Inventory control is one of those tasks that business owners seem to loathe. A necessary evil, it can be time-consuming and downright boring. This aside, it also diverts a business owner’s attention away from income-producing activities, or the chance to work on and grow a business.
The traditional method of monitoring stock levels and controlling an inventory can be a thing of the past though. Cloud-based services allow this all-important activity to be carried out in a way that is more efficient, more accurate, and allows business owners to get back to working on their business.
What can a cloud-based system do?
When it comes to stock control and inventory management, precision is key. If stock levels are recorded inaccurately, a business owner may be left with insufficient stock to fulfill orders, or conversely, be holding onto an excess of stock that is effectively dead money. Accurately managing and monitoring stock levels also means that business owners can identify potential incidents of theft at an early stage.
Using cloud-based services means that a business owner is continually updated with stock levels. When set up correctly, cloud-based services will monitor your predicted sales and ensure that you always have sufficient levels of stock to meet demand. This ensures that customer satisfaction levels are maintained as there is no need for you to ever be out of stock of any products.
The use of cloud-based systems for stock control allows inventory control to become fully automated. Using cloud-based apps allows every stake-holder along a supply chain to receive accurate and up to date information so there is no risk of duplicate orders or missed orders. The end result is savings in both money and time.
Managing orders with Xero
Xero is a popular accountancy software platform designed for small and growing businesses. Being cloud-based it allows business owners to generate invoices, reconcile banking, and share the information instantly with their account if required. Xero also includes inventory tools.
Although the inventory tools are a useful addition, managing orders with Xero effectively requires the support of third party solutions. Xero accounting software will automatically generate an invoice for a customer, but that is about as far as it goes. By integrating Xero with a third-party supplier, you can have an effective cloud-based stock control system that allows you to have reliable information concerning your inventory, in real-time.
How cloud-based stock control can help your business grow
It’s all about saving you time and money. Cloud-based services are so much more efficient than managing stock levels in the traditional way. Gone are the days of needing to manually input data, which usually comes with a large margin of human error. With cloud-based services, you can simply log into the system from a mobile, or any other device and generate inventory reports as well as complete audits.
By effectively managing your stock levels you can reduce the amount of unnecessary stock that you hold, reduce storage and warehouse costs, and also get you and your staff back to income-producing activities.
Beyond the ability to manage stock levels, by also utilizing a Material Requirements Planning (MRP) system, there is also the capability for manufacturers to monitor the raw materials and components needed to create a product. These systems are able to monitor stock levels, and based on sales forecasts, automatically order the required materials ensuring that production is never delayed due to lack of materials.
Overall, cloud-based services are more effective and efficient than methods of old. Once a ‘nice to have’, cloud-based services are now a necessity for any business to run as efficiently as possible.
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