What Is an Inventory Management System, and What Features Do I Need?

Inventory management can be a tedious process and slow down your business. Software tools with the right functions can help.

As the saying goes: "One place for everything, everything replaces." Let's add everything on the label and a way to track everything. And, what about some alerts when one is too much and the other is short? This mix almost sums up what inventory management software can do for your business.

Whether you are operating a physical store, e-commerce website, supermarket or logistics company, you must have an inventory management system. It can give you an in-depth understanding of all aspects of the product, and in some cases can also help you better understand your customers.

Why you need to provide a full-featured inventory management system for your business and the important features you need to look for.

What is an inventory management system?

An inventory management system is a tool that allows you to track goods in a company's supply chain. It can optimize the entire range, from placing an order with your supplier to delivering the order to the customer; it can map the complete journey of the product.

The transparency provided by the software has a great impact on the bottom line of the enterprise. By accurately tracking products, companies can minimize waste, analyse trends and make better investment decisions.

Also Read: - How GST Accounting Software Can Help Your Business in Better Way

Inventory management software functions

The software you choose (except for all functions) should provide all the functions necessary for effective inventory management operations.

Barcode scanning: easily identify and track your products; inventory management software is integrated with a barcode scanner for instant product identification and marking.

Inventory optimization: Maintain an appropriate amount of inventory for each product, without over or insufficient inventory. This is especially useful if you are dealing with products that have seasonal rising and falling demand.

Inventory notification: Receive alerts and notifications when inventory surplus or shortage exceeds a defined threshold. This can help you place orders or provide promotional discounts to clear excess inventory.

Generate reports: View sales history in the form of a list of the most popular products. This feature also enables you to manage items in your inventory that have not reached the expected sales level, for example, by offering discounts to manage them.

Multi-location management: Manage multiple warehouses and point of sale (POS). All locations can be integrated into an inventory management system.

Read Also: - Multi Branch Inventory Management Software

Inventory returns processing: Reduce return time by automating the entire process, thereby managing returns more effectively.

Material grouping: group inventory into predefined categories and ensure that you always know the latest information about the number and specifications of components that make up the product inventory, and manage its reorder schedule as needed.

Purchase order records: Create a single view of purchase order records. You can easily identify products for permanent and seasonal demand and prepare to meet customer needs.

Also Read: - Best Retail, GST Billing and Accounting Software in India

Other features that some users may need

RFID-based in-transit tracking: This feature is useful if your consumables are from a third party and you schedule the goods to be delivered. This function uses RFID technology to provide you with real-time tracking of inventory during transportation.

Warehouse Management: This feature is useful if you need to optimize warehouse inventory and maintain accurate logs of each product location. Through it, you can view the storage location of all products.

Demand forecasting: With this function, you can use past data to determine future demand. This feature may not be available on all platforms, so if predictions are important to you, be sure to ask the vendors on your candidate list for this feature.

Find the right inventory management system

If you are buying inventory management software that suits your business needs, please visit the eBillPro to evaluate options among hundreds of products. You can filter products by expected number of users, popular features, deployment types, etc. Find the option that suits you best and start working smarter.