No matter what business you run, it is crucial to properly track inventory. Our inventory is what keeps our business alive! No matter what the product is, whether it's maintainted in a store, a warehouse, or even a start-up that is running out of a garage or storage unit (some of us have, and fondly remember, those days) we need to know what is coming in and going out. Some days get so fast paced that keeping tabs on the flow of our product can be overwhelming, and constantly having to do double takes of what we have in inventory is time consuming, and time that could be better spent doing productive activities for our business.
Inventory management should get as much attention as we place on growing our business or providing great customer service. This is why we must have a strong inventory tracking process in place, and fortunately we can leverage technology to do the hard work for us. Inventory management software can help us streamline our tracking, and there are numerous inventory software programs out there that specifically address the needs of small business.
Small Business Inventory Management
The following is a list of popular small business inventory management software programs.
Inflow Inventory
inflow Inventory offers a dynamic range of product offerings with integration compatibility for Shopify and Quickbooks Online. This inventory control software covers the needs of small to large scale businesses with an emphasis on retail, warehousing, manufacturing, and ecommerce. With features that cover a number of business functional requirements; barcoding, orders, pick/pack/ship, invoicing, purchasing, with a dashboard and showrooms.
inFlow Inventory offers three software service levels. It is important to note that maintenance plans are available for the Regular and Premium Editions; $99 and $199 per year, respectively.
Free Edition
- Will not cost money- Max of 100 products/customers
- Reporting (13)
- Read-Only for multi-user mode
- Chat, Email, Forum, and Phone support
Regular Edition
- $399 per license- Unlimited products/customers
- Reporting (25)
- Read/Write for multi-user mode
- Document customization
- Chat, Email, Forum, and Phone support
Premium Edition
- $799 per license- Unlimited products/customers
- Reporting (30)
- Read/Write for multi-user mode
- Document customization
- Multiple logins
- Access rights restrictions
- BOM and Work Order
- Chat, Email, Forum, and Phone support
AdvancePro
AdvancePro offers a variety of supply chain management solutions with core products and additional plug-ins available; making their product flexible and scaleable to help meet the needs of almost any business. Their accounting program integrates with Quickbooks, and they offer inventory and warehouse management capabilities, as well as order, pricing, vendor, and business intelligence features. They do offer a free trial, and their package pricing is definitely small business friendly, with pricing starting at $85 per month.
NCR
NCR offers a LARGE variety of software products for small, medium, and large scale business operations. Whether you're looking for Warehouse Management or retail POS packages, NCR offers solutions. Their primary emphasis is on restaurant and retail operations, but their services can be adopted and utilized by other types of industries. In addition to their product offering, they provide tools that integrate data analytics which help add value to the data you capture in your transactions.
Inventory Management Features
There are many features of their warehouse management software, but the following are some highlights:
- Cross-docking
- Kitting and product processing
- Inventory control (cycle counts, rotation, and transfers)
- Inbound operations (receiving and returns)
- Outbound operations (order selection and shipping)
Wasp for Small Business
Wasp offers Inventory (barcode and scanner), POS, and time & attendance tracking products for small business operations. Their integrated product offering helps to organize the numerous activities that occur from receiving to shipping (to include all the tasks that occur in between). This not only helps keep track of inventory with efficiency, but their applications help get a grip on productivity to help identify, and improve, labor efficiencies as well. Wasp is ideal for asset and inventory tracking needs.
SOS Inventory
SOS Inventory is an application that works with Quickbooks Online. The program is ideal for small businesses that are looking for Inventory, order management, and manufacturing solutions. SOS works with Shopify, ShipStation, UPS, and PayPal to name a few. They offer a 14 day free trial with no committment. Per intuit.com there are three service level packages:
Companion
$39.95/month & $15/user per monthFor small business basic inventory tracking
- sales orders
- assemblies
- FIFO
- partial receiving and fulfillment
- packing slips
Plus
$79.95/month & $15/user per monthSame as Companion plan, to include:
- serial number tracking
- lot tracking
- unlimited locations
- barcoding
Pro
$119.95/month & $15/user per monthSame as Plus package, to include:
- Work-in-Progress tracking
- job costing
- customer portal
Unleashed
Unleashed offers Inventory Control for warehousing operations and manufacturing. In addition to tracking, there are a number of dashboards that provide insight on business metrics; inventory costs, margins, profits, with full stock visibility. Users can also update dimension data related to products, as well as setting inventory min/max levels. Unleashed is affordable, keeping small business in mind... but they offer scaleable services for larger organizations as well.
Goldenseal
Goldenseal is primarily intended for small businesses that offer products and services, but don't utilize POS (point of sale) equipment. They offer several different software packages, but their Retail Business Software is ideal for retailers, wholesalers and distributors, and ecommerce.
Primary Features
- Sales Transaction Tracking- Shipping and Delivery
- Markups
- Customer Discounts
- Cost Accounting
- CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Veeqo
Veeqo offers inventory management for businesses of all sizes. Allowing retailers to manage stock across multiple channels, Veeqo helps manage the entire back end process. Key inventory management features include inventory syncing, inventory forecasting, automated purchasing management, product bundles, inventory warehouse transferring and cycle stock taking. Other helpful features include performance reporting, store connection, accounting integrations and inventory automation rules. With over 40 integrations, Veeqo also offers order and fulfilment management.
Accelerator plan (from $163/m)
- Unlimited products
- 2 users
- 3 sales channels
- Order rules
- Phone, live chat and email support
- iOs and Android app
High Growth plan(from $212/m)
- 4 users
- 5 sales channels
- Purchasing and inventory forecasting
- User permissions
- Returns management
- Supplier CRM
- Automatic re-order products low in stock
Premium plan(from $271/m)
- 5 users
- 6 sales channels
- Digital Picking
- Stock transfer
- Stock take with hardware scanner
