The Truth About DEAR Inventory: Who It’s for and How It Helps Them

Find out who DEAR was made for and what challenges they solve.

DEAR Inventory just won the official title of Xero’s app-of-the-month for November!

There are plenty of cloud-based inventory management systems out there, but Xero customers continually rank DEAR as one of the best.

That’s because, like Xero, we do everything possible to serve startups and small businesses aiming to optimize and streamline their business processes.

But sometimes, growing businesses have questions about whether we are the right solution for them or not.

So, we decided to explain exactly who DEAR Inventory was made for, what challenges we solve, and a few tips you can use right away to improve your inventory management.

By the end, you’ll know who we are and if we can help you grow your business.

Who is DEAR Inventory Made For?

DEAR Inventory is a cloud-based inventory and order management platform designed to help startups and small businesses take the time and stress out of managing their inventory and sales.

It was made to help at least two types of businesses:

• Manufacturers with complicated bills of material that need to accurately manage inventory and track costs of goods sold
• Ecommerce retailers and wholesalers with multiple warehouse locations and/or sales channels

Our easy to learn and implement platform and industry-leading pricing make us the ideal solution for small businesses and startups who are just making the leap from manual or outdated inventory and order management methods like inefficient spreadsheets to a more streamlined and automated modern solution.

What Are the Key Challenges Facing These Businesses?

Every business has their own unique challenges they have to overcome to succeed, and our customers were no different.

Ecommerce Retailers and Wholesalers Faced the Following Challenges:

• Lost sales, lost orders, and frustrated customers thanks to a poor pick, pack, and ship process driven by manual fulfillment
• Constant stockouts and lost productivity from manually updating and syncing product and inventory data across sales channels
• Ordering too much or too little stock due to inaccurate forecasts and reports from unreliable spreadsheets

Manufacturers Dealt with These Issues:

• Difficulty in accurately tracking inventory flows, expenses, and complicated bills of materials manually through spreadsheets and system hacks
• Lost profits, sales, and business growth through a lack of understanding of the true cost of goods sold and an inability to forecast customer demand

Even though each business had specific problems related to their particular industry and niche, almost all of our customers experienced similar challenges when using manual methods of inventory management.

All of Our Customers Experienced These Common Challenges Caused by Manual Inventory Management:

• Lost time and productivity, especially as you begin tracking more SKUs – both of raw materials and finished products
• Persistent inventory and accounting errors, especially when using multiple spreadsheets across your warehouse
• Obsolete inventory and stockouts, especially without an accurate stocktaking process or actionable metrics and reports

How Does DEAR Inventory Make Their Life Easier?

DEAR Inventory works with businesses to solve their most pressing problems. Here are the 3 biggest solutions DEAR offers their customers:

Streamlined and Automated Inventory and Order Management for Optimized Business Processes

DEAR integrates with top ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, as well as top marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. We also integrate with top accounting, sales, and shipping platforms like Xero, PayPal, Capsule CRM, and ShipStation.

DEAR Inventory tracks your orders and inventory in real-time, so you have up-to-the-minute insights into your stock levels and fulfillment processes.

We also automate the tracking and reporting of inventory from sending purchase orders, receiving raw goods, manufacturing and warehousing, to sale fulfillment and pick, pack, and ship generation.

Accurate Accounting and Up-To-Date Reports for Effective Business Decisions

DEAR’s internal accounting system matches industry best practices, allowing you to establish the true cost of your goods.

Specialized needs like food inventory management are easily handled through batch tracking and serial numbers, along with expiration date tracking.

Real-time financial data helps you maintain healthy cash flow, while our powerful financial reports help you make the right decisions to keep your business growing.

More Time, Less Stress, and Greater Productivity for Faster Business Growth

DEAR pulls together all of your inventory, sales, and financial data into one central platform that is easy to learn and implement.

The user interface allows you to switch seamlessly between any of your applications for quick task management and a host of different reports and metrics are available at your fingertips to make smart business decisions.

What Key Tips Do You Have for Ecommerce Retailers, Wholesalers, and Manufacturers Who Want to Improve the Way They Manage Their Inventory?

There are a variety of ways that businesses of all types, sizes, and industries can improve their inventory management.

Here Are 10 Tips and Tools to Get Started:

1. Focus on inventory reduction
2. Work on lead time reduction
3. Reduce your working capital
4. Reduce your cost of inventory
5. Optimize your rate of inventory turnover
6. Accurately calculate your safety stock inventory
7. Use an effective reorder point formula
8. Set achievable inventory KPIs
9. Improve your inventory receiving processes
10. Implement inventory management best practices

Why is DEAR’s Integration with Xero so Important?

The original idea for DEAR Inventory was to create a platform for accurate and actionable accounting.

DEAR is actually an acronym for “Double Entry Accounting Record.”

Our goal was to make it easy for businesses to use actual accounting costing methods instead of problematic methods like cost-averaging.

We believe that financial projections and accounting act like a scoreboard for businesses – and what separates successful small businesses and startups from those that fail is fully understanding and making decisions based on this scoreboard

Because Xero has earned its way into becoming a top accounting platform for hundreds of thousands of subscribers, we knew our shared values, and complementary solutions would make for a great partnership.

To discover more about how DEAR’s integration with Xero can streamline your accounting and simplify your business (while improving your inventory management) visit our Xero integration page.

The Bottom Line for DEAR Inventory and Your Business

DEAR Inventory is a complete solution to error-ridden Excel inventory management.

It automates the things you shouldn’t perform manually, integrates with the apps you need to optimize your business, and offers metrics and reports you wouldn’t be able to generate on your own.

If you want a better, more efficient, easier-to-use inventory management platform that lets you see and track everything within one intuitive, centralized hub, then give DEAR Inventory a try today.