As your business continues to grow, inventory management becomes critical. The more inventory that is moving in and out of your business, warehouse, or storefront, the more important it is to track it effectively. Large corporations have entire divisions dedicated to these processes, but for a small business a strong inventory management program should be able to take care of all inventory needs. Here are five of the best inventory management programs available for businesses today.
- SIMMS Inventory Management
SIMMS is a comprehensive solution for a company's inventory and supply chain management. It gives your business the ability to track and control all aspects of your inventory, including lot control, kitting, and serial number tracking. The complete software system also comes with a fully functional Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to help manage clients more effectively. In addition to this it includes a full financial suite that allows owners to track revenue, accounts payable and receivable, and spending. SIMMS starts at $900 per user for the basic function, up to $2500 per user for the Enterprise Plus edition, which includes extra features like a fully functional web-based storefront and web-based applications.
- Fishbowl Inventory
Fishbowl Inventory is a fully-functional inventory management program that allows for QuickBooks and Excel integration. This is ideal for a small business that is ready for a powerful inventory management system, but enjoys working with QuickBooks. Fishbowl is extremely simple to implement and is robust enough to include inventory control, floor control, manufacturing, and material requirements planning. The process of creating quotes, orders, and purchases is also automated. Due to its simplicity, Fishbowl is also quite affordable, starting at only $4,395 for unlimited users. Their pricing includes training videos and a variety of convenient support options.
- Lettuce
Lettuce is a highly affordable and mobile inventory management solution that provides a great deal of functionality. It provides order management, point of sale functionality, customer management, invoice management, online purchase orders, and credit card processing. Applications can be accessed via a browser hub or a mobile iPad app, which can be synced together. The standard package starts at only $39 per month with $15 a month extra for each additional user. The middle tier includes greater control over inventory, accounting, e-commerce, and shipping and starts at $89 per month, $35 per month for each additional user. The highest tier includes options for employee permissions and is $179 per month and an additional $45 for each additional user.
- SAP Solutions
SAP is one of the most recognizable enterprise software companies in the world and for good reason. SAP's inventory management software is a component of its SAP Business Suite that can be configured to work for any industry or company, big or small. SAP specializes in integrating every aspect of business into one seamless system by allowing workflow to be organized and maximizing corporate efficiency. SAP also has the ability to work with most major third-party business software, like QuickBooks, to make it even simpler to implement. Pricing can vary a great deal based on the particular suite and company size, but there are affordable options for all businesses.
- Inventory Tracker
Inventory Tracker is the perfect application for a business looking for a mobile inventory tracking system at minimal cost. The pro version of this application for the iPad is only $9.99 and allows you to see a snapshot of your inventory on the go. You have to input all inventory purchased and then within the app you mark them as either sold, shipped, or delivered. You are able to view summary reports, track your profit margins, integrate barcodes and other users, and there is also a spreadsheet import tool. While this application isn't nearly as robust as the fuller-fledged solutions, it is a good option for a new business that needs to properly track inventory.
