Author Archives: dearsyst

New Release 05-Nov-2017 – Amazon Publishing, DEAR POS report enhancements & simplified unit of measure conversions!

Posted on by

Amazon Publishing: We have enhanced catalog management in DEAR which now allows you to publish individual products and variants for existing ASINs on Amazon. For more information please see here

DEAR POS: We are continuing to improve functionality in our POS and have now added a detailed register closure report.

Additional Unit of Measures: Some products have different units of measure, for example if you buy single soda cans but sell them in packs. Or maybe if you buy soil in Tonnes but sell it in Kilograms. DEAR now simplifies the way this is done by offering alternative units of measure in product setup. For more information please see here

10 Practical Ways to Reduce the Cost of Inventory

Posted on by

Share
Tweet
Share

Lower your cost of inventory with 10 tips you can use right away

In a competitive market, cutting costs is a smart way to stay one step ahead of everyone else.

So what costs should you cut?

Well, you could hire a 3PL provider to reduce overhead costs, or replace Excel inventory management with a more efficient system to increase your productivity – thereby reducing labor expenses.

The best cuts to make are in areas that already cost you a lot of money.

There’s one area of your business that costs 20-30{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of your total inventory, and you should do everything possible to reduce its impact on your bottom line.

What is it?

Your cost of inventory.

There are many ways to cut the costs of inventory, and we’ll show you 10 ways that you can use today.

Before we do that, let’s define the cost of inventory.

What is the Cost of Inventory?

The cost of inventory is the “carrying cost” of holding and storing inventory over a certain period of time. It’s calculated to determine the amount of profit a business stands to gain. It also helps you determine how much more or less inventory you need to satisfy demand.

Types of inventory costs include:

– Purchasing costs

– Taxes

– Labor costs

– Obsolescence

– Insurance

– Security

– Transportation and handling

If you need help calculating your cost of inventory, you can use this formula.

If your cost of inventory is already higher than it should be, or you know it could be lower, then let’s check out a handful of ways to reduce those costs.

How Do You Reduce the Cost of Inventory?

The cost of inventory can quickly add up, leaving you with little profit and overblown expenses. You can reclaim your cash flow and grow your revenue by applying only 1 or 2 strategies for reducing the cost of inventory.

Here are 10 strategies to choose from, any one of which could help you reach your desired amount of inventory costs.

Avoid Minimum Order Quantities

A minimum order quantity (MOQ) is defined as the smallest amount or number of a product that a company will supply.

MOQs are very common, and they’re used by suppliers and manufacturers to unload more of their inventory on retailers and wholesalers – reducing their cost of inventory but increasing yours.

They might offer you deals to sweeten their MOQ, like “buy 50 widgets and receive 10 free widgets,” but this only adds extra widgets to your inventory you may not be able to sell.

There are a few ways to avoid the burden of MOQs.

If you’re friends with a fellow business owner who needs the same stock as you, pool your cash and buy it together and then split it between yourselves. This can go a long way in reducing your inventory costs.

You could also offer to pay your supplier a little more money for less inventory, enticing them to forego their MOQ policy – which could save you more money in the long run.

Of course, if you can negotiate a deal with your supplier to dismiss MOQs altogether without paying extra, that would be ideal.

Know Your Reorder Point

A reorder point formula will help you determine when you need to order your next shipment of stock.

Knowing your reorder point can ensure you never order too much and risk obsolescence, but never order too little and risk stockouts.

Organize Your Warehouse

An organized warehouse will help you efficiently sort your inventory and quickly pick it later. An unorganized warehouse will increase travel expenses along with the likelihood of misplaced or damaged inventory.

This is especially true in major warehouses where workers are traveling thousands of square feet for a single piece of inventory.

The key to laying out your warehouse is putting your fast-moving items up-front in the staging area. This optimizes your pick, pack, and ship process.

An added bonus is that a well-designed warehouse optimizes your stocktaking process, too.

Get Rid of Obsolete Stock

Holding too much inventory increases the chance that the stock you thought would sell is now taking up valuable space in your warehouse and costing you more money than you paid for it.

The essence of reducing the cost of inventory is inventory reduction.

The less you have, the less your costs will be. And obsolete stock is the most costly inventory you can have.

If you already have a lot of obsolete stock, you can try product bundling to sell more of it, or try discounting them individually.

If you can’t sell them, you may be able to donate your obsolete stock for a tax write-off.

Once you clear away the obsolete stock, you’ll have more room for fast-selling inventory.

Implement a Just-in-Time Inventory System

Just-in-time inventory (JIT) management is a method for keeping almost no inventory in your warehouse at all, but instead, ordering everything you need the moment you need it.

It’s a form of lean manufacturing that would mostly eliminate the cost of inventory.

It requires you to:

– Develop a strong relationship with your supplier

– Find a long-term supplier for each purchased part

– Shorten your production cycle

– Separate your repetitive orders from you one-stop business

– Institute or improve your quality control program

While JIT isn’t for everybody, it’s a proven way to dramatically reduce your inventory costs.

Use Consignment Inventory

Consignment inventory allows you to offload a portion of your inventory to the retailer carrying your inventory.

The catch to this arrangement is that the retailer doesn’t pay for the inventory upfront. Instead, they pay you when they make a sale.

If you’re OK with that, selling on consignment can be an easy way to reduce your cost of inventory.

Reduce Your Lead Time

Lead time reduction is the process of shortening the time it takes to receive a purchase order.

The shorter, the better.

Lead time reduction works to lower your cost of inventory in 2 ways:

1. It allows you to keep less safety stock inventory – which means less obsolete stock in the future

2. It allows you to order less stock more frequently – making it possible to reduce the size and cost of your warehouse

Monitor KPIs

Tracking your inventory KPIs is an essential part of reducing costs in all aspects of your business, not just inventory costs.

The cost of inventory is certainly one major metric to track closely.

But you should also be measuring your write-offs and write-downs, your rate of inventory turnover, your cycle time and fill rate.

By comparing your numbers against your industry’s averages, you can assess how well you’re managing your business and warehouse, and how you can reduce your cost of inventory among many other costs.

Use a Perpetual Inventory System

The debate between periodic vs perpetual inventory is mostly coming to a close as more and more businesses recognize the cost-cutting power of a perpetual inventory system.

Perpetual inventory allows you to track your purchases and sales in real-time, allowing you to automatically order stock when necessary and maintain a healthy level of inventory.

Use Accurate Forecasts

Monitoring your business in real-time not only lets you know when you’re low on stock, it also helps you know your best-selling items, your worst-selling items, and trends in demand.

Forecasting demand through accurate reports allows you to order just enough to satisfy demand throughout the year, for every season.

You can also determine what products you need to discard, what you need more of, and give yourself the opportunity to test new products in the market.

But what SCM software will you need to acquire these in-depth reports?

A Must-Have Tool for Reducing Your Cost of Inventory

A cloud-based inventory management system is the tool you need to lower the cost of inventory.

It will help you know your reorder point, streamline your stocktake, lower your lead time, and deliver accurate metrics for tracking KPIs and forecasting demand.

The better you manage your inventory, the easier it will be to cut its costs.

If you want the tool that lets you manage your inventory from one intuitive interface, from anywhere in the world, whether you have 1 warehouse or 10, we can give it to you.

Start your free 14-day trial today

Share
Tweet
Share

Lead Time Reduction: Why It’s Important and How to Do It Right

Posted on by

Share
Tweet
Share

Are you tired of sitting on your hands, waiting for your products to arrive?

You may need to implement a few lead time reduction strategies.

Lead times vary from industry to industry, but they should still be consistent and relatively short.

If you’re not receiving shipments as quickly as you should, you won’t be able to serve your customers as well as you could – and you’ll lose revenue in the process.

To help you improve your customer service and increase your revenue, we’ll show you why lead time reduction is so important, and give you a few tips you can implement by the end of this post.

Before we get to that, let’s make sure we’re on the same page by defining lead time.

 

What is Lead Time?

Lead time is the time it takes to process an order and receive the shipment of your products. It’s a critical tool for calculating safety stock inventory, and for applying a correct reorder point formula.

It’s both dependent on your process for taking and placing orders – an Excel inventory management system vs a cloud-based inventory management system – along with how efficient your supplier can prepare and ship your stock.

For example, if you placed an order today, and receive a shipment in 8 days, your lead time for that specific order with that specific supplier is 8 days.

Your lead time will most likely vary for each order, but if you want to know your average lead time, you can use this formula:

The total number of lead times divided by the total number of orders placed.

i.e., if you order stock once a month for 6 months, your total number of orders placed would be 6.

Following this example, let’s assume these were your lead times:

January  8 Days
February  11 Days
March  9 Days
April  6 Days
May  7 Days
June  5 Days

 

Add up all the lead times (8+11+9+6+7+5) = 46.

Now just use our formula:

The total number of lead times (46) divided by the total number of orders placed (6) = 7.67

7.67 is your average lead time for this example.

Relative to your industry, the faster your lead time, the more efficient your entire supply chain will be – which is just one of a handful of benefits of lead time reduction.

 

Lead Time Reduction Benefits

The major benefits of reducing lead times are reduced carrying costs, streamlined operations, and improved productivity.

But the list doesn’t end there.

Here are a few more specific benefits of lead time reduction:

– Flexibility during rapid shifts in the market

– The ability to outpace your competitors with faster, more efficient output

– Quicker replenishment of stock to avoid stockouts, lost sales, and lost customers

– Meeting deadlines consistently and easily

– Increases in cash flow because of increased order fulfillment

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but gives you an idea of what you stand to gain if you can make even marginal reductions in your lead time – which we’ll cover in the next section.

 

Lead Time Reduction Strategies

If you want to reduce your lead time, here are a few strategies to get you started.

1. Create a Lead Time Contract With Every Supplier

You probably have a contract with your current supplier, but have you stipulated your terms and expectations on lead time?

Probably not, and you should.

Any supplier can make bold claims about their lead times, but many won’t live up to the hype.

When you ask your supplier to legally agree to predefined lead times, they may hesitate and become uneasy.

That’s good.

It means they’ll be more realistic in what they can offer you, and will be more likely to push themselves to maintain the agreed upon lead times.

Before this discussion takes place, you should already know your ideal lead time.

Once you’ve got that figured out, here’s what should be in your contract:

– Lead times for each specific order/stock

– The penalty for delayed or late shipments

– The penalty for damaged goods during transportation

– A notice in advance of a shortage of stock, discontinuations, or price changes

 

2. Order Inventory More Often

Many businesses place large bulk orders once every few weeks. This is predictable, and leaves you with plenty of stock in your warehouse.

However, that stock will quickly increase your carrying costs, and if it’s not sold, will become obsolete and will have to be dramatically discounted or discarded – and you’ll be stuck eating that cost.

Ordering smaller amounts of inventory more often – based on accurate sales data and realistic forecasts – helps you increase your rate of inventory turnover, lowering the overall cost of carrying inventory.

This method is best used by companies trying to implement a just-in-time inventory management solution, but it can also be used by companies who simply don’t want to order more than they need.

 

3. Share Sales Data With Your Supplier

If you keep detailed records of your sales data, and use these reports to order stock from your supplier, you can share it with them to increase your collaboration.

If they can see your sales data, they can anticipate an incoming order. They may even have your stock ready to be shipped the moment you send your purchase order if your orders are fairly consistent.

Sharing the burden of order quantity gives you the benefit of lower lead times, and gives your supplier the benefit of knowing how to best serve you alongside their other customers.

 

4. Automate Your Inventory Management

Forecasting demand, generating sales reports, and calculating lead times are much easier to accomplish when you aren’t wasting your time manually entering data and writing purchase orders.

Inventory management software can automate your stocktaking process, optimize your supply chain management, and help you balance your working capital.

Keeping track of purchase orders, stock levels, sales data, and carrying costs is simple and straightforward.

If you want to reduce lead times and streamline your operations, then we have the inventory management solution you need.

Start your free 14-day trial today

Share
Tweet
Share

How Consignment Inventory Works and How to Make It Work for You

Posted on by

Share
Tweet
Share

Do you ever wish you could try out a new product in your retail store and not have to buy it unless you sell it?

Or, wouldn’t it be nice to easily get your new product onto a retailer’s shelves without much hassle or haggling?

There is a unique business model that makes these 2 scenarios possible…

It’s called consignment inventory, and it’s an underutilized way to create a win-win partnership between suppliers and retailers as long as they’re both willing to share the risks – and rewards.

To help you learn how to make consignment inventory work for you, we’ll go over what it is, what are its pros and cons, and how to implement it wisely.

What is Consignment Inventory?

Consignment inventory is a business arrangement where the consignor (a vendor or wholesaler) agrees to give their goods to a consignee (usually a retailer) without the consignee paying for the goods up front – the consignor still owns the goods, and the consignee pays for the goods only when they actually sell.

For example, a women’s watch vendor might want to break into a new market, but they’re relatively unknown and have had a hard time selling their goods to retailers.

If the vendor offers their watches on consignment, the retailer agrees to stock the watches in their store and only pay for the ones they sell.

This arrangement can be hugely beneficial for both parties, but it also carries with it some major risks.

To get a balanced view of consignment inventory, let’s look at some of its pros and cons for both vendors and retailers.

 

Pros and Cons of Consignment Inventory for Vendors

Pros for Vendors

1. New Markets

As we pointed out in our women’s watch example, selling on consignment allows vendors to enter new markets at minimal cost to the retailers, which makes retailers more likely to carry the vendors’ inventory.

2. Low Inventory Carrying Costs

Inventory is expensive to warehouse. By giving a portion of it to a retailer, vendors lower the cost of carrying inventory.

3. Direct-to-Retailer Shipping

Instead of having inventory shipped to a warehouse and then to a retailer, vendors can have their manufacturers deliver the inventory directly to the retailer.

This streamlines the supply chain, saves labor costs, and gets goods on retailers shelves faster.

 

Cons for Vendors

1. Increased Cost for Unsold Inventory

Since the inventory is still owned by the vendor, they still have to count it as part of their assessment of their costs.

The vendor may profit less the longer the inventory is held without being used or sold.

2. Uncertain Cashflow

Vendors won’t receive payment until after some or all of the goods are sold by the retailer. Goods that aren’t sold are usually returned to the vendor.

This makes cashflow uncertain and volatile since they don’t know when or how much of the goods will be sold.

 

Pros and Cons of Consignment Inventory for Retailers

Pros for Retailers

1. Lower Cost of Ownership

Retailers are able to draw upon consignment inventory to use it without owning it, which lowers their total cost of ownership and holding costs.

2. Minimal Risk

Retailers don’t have to pay for the inventory upfront, which allows them to use their capital to purchase and sell more established products while taking on minimal risk when carrying a new supplier’s brand.

3. Improved Cashflow

The retailer pays nothing to hold the goods and only pay their vendor once they sell the products. The retailer doesn’t have to worry about excess holding costs since the vendor still owns the stock until it’s sold.

This means the retailer can hold more consignment inventory at lower cost and not have to worry about stockouts or buying goods that won’t sell in their store.

 

Cons for Retailers

1. Increased Risk of Damaging Inventory

The longer the retailer holds the inventory, the higher the chances of it getting damaged during normal business operations (which usually means they’re obligated to buy it).

2. Increased Chance of Stock Count Errors

Consignment inventory should be “invisible” to most employees. Meaning, it should be handled like all the other inventory.

If it has to be managed separately from the other types of inventory and the retailer isn’t using an inventory management system designed for consignment inventory, they may experience costly inventory errors such as double counting and shipping delays.

 

How do you Make Selling on Consignment Profitable for Both Parties?

Cultivate Mutually Beneficial Relationships

Vendors and retailers can reap the biggest rewards from consignment inventory if they develop an honest partnership and work together to improve their processes and strengthen their supply chain management.

Vendors should assist retailers in any capacity possible, and retailers should work to sell their consignment inventory as efficiently as possible.

 

Create a Mutually Beneficial Contract

Carefully outline the responsibilities and expectations of each party, the length of time the retailer will hold the inventory, the prices of the goods being sold, who is liable in the event of damage on the retailer’s property, etc.

The more detailed and thorough your contract is the more transparent your business partnership will be, which will help mitigate possible disputes and disagreements in the future.

 

Use an Inventory Management Software Designed for Consignment Inventory

Not any inventory management system will work with consignment inventory.

An Excel or paper-based inventory management system will make collaboration between vendor and retailer slow and difficult.

Most inventory management software only handles on-site inventory and doesn’t account for consignment arrangements.

And a lot of businesses don’t work on consignment very often, which makes the process confusing, dissuading businesses from trying it out.

An optimal solution to these problems would be making an investment in an inventory management software that is designed to handle consignment inventory.

Ideally, the software should:

– Track the inventory sent to the consignee

– Track what inventory needs to be replenished at the consignee’s site

– Track what inventory needs to be ordered to replenish the consignor’s stock

– And make consignment inventory management as easy as possible

Fortunately, there’s a solution that can do all of this for you…

 

Start your free 14-day trial today

Share
Tweet
Share

10 Fundamental Steps of Every Successful Stocktaking Process

Posted on by

Share
Tweet
Share

Performing a complete stocktake once or twice a year is absolutely essential for maintaining healthy inventory levels and minimizing losses in retail and wholesale businesses (not to mention keeping the accountants happy).

But they can definitely be time-consuming, energy-draining, and frustrating.

And without a clear plan for success, you face the risk of serious human errors – like overcounting or undercounting – that could cost you thousands of dollars and lost customers.

So, how do you stay organized and get things done quickly?

By developing a well-structured stocktaking process that employees and managers can follow together, thereby limiting the possibility of your staff making costly mistakes.

A well-structured stocktaking process will include all the steps required to keep your staff working efficiently to uncover discrepancies and inaccuracies while keeping them engaged and focused.

Here’s our list of 10 fundamental steps that you should include in your stocktaking process for maximum effectiveness.

 

1. Schedule Your Stocktakes to Reduce Impact on Business Operations

Try to find a time that works for you and your staff that won’t hurt your bottom line or create unnecessary distractions. A lengthy stocktake is best taken during a slow sales cycle or outside of normal business operations.

 

2. Clean and Organize Your Stockroom Before Performing Your Stocktake

A clean and well-organized stockroom will make it easy to find and count your stock to reduce the possibility of miscounting.

Another measure you could take to make the stocktaking process more efficient would be to create well-defined sections by labeling the shelves that stock is and should be stored on, along with using package labels that clearly identify what’s inside the package.

 

3. Organize Your Stocktaking Tools Ahead of Time

Before you begin the stocktaking process, you’ll want to make sure everyone has the tools they need to get the job done.

Here’s a list of the most common tools used for stocktaking:

– Clipboards

– Stock sheets

– Write-off sheets

– Pens

– Calculators

– Handheld scanners

– Mobile Devices (if you use cloud-based inventory management)

You might need more or fewer tools than the ones listed, but this should give you a general idea of what’s generally required for an effective stocktaking process.

 

4. Only Use Up-To-Date Inventory Data

The goal of a complete stocktake is to get an accurate count of the inventory you actually have so that you can compare it with your existing inventory data.

So be sure to exclude items that have already been invoiced to customers but haven’t yet shipped, as well as raw materials that have arrived but haven’t yet been entered into your inventory system.

Stock that hasn’t shipped is essentially not yours anymore. Processing materials that haven’t been added into your inventory management system is a separate task that doesn’t need to be done during a stocktake.

 

5. Give Everyone Clear Goals and Responsibilities

A supervisor should be overseeing the stocktaking process at all times. They should have a list of what needs to be counted and what ought to be in their warehouse so they can double check the work of the stocktakers.

The stocktakers should know what groups they’re in, what tools they need, how they’re going to count the stock, etc.

Also, supervisors should make sure that there are practically zero distractions – that stocktakers aren’t distracting themselves with their phones or with too much conversation.

At the same time, if your stocktake is going to last a long time, it may be wise to schedule breaks to keep everyone’s minds and eyes fresh so that they don’t make too many mistakes.

 

6. Know What Stock You’re Counting and How You’re Counting it

Whether you have a massive warehouse filled with various types of inventory or a small stockroom with just a few types, let stocktakers know which sections they’ll be counting in what order.

Then, create a clear system for how they should physically count your stock.

Here’s an idea for how to organize the actual counting part of the process:

– Each unit of stocktakers should be in groups of two—one person inspects the stock and calls out the amount, the second person records this and can double check the first.

– If you have multiple units of stocktakers, make sure they all have clear sections to work through that don’t overlap.

– Have your stocktakers to count in the same direction – i.e. top to bottom, left to right.

– Mark stock with a colored marker or pen as a visual reminder of what’s already been counted.

With a similar process, your counting should be well-organized and operate smoothly.

 

7. Open and Count Absolutely Everything—No Guesswork Allowed

If you have a box that says it contains 10 widgets, don’t just take that label on face value. Open the box and count all of its contents to ensure it does contain that exact amount.

Your stocktaking process should aim to deliver as close to 100{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} accurate readings as possible, which means you shouldn’t estimate or guess on any number.

And be sure to record any discrepancies between the counts listed on your stock sheet and the number of items you counted, as well as any mislabeled/packaged boxes for quality control.

 

8. Value Your Stock Correctly

Once you’ve counted all your stock, make sure you have the most up-to-date prices for all of it.

The price of your stock should match the market clearing price or the price that consumers are willing to pay for that item.

And be sure to include any depreciation as well.

If you purchased a certain raw material last year for $1,000 but now it is only valued at $750 then you need to change prices to reflect the lower price – the same goes for older products you’re now selling at a discount.

 

9. Develop Ways to Decrease Stolen, Broken or Slow-Selling Inventory

During your stocktaking process, you may find that items you thought were in your warehouse were actually missing, and that some items that have been damaged or spoiled were never reported.

You might also notice that some items are simply not selling.

With this data in hand, you can begin brainstorming ways to increase security measures to protect against thieves, improve warehouse policies to curb reckless behavior and implement new strategies for selling more stock.

One sure-fire way to help in all these areas is through inventory reduction – creating a plan for optimizing the amount of inventory stored in your warehouse.

 

10. Continually Improve Your Stocktaking Process

Your stocktaking process shouldn’t be a static set of procedures; it should grow and evolve every time you do it so it becomes more efficient over time.

Encourage your stocktakers and supervisors to suggest improvements, develop new procedures for a more effective workflow, and brainstorm ways to decrease your stock to manageable levels that reduce waste.

But if you really want to improve your process, then consider investing in new technology that can streamline your stocktake and make it easy to track your inventory throughout the year.

 

 

Start your free 14-day trial today

Share
Tweet
Share

8 Ways Cloud-Based Inventory Management Saves You Time and Money

Posted on by
Share
Tweet
Share
Fully Stocked Warehouses Need Cloud-Based Inventory Management

Fully Stocked Warehouses Need Cloud-Based Inventory Management

 

Let’s be honest: all-night stocktake blitzes and over complicated excel spreadsheets are painful to use, unnecessarily labor intensive, and incredibly outdated.

Why torture yourself and your team when there are cheaper and faster options available online?

Sure, you might run a small business on a tight budget and can’t justify big, fancy new software.

Luckily for you, cloud-based inventory management is actually MORE affordable than the old-school methods you’re currently using – and that’s just one perk.

Below we’ve compiled 8 reasons cloud-based inventory management is a smart investment for your business.

Let’s dive in.

1. Upgradeable and Scalable Software

Starting a business today doesn’t require starting with giant budget and staff; small and steady growth over time is better than overreaching at the start and failing early.

This is not only true of the size of your team, but also the complexity of the software you use to run your business.

When you buy software that has to be installed on each and every one of your computers, it often comes loaded with extra features that make getting up and running complicated, drive up the purchase price, and may increase your need for costly new hardware.

Together with the purchase price, these hidden, ongoing costs are known as the Total Cost of Ownership, or TCO.

Research shows that the price of a computer is only 20{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of it’s TCO – technical support, maintenance, labor costs, etc. account for the remaining 80{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}.

Check out this chart from Gartner, Inc. that shows an unmanaged PC can cost you over $5,000 a year:

Unmanaged PC Annual TCO

Unmanaged TCO Can Be Costly

But hidden and unnecessary costs don’t just apply to computers – they’re also found in the software you run on them.

Unlike locally-installed applications, Cloud-based inventory management software allows you to pay for the features you need now and seamlessly upgrade when you need to in the future.

You’ll pay a single, predictable subscription fee for a “package” that best suits your particular feature needs and team size; then, upgrading is just a few clicks away when your business growth justifies a more powerful platform.

On top of stress-free upgrades, cloud software companies work in the background to make sure things continue to run smoothly, and should you need any questions answered or breaks fixed, they’ll have a support team standing by to assist you.

And the best cloud platforms are easy to setup and use – so there’s no extra IT hassle, new equipment, or expensive training classes.

2. Faster Installation and Easier Employee Training

The old way of doing business required you to install software on each and every computer your team uses and have a dedicated IT department to keep that software running.

This cuts into profits, slows down training time, and increases labor costs.

Cloud-based software doesn’t require any additional employees or special hardware – you just log in and get to work!

And since they don’t rely on dedicated in-person training to teach your team how to use the new software, most cloud companies have streamlined their software’s learning curve so that everyone can understand the basics and start using it on day one.

3. Real-Time Inventory Control

Easy stock control is one of the most exciting benefits of cloud-based inventory management.

Instead of combing through piles of reports from different systems and departments or worse – making “educated” guesses – cloud software lets you view up to the minute data on inventory levels through easy to understand reports and dashboards.

And instead of relying on special, manual stock-takes that require extra labor and could interrupt your operations (costly for growing businesses and large, multi-location companies alike), cloud-based inventory software often includes features like QR code tracking that allow you to actively measure stock as it flows through your operations – which can save you much more than the cost of a monthly software subscription.

But the time-savings don’t end there – the automation cloud inventory systems bring can drastically reduce the number of costly human errors you and your team make.

Ray Panko from the College of Business Administration at the University of Hawaii conducted a study on inventory management using Excel spreadsheets.

His results were astounding:

  • Students who worked alone estimated their error rate to be 18{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}. Their actual error rate was 86{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}.
  • Groups predicted a 13{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} error rate, but in reality, it was 27{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}.

The results are clear – we humans just aren’t that good at catching our own errors.

With automated cloud-based inventory management software, though, you’ll not only save the time of taking stock and compiling reports, but you’ll also reduce human errors that can have serious business consequences.

4. Up-To-Date Inventory Reports

If you’re a savvy business owner, you probably know your top 5 best-selling products – but do you know your lowest-selling? You may notice how well you sell during Christmas, but do you know when demand actually peaks and troughs?

Questions like these are answered by inventory reports automatically generated by cloud-based software.

By knowing your lowest-selling items, you can make strategic decisions like upgrading those products, changing your marketing tactics, or ditching them altogether to focus on something new.

And knowing when demand for your products is actually at its peak, you’ll be able to order enough stock without overdoing it, saving money and storage space while also maintaining enough safety stock to prevent “out of stock” notices that cost you customers.

With the inventory reports you’ll get from cloud-based inventory software, you’ll be able to deeply understand last quarter so you can effectively forecast for the next, which means better customer service and faster business growth.

5. Barcode and QR Code Tracking Systems

QR and barcodes are essential to modern inventory management; if you’re not using them, you’re practically living in the supply chain dark ages.

Paired with the right cloud-based software, they provide detailed, real-time insight into your inventory levels across your operations, saving you from ordering too much (which forces you to sell at clearance prices) or ordering too little (which forces you to break out that costly “out of stock” sign).

Business software review site GetApp.com recently took a poll of business owners asking them how they decided to reorder inventory, and found 46{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} decided on information from previous months.

While this is a more effective strategy than depending on educated guesses, with a reliable cloud-based inventory management system that uses QR or barcode technology, a few simple changes to your production processes can provide much more accurate data that lets you know exactly how much inventory you have in stock – saving you hours of time and reducing human error.

6. Seamless Ecommerce Integration

Can you imagine manually entering all the data from your ecommerce platform into your inventory management system, and then again into your accounting software?

If you operate like many other businesses, you might not have to imagine it – that may be your day-to-day reality.Fortunately, you can sidestep or end that nightmare with cloud-based inventory management software.

By automatically syncing data across multiple top business applications like Shopify and Xero, modern inventory management software can save you a ton of time spent on manual data entry.

This allows you absolute control over your operations across all channels, enabling you to see where your inventory is currently held, the status of your purchase and sales orders, and ensure your accounting is up to date and accurate all from one place.

7. Manage Multi-Site Operations from Anywhere in The World

While there are many benefits of cloud-based inventory management, one of the most important for the busy entrepreneur is being able to operate their business any time, any place.

With cloud software, you can manage multiple warehouses wherever you are, allowing you to buy, sell, and manufacture with ease.

If your team operates remotely, then your product manager in Detroit can update your distributor in New York in real-time.

And you can generate reports on the spot for a trade show in LA or for a business presentation to new investors in Hong Kong.

24/7, anywhere accessibility makes cloud-based inventory software perfect for startups without a physical location and international companies alike.

8. No More Losing Precious Data

Now we get to a crucial and often overlooked benefit of cloud-based inventory management: keeping your critical data safe, secure, and intact.

It’s so easy to accidentally delete files, visit an infected website, or suffer from inevitable hardware failure.

Paragon Software Group did a study on SMBs, revealing that more than 1 in 5 companies (22{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}) have experienced data loss that caused a significant impact on their business.

What’s more staggering is that 20{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of these companies don’t even do daily backups, and out of those, 42{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} think it’s an inefficient use of their time.

Modern businesses realize this is a potentially fatal mistake.

To keep your business protected, consider investing in a cloud-based inventory management solution.

It’s far cheaper than the price you’d pay to recover your lost data, or worse, lose customers and go out of business.

Upgrade Your Business With Cloud-Based Inventory Management

Today, there’s no good reason to use clunky, complicated, and error-prone manual methods of supply chain management.

With the right cloud-based inventory management software, you’ll save more than enough time and money to justify the upgrade.

Sure, you can stay stuck in the 20th century…

Or you can invest in the continued growth of your business by updating your inventory management systems today.

 

Ready To Take Back Control of Your Inventory?

Experience the automation and integration benefits modern cloud-based inventory management software offers by starting your free 14-day trial of DEAR Inventory today!

Try DEAR for Free

No Credit Card Required

 

Share
Tweet
Share

New Release 12-Mar-2017 – New POS Module, B2B Stage 2 enhancements, Landed Cost distribution module, Customer Deposit functionality

Posted on by

What’s new in March?

We are pleased to deliver another exciting release on 12th March which includes the newly developed DEAR Point of Sale, B2B Stage 2 enhancements, New Landed Cost distribution feature and New Customer Credit concept.

DEAR POS Beta

DEAR POS Beta can be accessed via Integration>DEAR POS module.

DEAR POS Beta will be available as a web application which can be used on your PC or Mac  internet browsers. Android application is also available for use on tablet devices and can be downloaded from Google Play. IOS version of POS is pending approval and will be released shortly.

Hardware tests are currently being finalised and a list of supported devices will be made available upon completion of testing.

Payment gateway integrations will be added in Stage 2 of POS enhancement.

POS Getting Started guide can be found here https://dearsystems.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/11000027588-getting-started-pos-

Please leave your suggestions, feature requests, payment gateway integration options and anything else related to DEAR POS here http://support.dearsystems.com/discussions/topics/11000011440.

B2B Stage 2 enhancements

We would like to thank you for your continued support and suggestions for DEAR B2B, the list of functions is growing every day, below is a summary of enhancements in current release:

1.     Download price lists with images as PDF file and excel file with product barcodes, SKUs, names
2.     Add optional product availability report to B2B portal. Customers can check available and order products and prices.
3.     Add optional dimensions, weight, product attributes and quantity based discounts to the product details page when available.

4.     Add optional short description field to DEAR product page to be used along with product name on B2B  product details page.

5.     Add Guest user role which cannot shop, but can browse/print catalogue.
6.     At checkout stage add two options to choose from :
– Single delivery, place on Backorder if out of stock
– Multiple deliveries if out of stock
7.     Show fulfilment status on orders.
8.     Google Analytics support.

New Landed Cost distribution

We have made it even easier for you to distribute costs associated with purchasing inventory. New functionality becomes available upon entering Additional Charges in a Purchase Invoice which enables Expense distribution option. Charges entered in Purchase Invoice can then be distributed across other purchase invoices containing inventory.

New customer deposit concept.

New feature introduces the concept of customer credit and allows creating deposits from prepayments/refunds/money tasks for sales and subsequently allocate them to invoices. Supports Xero and QBO integrations. Further enhancements will cater to stand-alone credit notes.

Advanced sale module now supports prepayments.

Money tasks are now available for Xero subscribers and exporting to Xero.

Please take a look at the following article for details of customer deposit feature http://support.dearsystems.com/solution/articles/11000028417-customer-credits-deposits.

As usual we thank you for your continued support and regular contributions to feature requests. Please keep the suggestions coming.

New Release 22-Jan-2017 – New Sale Module with multiple fulfilments/invoices and credit notes, lock periods, potential kit quantity calculations, WET Tax

Posted on by

What’s new?

New Sale Module allows multiple fulfilments/invoices and credit notes per single sale order.

The new sale module will run in parallel to existing functionality for some time and will allow creating multiple fulfilments (partial pick, pack and ship), invoices and credit notes per sale order. This means that you no longer have to use Split Order functionality when you are unable to ship the entire order due to insufficient stock and do not wish to create multiple invoices for the customer, simply create a partial shipment and complete the order once you have the required stock.

Product images shown in sale order drop downs and grids

Product images are now displayed both in drop downs and grid when selecting products in sale order (available in new sale module only)

New general setting: Show invoice before fulfilment.

New general setting to control the workflow of enhanced sale module allows selecting the order of tabs with ability to show invoice before order is fulfilled.

New general setting: Allow sale order no allocation.

When enabled, new option provides a way to authorise a sale order without allocating stock. Currently only available in new sale module.

New action for sale order: Mark as Fulfilled.

Marking the order as Fulfilled will remove stock allocation in cases where picked quantity is less than authorised quantity in order and you do not plan to ship the rest of the goods.

New action for sale order: Mark as Closed.

Same as Fulfilled but it also removes this sale from reports which show ordered but not invoiced sales (when ordered quantity exceeds invoiced).

Quantity field added to additional charges in purchases and sales

Quantities for service type products are now available in the general sale module (previously quantities for service type items were only available in Service Sale). Service product quantities can be viewed in various sale reports available in DEAR.

Accounting Lock period support added to all modules

DEAR now supports Account Period Lock date which can be set in General Settings to prevent transactions from being edited for closed accounting periods.

“I sell this product” attribute added to Product setup to allow hiding not sellable products in sale module.

Product list will now be filtered in Sale Module only by products which have been marked to sell. Scan and csv import function will still allow to add not sellable product to sales.
Reference field

Reference field has been added to Stock adjustment, Stocktake and Stock Transfer tasks, visible and searchable in View All.

Improvements

New mechanics for stock movements with cost update to keep information regarding historical cost changes

It is now possible to build stock on hand report for specific date, while cost change will inherit effective date of the transaction which caused inventory cost to update (date of manual journal in purchase). Cost update logic will comply with Lock Period and will not update any transactions in locked period.

Additional attribute fields will be added to product list view

Additional attributes assigned at the product level will now be visible in View All Products list.

Availability calculations performance improved throughout the system. Potential kit quantity calculations introduced

Stock availability calculations have been enhanced for better performance.
Potential available quantities for kits/assemblies (when Auto-assembly is enabled in Bill of Materials) is now automatically calculated per location in all relevant places and updates integrations when quantity of components changes.

Disassembly

Cost of components will now automatically update when cost of original disassembled product changes.

Tax management

Taxation rules have been reworked to allow any number of tax components per tax rule and correct support for compound tax (WET). In addition it supports mapping of different liability accounts per component.

Sale List view

View All Sales screen now allows 3 different views, General, Accounting and Fulfilment. Search has also been improved to allow to searching sales by tracking number.
Data readability improved by adjusting font size to fit in the cell if cell width is not sufficient.
Accounting view shows quotes, invoices and credit notes of the same sale task as separate lines.

Dashboard

Reorder section now shows all products paged with search.
Purchase/Sale tabs on dashboard only load data when opened, improving page opening performance and reducing page size.

Reports

All reports with date range as parameters now have a combo box with some common pre-set ranges for dates to simplify reporting.

DEAR API

ProductAvailability endpoint now has additional Available field providing info about normal and potential kits products.

New Release 15-Oct-2016 – DEAR B2B portal

Posted on by

Latest DEAR Inventory release includes new B2B portal as well as number of enhancements of existing functionality.

DEAR B2B portal

We are pleased to announce a Beta release of DEAR B2B portal for wholesale and retail customers. The portal will help streamline the way your customers can browse your products, request quotes and place orders.

We will continue to introduce further functionality over the following months however the initial release will allow you to do the following:

·        Invite retail and wholesale customers to join your own branded B2B portal with unique domain name.·        Allow customers to place orders, view order history, check order status and reorder from previous orders 24/7.

·        Orders completed by customer are automatically created in DEAR as Authorised Quote, Authorised Order or Authorised Invoice.

·        Quick Order functionality is available for customers via CSV template upload.

·        Bulk Order feature allows for colour/size matrix or list view to be used when selecting products.

·        Publish individual products and variants (product families) to B2B.

·        Set price tiers and discounts for your products and assign to your customers for a tailored experience.

Future releases scheduled over the following months will include payment gateway integrations, robust pricing and discount features to allow you to provide custom pricing for your clients.

You can access the portal in Integration> B2B Portal. You can watch this video tutorial and read a detailed guide here.

We look forward to you using the portal and providing valuable feedback on how we can improve the functionality in future releases.

Other features released

Upload Bins via CSV
Bins can now be uploaded via CSV template to help you save time on data entry. Bins can be Updated and Created via CSV import. Please note that maintaining more than 2,000 bins will result in significant performance degradation and we are currently working to enhance this process.

Product search filtered by supplier
General settings now contain an option to limit the product search in Purchase Orders based on selected supplier only. This should help prevent incorrect products being ordered from supplier.

Edit Invoices without Undo
It is now possible to edit certain information on an Authorised Invoice in both Purchase and Sale modules. Only information which does not relate to transactions can be amended, this includes customer/supplier information, shipping address etc

Notifications
DEAR will now provide notifications in the top right corner of your screen relating to a variety of issues such as incomplete setup of products, integrated sale channels as well as open orders and other information. We will continue to add further notifications in future releases.

As always thank you for your valuable feedback and contributions to the current release and please keep the suggestions coming.

New Release 10-Jul-2016 – Customer statements, Additional Purchase and Sale Attributes, new Financials for Quickbooks Online

Posted on by

Release Notes 10/07/2016. Changes in the upcoming release

We are pleased to announce the release of the latest DEAR Inventory enhancements, below you can find a list of new features and improvements to existing functionality.

Customer statements

Sales Statements have been added in Sale>View All Customers. Sale Statement Activity and Sale Statement Outstanding can be printed or emailed directly from the Customer List.

Additional Attributes sets

Additional attributes functionality has been enhanced to provide options for attributes beyond simple text fields. Now 3 types of attributes are supported: Selection from pre-configured list of values, text and Boolean (checkbox). All modules where additional attributes are available have been enhanced.

Purchase and Sale Additional Attributes

Additional attributes have been added for Purchase/Sale tasks to allow you to collect further info/categorise your purchases and sales. This feature can be enabled in General Settings and available for data entry in Logs & Attributes tab of Purchase/Sale forms. Support for Xero tracking categories mapping, in DEAR API, Reports, and document generation.

Barcode Scanning enhancement

Scanning has been implemented for Finished Goods, Issue to Production, Stock Transfer and Stock Adjustment modules.

Transactions breakdown

New feature has been added to the Logs & Attributes tab within all Purchase and Sale tasks, it provides ability to see General Ledger impact of the task in an easy and convenient way.

SKU auto-generation

New products can now have automatic SKU assigned upon creation (only when creating in DEAR UI). SKU pattern can be customised in General Settings.

New Opening Balance feature

This option has been added to provide ability to specify account opening balances and easy creation of related outstanding Purchase/Sale documents prior to conversion date. This task also allows importing and managing initial Stock on Hand and Fixed Assets (not for Xero) with ability to change unit cost and account of previously uploaded initial stock on hand without voiding of any related transactions.

Opening Balance feature can be found in Settings>Reference Books.

Issue to production CSV upload

Import/Export of CSV for Issue to Production task (similar to Sale Order import/export)

UI localisation

DEAR can now be switched to Chinese Traditional language. DEAR can now be translated to any language and we welcome any suggestions for future translations.

New fields for contacts

“Job Title” and “Mobile number” fields added for Supplier and Customer contacts. Related csv templates and import/export formats updated. New mail merge fields added for document generation for these fields.

Email enhancements

Email UI has been improved in Sale/Purchase tasks. It now allows adding any contacts to To and CC fields with selection from the list of available contacts.

Auto-focus on Search

Most screens with lists will now auto-focus Search control when loaded.

Payment Terms

New payment term option ‘Days since end of month’ is available now.

Custom sales rep for Sale channels

Every sale channel can be associated with custom sale representative to group sales via different online channels under single entity in your accounting software.

New Financials Module available to Quickbooks Online and DEAR stand-alone users

Creating Receipts and processing expense claims

You can now easily enter and receive reimbursement for personal funds used for business purposes.

Fixed Assets management

New feature has been added to help solve a significant challenge to track the location, quantity, condition and depreciation status of your fixed assets.

New product type Fixed Asset has been introduced. It supports special registration and processing in purchase, sale, issue to production and Finished Goods task. Registered Fixed Asset product supports different depreciation methods.

Money Movement management
– New alert added to Dashboard indicating if bank accounts are configured correctly.
– New reference book link to Bank Accounts page added with reconciliation overview and different actions related to bank accounts.
– Bank statements can be loaded into DEAR and reconciled against bank account transactions. Bank rules can be used to automatically distribute payments to Purchases and Sales in DEAR.
– Money Spend, Money Receive, and Money Transfer tasks have been introduced.
– Journal task has been introduced to create custom transactions.

Documentation and video tutorials will follow official release of functionality above.

Chart of Accounts Management for stand-alone use

For option when no integration with other accounting software is active DEAR now allows full management of chart of accounts. Exporting/importing to/from CSV, editing any account details, creation of Bank accounts with special required details.