyberStockroom.

In your daily activities, drag-and-drop transfer is also quite helpful for short “micro-transactions.”

Use the system’s filtering feature to easily identify the items you need, and make sure to include any important locations, goods, and product data.

Tip #7: Monitor inventory levels in real-time

One of the most significant advantages of using CyberStockroom is the ability to monitor inventory levels in real-time. This means you can always see how much inventory you have and make informed decisions about when to order more. Simply check your inventory map dashboard on a regular basis to see the current inventory levels at each location to use this feature.

Tip #8: Make use of the reporting features

CyberStockroom includes a number of reporting features that can provide insight into the performance of your inventory.

You can download your product catalog to review all of your products and their details, generate inventory level reports for each location, and download the activity history for auditing, accountability, or compliance. These reports can help you make data-driven inventory decisions and identify areas for improvement.

Tip #9: Set up thresholds for inventory events

You can set up CyberStockroom for particular inventory thresholds, such as when inventory levels drop below a predetermined level or things are about to expire, an indicator should be showing these things. This can assist you in maintaining control over your inventory management and acting promptly when problems do develop.

Tip #10 Leverage multi-user access to streamline inventory management and collaboration

CyberStockroom’s multi-user access capabilities make it easy to collaborate with your team and streamline inventory management processes especially when you have multiple locations and channels. Having a centralized inventory record will avoid discrepancies in reporting and help with better data-driven decision-making.

Conclusion

CyberStockroom is an effective solution for tracking and managing inventories. You can maximize its possibilities and simplify your inventory management procedures by simply following these ten suggestions. CyberStockroom may help you save time and money by enhancing your inventory visibility, traceability, and loss prevention, regardless of whether you run a small business or a major corporation. So why not try it out right now?

Learn more about CyberStockroom and experience true inventory for free! Click here.

Tracking Your Inventory: The Importance of Activity History and Traceability 

In the world of inventory management, it is essential to have a precise understanding of your inventory levels and stock movements. In this blog article, we will discuss the significance and advantages of inventory activity history and traceability in your inventory management.

What are Inventory Activity History and Traceability?

Inventory activity history is the historical record of all transactions involving your inventory, including sales, purchase orders, and stock movements.  You may use this data to see how your inventory levels fluctuate over time and what activities are responsible for these changes.

 You can get a complete perspective of your inventory and its movements by integrating inventory activity history and traceability, which is necessary for making wise decisions and streamlining your inventory management procedures.

On the other hand, traceability refers to the ability to monitor a product’s movement across the supply chain, from its point of origin to the final consumer. Moreover, it also refers to the ability to track every transaction made including updating stock levels, moving inventory between locations, and checking in and out of products. This is essential for monitoring product movement in the event of a recall or for quality control needs, incidents of theft and loss, or basic reporting and compliance. 

The Advantages of having Inventory Activity History and Traceability 

There are many advantages to implementing inventory activity history and traceability in your inventory management system. Here are the following:

  • Improved Inventory Visibility. You can quickly monitor how your inventory levels are changing over time and what actions are generating these changes if you have a thorough record of all transactions. This enables you to decide on your inventory wisely, such as when to restock and which products to focus on.
  • Real-Time Updates. You can quickly access the data you require to make the best decisions about your inventory if you have a thorough record of the history of your inventory activity. This includes data on stock movements, sales patterns, and purchase orders that can be used to pinpoint areas where your inventory management procedures need to be enhanced.
  • Increased Accountability. Another advantage of inventory activity history and traceability is more accountability and transparency in inventory management. You can quickly identify who is responsible for changes in your inventory levels and stock movements by keeping a thorough record of every transaction. By doing this, you can make sure that everyone involved in your inventory management processes is held responsible for their actions.  
  • Reduced Stock Discrepancies. You can quickly identify inconsistencies in your inventory levels and take action to fix them if you have a thorough record of all transactions. This lowers the possibility of supply shortages or overstocking by ensuring that your inventory levels are always precise.
  • Integrating Technology for Automated Tracking. Implementing inventory activity history and traceability has the advantage of enhancing efficiency through automated processes. You can save time and lower the possibility of errors and as a result, you may concentrate on more crucial activities like analyzing your inventory data and making wise decisions regarding your inventory.

Preventing Employee Theft

Employee theft is a problem that many businesses face, and it may be especially harmful to managing inventory. But despite its damaging effects, it is challenging to discuss because it concerns the relationship of trust between an employer and their employees. 

Employee theft can be challenging to detect, and many businesses may not even realize that it is occurring. Employee theft can take many forms, from stealing physical inventory to manipulating inventory records to cover up their actions.

Businesses may choose not to talk about employee theft but they sure attempt to address this issue in another way such as using inventory tracking solutions.

How Inventory Management Software Can Help with Traceability

Inventory management software has grown in popularity over the past several years because of its ability to give businesses a more streamlined and effective way to track inventory levels, sales, and other crucial data. Utilizing this software has a number of advantages, including the ability to give activity history and traceability, which can aid in lowering employee theft and other types of fraud.

Traceability and activity history are terms used to describe the capacity to track and observe each and every transaction and movement of inventory products. This includes details like who carried out the transaction, when it happened, and what goods were involved. With this level of detail, businesses can quickly identify any unusual or suspicious activity, such as the unauthorized movement of large amounts of inventory from the system.

Medical Laboratory Inventory Activity History Sample

Inventory management software can help with traceability through the activity history feature. This feature records all inventory activities such as receipts, shipments, and transfers in real time, allowing you to have a complete record of all inventory movements. Additionally, by providing access to this information to relevant employees, you can monitor inventory activities and ensure that policies and procedures are being followed.

Real-Time Updates

With inventory management software, you can have real-time updates on inventory activities, allowing you to quickly respond to any discrepancies or potential issues. This helps to prevent inventory losses and improve employee accountability.

Automated Record Keeping

Inventory management software automates the record-keeping process, reducing the risk of human error and ensuring that all inventory activities are accurately recorded. This makes it easier to track the movement of inventory items and maintain traceability.

Conclusion

One cannot overstate the value of keeping accurate records of inventory activity. It is an essential tool for preventing employee theft and maintaining precise inventory levels. Businesses can prevent employee theft and protect against potential financial losses by investing in inventory management software that provides real-time visibility into inventory levels and generates accurate inventory activity history. Don’t wait until it’s too late – invest in inventory management technology right away to keep your inventory safe and your business profitable. 

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Inventory Demo Map

The Power of Cloud-Based Inventory Management for Your Business

Advances in technology made inventory management become more streamlined and effective. Its effectiveness has been further increased by the introduction of cloud-based solutions, giving businesses access to inventory data in real time and enabling seamless user collaboration.

What is a Cloud-based System?

A cloud-based system is a technology that enables users to access and control data, services, and programs with the use of the internet. This indicates that the software and its data are kept on a remote server and are accessible from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.

One popular cloud-based system is Amazon AWS. It provides a variety of computing services which includes cloud inventory management. It allows users to access the same tools and services for inventory management online rather than having to install and manage locally. As a result, businesses can easily scale up or down their IT operations in accordance with operational demands.

Cloud-Based System for Inventory Management

A cloud-based inventory management system is a software that enables businesses to monitor their inventory or execute inventory processes through the internet on remote servers. 

Cloud-based inventory software also offers real-time data on inventory levels, sales, movements of products, and other necessary indicators for your day-to-day operations. A cloud-based inventory management software also enables improved cooperation and effective decision-making because several users can use the software from various locations. Having a centralized tool that shows real-time data avoids any discrepancy in numbers, especially for businesses with a wide variety of products and multiple locations and channels.

Cloud-based versus On-premise Inventory Management Systems

Both of these are still common nowadays, however, there are pros and cons that we can’t ignore depending on what business or inventory processes need.

On-premise inventory management systems are those applications that are installed and maintained by businesses on their own servers and infrastructure.  This indicates that the business has total control over the system information including the capacity to adapt its functions to meet specific business needs. Being able to have a system that is adaptable to all your needs sounds really good but this means you are also in charge of setting up the necessary hardware and infrastructure and maintaining and updating it to keep running.

On the other hand, cloud-based inventory management systems are maintained and hosted by the software provider. This means that the business can concentrate on using the system to manage inventories without having to worry about the technological side of things. For businesses with multiple sites or geographically dispersed staff, cloud-based technologies are also typically more scalable and accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. 

Businesses must take into consideration their unique demands and objectives when choosing between an on-premise and a cloud-based inventory management solution. An on-premise or locally installed system can be a better choice for organizations that need a high level of control and customization over their inventory processes. On the other hand, businesses that require accessibility, simplicity, and scalability would prefer a cloud-based system.

Below are some of the pros and cons of an on-premise and cloud-based inventory management system:

CyberStockroom as Cloud-based Inventory Management System

CyberStockroom is a cloud-based inventory management system. It uses Amazon AWS, which offers scalable and dependable cloud computing solutions. This indicates users don’t need to be concerned about system performance or data storage constraints to handle rising inventory levels and expanding operations. Additionally, Amazon AWS enhances the security and availability of CyberStockroom’s data and services.

Other Key Features

  • Map-based Approach: Using a map-based approach, CyberStockroom can easily manage and track inventory by visualizing their actual locations.
  • Inventory Visibility: CyberStockroom gives organizations immediate access to information on the status of their inventories, facilitating informed decisions.
  • Barcoding: For quick and precise inventory tracking, the system allows barcode scanning.
  • Loss and theft prevention: Security measures like activity history are included in the system to help avoid loss and theft. It keeps every action accounted for. 
  • Custom fields: CyberStockroom gives users the option to modify or add fields their business requires to make their inventory processes and tracking more effective. 
IT Asset Demo Map by CyberStockroom

Maximizing Efficiency and Accuracy with a Customizable Inventory Management Solution

Customizable inventory management software is a solution designed to help businesses manage their inventory effectively. It allows businesses to track inventory levels, set reorder thresholds, and manage warehouses, storage, and products in general.

Customizable inventory management software can perform the same procedures as the standard inventory management system, including:

  • Monitor stock levels in real time.
  • Set reorder points to guarantee that merchandise is constantly available.
  • Create reports that help in making inventory decisions
  • Automate the purchasing process
  • Monitor the flow of goods through the supply chain

But the ability to customize inventory management software to a business’s unique requirements is one of its greatest benefits.

Customizing Your Inventory

A flexible and customizable inventory management system is essential for any business regardless of size. You may have either a small or large business, it is important that you can make adjustments to make it perfectly fit. 

A way to customize your inventory is by creating a customized inventory management system. This system can include a variety of tools such as spreadsheets, databases, and other software solutions.

Customizable Inventory Tool

Using inventory management software is one of the most efficient ways to tailor your inventory. Software is much better and easier to customize. In addition to these functions, inventory management solutions have strong automation capabilities that enable users to decrease the amount of manual input required.

Sections in inventory management software like CyberStockroom can be modified. Expiration dates, visual characteristics that make products and locations simpler to identify, and fields for product specifics like suppliers or manufacturers, size, quantity, categories, style, and size are a few examples.

Numerous functions offered by various software might help you optimize your inventory. But you must examine more closely to see what you actually require.

Most organizations that require a lot of customization in their inventory need to put these two things on the top of their list when looking for the best inventory software:

  • Simplicity – Managing inventory can certainly be a time-consuming task, it drastically takes away time that you could be focusing on the business. It doesn’t have to be difficult. With the right inventory software, you can easily add custom product details, set inventory thresholds, and adjust expiration dates. Inventory management software has user-friendly interfaces that allow you to make changes quickly and easily. 
  • Customizability – How customizable the inventory software is? Depending on your business needs, you may need a more flexible tool that will fit your inventory needs.

What does perfect customized inventory management software look like?

First off, what additional properties and details do you need to track your inventory? In addition to the common fields such as SKUs, Product Name and Number, and Price, other properties and details that may be useful to track in an inventory management system include:

  • Quantity on hand: The current quantity of the item in stock.
  • Reorder point: The threshold at which the inventory level of an item triggers a reorder.
  • Unit of measure: The unit in which the item is measured (e.g. each, dozen, case).
  • Location: The physical location where the item is stored.
  • Category: A classification of the item, such as raw materials, finished goods, or non-inventory.
  • Vendor: The supplier of the item.
  • Barcode tag: A unique identifier that can be scanned to quickly and easily track the item.
  • Serial number or batch number: A unique identifier that is used to track individual items within a batch or lot.
  • Expiration date: The date on which the item expires or becomes unusable/unsellable.
  • Sales price: The price at which the item is sold.
  • Gross profit margin: The difference between the cost and the sales price of the item.
  • Weight or volume: The weight or volume of the item, used for shipping or storage calculations.

Aside from these fields that you can customize to fit your business needs, some software applications offer extensive customization, such as mapping out all your inventory locations.

How Does Visual Inventory Map Works?

A visual inventory map is a graphical representation of an inventory system that allows easy tracking. It can be in the form of a flowchart, diagram, or other visual aids that show the location of inventory items, as well as their quantities, status, and other relevant information. The purpose of a visual inventory map is to provide a clear, concise, and easy-to-understand overview of the inventory system, making it easier to manage and optimize inventory levels, reducing shrinkage and losses, and improving supply chain management.

Hospital Inventory Map Dashboard Sample

A customizable dashboard is a visual representation of your business. It reflects precisely how each building, room, bin, and the vehicle is laid out in your business.

This kind of flexible and adaptable inventory management system is very beneficial for a business’s daily operations. The main benefit is increased operation-wide visibility, which enables businesses to react quickly and effectively to common issues in inventory management and unforeseen operational disruptions.

Here are some things to consider when selecting customizable inventory management software:

Determine your business’s needs: It’s crucial to know what your company needs before selecting any software. What problems do you have managing your inventory? What features and capabilities should your software have?

Evaluate potential software: Look for software that offers the features and functions you need and fits within your budget.

Consider the vendor’s support and training: Make sure the software seller offers sufficient training and support so you can get the most out of your program.

Read reviews and testimonials: To learn more about the software’s advantages and disadvantages, read evaluations and case studies from valid firms and businesses.

Learn more about Customizable Inventory Management Software and try it for free HERE!

Challenges of Using Spreadsheets for Inventory Management

Spreadsheet inventory management is a great way to manage your inventory. It is relatively easy to set up and maintain, and it gives you an overall picture of what you have in stock. You can track product information, and generate reports. It is also a great way to keep track of your profits and losses. If you are not familiar with how it works, there are also many resources available online that provide step-by-step instructions. 

Spreadsheet inventory management is excellent for small businesses and retailers. However, when the business starts growing, the distribution channels, storage, and warehouses, as well as the number of employees increase making it harder to keep an eye out on everything that’s happening in the business. 

Top 5 disadvantages of using spreadsheet inventory

One of the main disadvantages of using a spreadsheet inventory system is that it can be difficult to maintain accuracy in the data. Spreadsheets are designed to be used by humans, and manual entry can lead to errors or typos.

Additionally, spreadsheets are usually limited to a single user at a time, making it difficult to have multiple people make changes or additions to the inventory at the same time. Finally, spreadsheets are static, meaning that they don’t have the ability to link to external databases or make decisions based on the data, making it difficult to automate processes.

Listed below are just some of the disadvantages and the common ones you may encounter with spreadsheets inventory management.

  1. Data Entry Errors: When manually entering data into a spreadsheet, it’s easy to make typos or input incorrect information, which can create major errors in your inventory record.
  2. Outdated Reports: Spreadsheets are only as accurate as the data entered into them, which means that if the data is not updated regularly, the reports generated from them will be outdated and unreliable.
  3. Time-consuming: Spreadsheets are not the most efficient way to manage inventory. It can take a lot of time to enter and manage data in a spreadsheet, which could be better spent on other tasks.
  4. Lack of Automation: Manual data entry can be time-consuming and error-prone, but with spreadsheets, there is little to no way to automate most of the process.
  5. Security Concerns: Spreadsheets are vulnerable to malicious activity and can be easily corrupted or deleted. This could result in the loss of important inventory data.

How to organize spreadsheet inventory records?

Another disadvantage of spreadsheet inventory management is keeping inventory data organized and up-to-date. Here are some tips that can help out:

  • Utilize filters and sorting capabilities to quickly and easily organize data.
  • Automate data entry using formulas and functions.
  • Take advantage of data validation to prevent errors.
  • Develop a comprehensive naming convention for your spreadsheets and columns.
  • Regularly review and update your inventory to prevent outdated data.

Why you should switch to using inventory management software?

For the record, the tips above should be enough to manage small inventory data. However, everything changes when it comes to a larger scale of inventory data and how many people need to have access to it in real time. 

This is where inventory management software comes in. 

Advantages of using inventory management software

Switching to inventory management software is a great move because it helps to streamline processes, reduce costs, and provide a greater level of accuracy, control, and visibility over inventory.

With the right inventory management software, businesses can easily keep track of stock levels, quickly identify shortages, and accurately forecast future inventory needs. It also helps to reduce manual labor and paperwork associated with managing inventory, allowing businesses to focus on other aspects of their operations.

In short, inventory management software helps businesses save time and money while providing greater accuracy and control over their inventory. The following are just some of the advantages of using inventory management software:

  1. Improved accuracy: Inventory management software can help to ensure that your inventory records are always up-to-date and accurate. This can help you to avoid costly errors and ensure that your stock levels are always correct.
  2. Increased efficiency: It can help to streamline the process of ordering and receiving inventory, making it quicker and easier to manage your stock.
  3. Enhanced visibility: With inventory management software, you can easily view and track your inventory levels in real time. This helps you to keep a close eye on your stock and be aware of when you need to order more.
  4. Reduced costs: Keeping track of inventory manually can be time-consuming and expensive. You may need to hire people and assign them to do different tasks at a time because they can not be using the same excel sheet simultaneously and hiring another individual to incorporate different spreadsheets to create one report. With inventory management software, multiple users can do multiple tasks at the same time. 
  5. Improved customer satisfaction: Keeping accurate records of your inventory levels helps you to ensure that you always have the products your customers need. This helps to keep them satisfied and can improve your reputation as a reliable supplier.

Managing Inventory in a Spreadsheet and the Efficient Alternative

Inventory Management in Excel

Small businesses who are just getting started with inventory management find spreadsheet inventory tracking to be an appealing option. This is because a spreadsheet is more inexpensive, flexible, and keeps things straightforward. Employees and executives do not need to start out by learning a complex software structure. They only need to learn how to utilize Excel spreadsheets’ basic functions to begin adding to and keeping track of their inventory.

Using Excel inventory management, businesses can keep track of their current inventory. Users can manually input their product information into spreadsheet rows and columns to manage inventory counts, verify product availability, and update these data as things are sold or moved.

Building Inventory Management in Excel Spreadsheets

Most people are familiar with using spreadsheets so most employees are familiar or even proficient with it because they have been using it for years. It is easy to keep everyone on the same page because of this familiarity.

To start building an inventory tracking spreadsheet, it is essential that you are familiar with the program and how to organize your inventory data using category columns and manual product entry. 

  1. Create a Spreadsheet with your product information. You can start off by creating a spreadsheet with a list of all your products and their descriptions and information. This will serve as your product catalog or your products tab which will be very helpful to avoid entering repetitive information again and again. For starters, this consists of categories such as SKU or Product Number, Item Name, Description, Manufacturer, etc.
  2. Create a Spreadsheet tab for Inventory Tracking. This is a more comprehensive sheet. It usually includes It is also essential to have categorized columns to make it more organized and easier to filter out information. Depending on your business, you may add columns for quantity, quantity per package, and price.
  3. Set up Received and Sales sheets. These sheets’ categories and functions depend on your business needs. The Received tab is where all your purchase inventory whereas the Sales tab is for your sold inventory. These two tabs will determine your inventory on hand and see any discrepancies in your inventory data. 
  4. Make adjustments as you replenish your inventory or make sales. Though excel spreadsheets can do automatic functions, you still need to update some of the details manually to get an accurate inventory record. 

Disadvantages of Excel Spreadsheet Inventory Tracking

Why upgrade your inventory management system from excel? Spreadsheets are a vital tool for businesses, particularly those in beginning mode or with little resources to carry out basic processes or financial management, and we’re not here to underrate its features and usability. The complexity of your inventory management will, however, grow as you develop your business and advance to the next level.

When your business is expanding, some tasks become more tedious and even more difficult to find the time to update your sheet, manually track inventory, and monitor the distribution network. In other words, managing your growing firm with Excel spreadsheets will show to be highly constrained.

Let’s investigate why that is by taking a look at common concerns with Excel inventory management.

  • Time-consuming process. Maintaining your inventory spreadsheets takes time. It takes a lot of time to input, update, evaluate, and reconcile data. The list of these tasks just goes on.  And if you want to delegate any of those tasks to someone else, you’ll need to teach them how to use the Excel inventory template’s features so they can handle your data. While spreadsheets are useful for working with a single set of numbers, the demands on your time will increase considerably as soon as you expand your business and add more SKUs to your inventory list. Your efforts and energy should ideally be concentrated on profit-driving tasks that add value to your company. Spending the entire day entering data into a spreadsheet is not a good investment.
  • Lack of Security. Excel does not provide user logins or other security measures, therefore it is impossible to identify the person who made changes to the inventory spreadsheets. If you are not attentive, this lack of security could lead to serious issues in the future.
  • Lack of Automation. Although you can make formulas for cells, the data still needs to be manually entered into the cells. Most users use formulas, pivot tables, and conditional formatting to “automate” tasks and calculations within their Excel inventory management template. When you need to update inventory counts across different sales channels, monitor reorder levels when supplies run low, or move distribution centers to better fulfill orders, those functionalities, however, are relatively useless. Spreadsheets for managing inventories won’t work in any of these situations.
  • Greater risk for incurring errors. Human error is inevitable. However, there is a greater chance of making mistakes when hundreds of lines of data must be manually entered into an inventory spreadsheet. Every manual error has an impact on your bottom line, and even the most experienced and well-trained data entry specialist occasionally makes mistakes.
  • Maybe reliant on specific employees – employees, whether we like it or not, come and go. If the employee who designed or managed the inventory spreadsheet tracker quits, the following employee may find it challenging to fill that role unless the former has written extensive documentation of everything. 

By adopting an inventory management system such as CyberStockroom, you can eliminate all of these issues and get many more advantages. 

How to import spreadsheet inventory to an inventory management software

When you finally decide to switch to an inventory management system, one of your questions may be how you would be able to enter your inventory into the system?, do you need to add them one by one? or is there something you do to make it seamless?

For this example, we will be using CyberStockroom to see how to create products and locations in an inventory management system.

There are two ways to enter your inventory data into an inventory management system. First is manually adding them to your product catalog. This one is effective only when you have a few lists of products and they do not have a lot of variations. The second option is to upload your existing spreadsheet inventory into your inventory management system. It usually takes less than a minute to do this. 

Three simple steps to import your spreadsheet inventory.

Assuming that you have created your inventory map with all your locations, the following are the steps to start fully utilizing your inventory management system:

1. Create new products

Make your spreadsheet ready with the basic information you need. You can create as many products and columns as you need to make your record more organized and easy to filter out. 

2. Match the columns in your file to your product fields

The system will determine which columns are for which items. 

3. Check the products into your locations

After the first two steps above, your products are now uploaded to your product catalog. You can then start checking in products to your locations. 

When you’re ready to switch from spreadsheet inventory and want to try out a user-friendly yet offers a huge upgrade? CyberStockroom may be a good fit! Sign up through this link. 

Serialized Inventory Tracking: What is it and How Does it Work?

The quantity of each product is one of the most crucial pieces of information to monitor in the majority of inventory management processes. Most of the time, your inventory requirements are met as long as you are aware of how much of the stock for each product is entering through the back door and out through the front. But what if you need to track individual inventory separately from the total product quantity?

What is serialized inventory?

There are many cases in which individual items in your storage and products being sold need to have unique identifiers. Serialized inventory is the tracking of individual units or products using distinctive series of numbers or alpha-numeric combinations. Serial numbers indicate a particular product or a component of a product. 

One example of this is the computers and peripherals in a corporate business. When the pandemic hits, IT people have to be wise in tracking where and to whom the equipment are being assigned. Also, in the medical field, it is common to use unique identifiers to track high-value items not only for inventory management purposes but for easily tracking equipment’s lifecycle and also for the management of repair and warranties in case of any claims are needed.

How to create serial numbers for your inventory?

Below are the different ways to set up inventory serial numbers or product serialization. This process depends on your industry and the items you are tracking:

  • Use the serial numbers created by your inventory management system
  • Any number provided by the manufacturer
  • Create your serial number 
  • Generate  QR Codes

Serialization is different from having SKUs. These two are commonly mistaken to be the same but they are not. Serialization is being used for the thorough traceability of individual units or items whereas SKUs are location-specific identification that is commonly used in retail businesses and warehouses.

What technology can support the serialization of inventory?

We need to know that serialized tracking of inventory is effective and efficient but that is the case only when is executed properly. Manual tracking of inventory will not work because the use of numbers is a high risk of human error. 

Barcoding is the most important ingredient to have success in serialized tracking of inventory and to get the barcode system running, you have to have an inventory management system that supports barcoding. From there, you should be able to track individual serial numbers from receiving them at the dock to their final destination.

Inventory Management: Tracking Expiration Dates

Why do you track inventory expiration dates? That is either because your business might be run by a regulatory agency that forces you to monitor inventory expiration dates, or it is just for inventory management when you want to sell the oldest inventory first before you sell the new ones.

Tracking inventory alone is already a long and tedious process. It takes time and can cost you a lot, especially when you have multiple locations and your items are moving a lot.

So whatever the reason is, it is already a part of inventory management and it is important to have this part properly set up in your procedures to avoid piling up problems with obsolescence and losses.

Importance of expiration date tracking in inventory management

Keeping an eye on your inventory expiry dates is one way to become more efficient in handling your inventory. This is very crucial, and a keen eye is needed to monitor expiration dates, not only with the existing items in your inventory but also for the incoming batches.

Expired items lead to substantial capital losses. The common strategy is to rotate stock on the shelves. The sooner the product expiration dates should be rotated to the front and the later the expiry date should be put to the rear.

The first-in, first-out (FIFO) stocking strategy is the foundation of most inventory control strategies.

Even though FIFO is a very straightforward procedure, why do businesses still fail to do this? It is because they don’t know which items are about to expire or already expired in the first place!

The importance of expiration dates is knowing what items and when these items would go bad. When you are aware of this, you will be prepared and make some adjustments such as putting them in front of newer items for sale or selling them at markdown prices to your customers.

Is there any Inventory Management Software that has an expiration date feature?

Absolutely! There are a lot, actually. But how expiration date indicator should appear in your inventory management system? If you are using excel, it should have a color coding that will prompt you to restock your inventory.

For inventory management systems, it should clearly show not just the items that are about to expire or already expired. It should show and allow you to see where these items are located in your inventory.

Inventory expiration date tracking goes hand and hand with inventory level tracking solutions. Both are quite useful when it comes to keeping the ideal inventory level and avoiding obsolescence. Expiration dates aren’t just for perishable goods, they can also be used as a reminder for routine maintenance or auditing. This is also where the useful life of certain equipment may be set to determine if it performed its function for the specified amount of time or to use as a reference if it has to be replaced soon.

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