| You must have certain business fundamentals in place | | | | track your inventory. Tracking by hand involves |
| if you wish to be successful. The ability to track your | | | | keeping a ledger of all of your line items and recording |
| business inventory is one of those fundamentals you | | | | the activity of each one as it moves through your |
| must have in place. You must be able to determine, at | | | | process. You will need to capture the item number, |
| any time and with a moment's notice, what stock you | | | | quantity on hand, location in your business, the cost of |
| have on hand, when the next shipment is due, and | | | | the item, who the supplier is, etcetera, etcetera, |
| where the product is in your store room. This enables | | | | etcetera. A slightly more efficient process is the use of |
| you to efficiently deal with your customers and | | | | the computer spreadsheet. While you still have to |
| suppliers, providing them accurate information at the | | | | enter all of the information, you can at least sort it and |
| point it is needed. Another benefit to the efficient and | | | | edit it to make it more useful. |
| accurate management of your inventory is the | | | | The most efficient way is the use of a bar coding |
| reduction in lost products or components. Accurate | | | | system. Once setup, this system will automatically |
| tracking keeps employees honest and your inventory | | | | capture the required information. Marry this with a |
| losses down. | | | | computerized Inventory Management Software |
| The thought of going into business for your self has | | | | package and you are on the way to obtaining real |
| intrigued people for generations. Being your own boss | | | | time, accurate information you can use throughout |
| has perceived benefits like working your own hours, | | | | your business. Most Inventory Management Systems |
| taking time off whenever you want, making good | | | | will do more than track your inventory. They can also |
| money, etc. Well, if you talk with almost any business | | | | manage your sales process, feed your accounting |
| person they will tell you that they actually work harder, | | | | system and even make orders for you directly to your |
| longer, and for less pay then they ever imagined they | | | | supplier. |
| would. Often times the small business owner must | | | | With inventory tracking in place using an automated |
| wear many hats and manage and perform activates | | | | Inventory Management System, you can be on your |
| across a wide range of business functions. This | | | | way to achieving some of those dreams small |
| generally spreads the owner so thin that many of | | | | business owners have when starting their business in |
| these tasks are performed haphazardly. Since most | | | | the first place. Inventory tracking is part of a foundation |
| owners of businesses are properly focused on the | | | | of skills necessary to enable a business to thrive and |
| customer, the back office activities like Inventory | | | | grow. Installing an Inventory Management Software |
| tracking are often left unmanaged. | | | | Package will give companies, small and large, the ability |
| If you have a business with only a few products for | | | | to focus on their customer satisfaction while knowing |
| sale you are probably tracking this inventory by hand, if | | | | they have a system in place that will provide them |
| at all. But as your business grows and your products | | | | with all the information they need. |
| and sales increase, it will be absolutely necessary to | | | | |