It might be challenging to keep track of your inventory from the manufacturer through the warehouse to the point of sale. With as much as $1.1 trillion in cash in stock at any given time, this closely monitored flow of items must run smoothly to keep your customers pleased—and your profit margins healthy.
Fortunately, a slew of new inventory management software has hit the market, aiding in the supervision and automation of this time-consuming operation.
Order fulfillment, purchase orders, sales, incoming stock, and product levels are tracked using inventory management software, allowing organizations to operate more smoothly. It’s similar to ERP systems and CMMS software in that it gives you a complete picture of your business operations in one SaaS solution.
That’s not all, though.
The program assists you in making better business decisions and gives you an edge over your competitors by helping you meet your customers’ expectations and control your inventory. This list will discuss the best inventory management software to test this year based on features, price, ease of use, pros and cons, etc.
Let’s get this party started.
What is Inventory Management Software?
Inventory management software is a web-based program that aids in the management and tracking inventory from the producer through the warehouse to the point of sale. They also assist with bookkeeping, invoicing, report writing, fulfillment, shipping tracking, and other tasks.
These inventory management technologies also track price adjustments. For example, if you buy a product for $100 and the price rises to $200 after a month, your inventory is worth more. Then there’s the possibility that your list will be lost or stolen. To keep track of these products, you’ll need inventory management software.
With inventory management solutions, you can also expect real-time stock tracking to ensure that no critical item runs out of stock.
What Should You Look for in an Inventory System?
When choosing the best inventory software system for your organization, look for the following qualities:
1. Simple to Use
Inventory management software is only as good as your understanding of it. Look for a tool that you can navigate and operate without difficulty. It should include all of the tools you need to keep track of your inventory and be scaled to your company’s size and personnel count.
Customer support and knowledge bases are available for most of the technologies on this list. As tools get more powerful, process automation aids in making them easier to use.
2. Available in a variety of locations.
Suppose you have numerous warehouses or plan to add more in the future. You may want to use a manual inventory management technology that allows you to optimize inventory at multiple locations. Before spending your money on an inventory management tool, consider customer care.
3. Analytics and reports
One of the most critical components of a solid inventory management system is data. It provides detailed information on your stockpiles and products regarding warehouse management.
As a result, selecting a platform that can collect data and provide it to you in brief analytical reports is critical. It’s also a good idea to look for a tool that can eliminate the need for manual data entry.
The days of using multiple spreadsheets for different providers and trying to make everything make sense at the end of the month are long gone.
4. Third-Party Integrations.
You’re probably utilizing multiple pieces of software to run your expanding company, whether it’s online or offline. Throughout its existence, it’s ideal to use software that can interact with various tools, such as inventory data, asset management apps, accounting tools, and other tools available on mobile devices, desktops, or anywhere in between. If your company doesn’t need all of these ways to improve warehouse productivity right now, it might soon.
The following should be interacted with and understood by your software solution:
- SKUs and serial numbers are scanned with barcode scanners.
- Bills of materials and work orders
- Points for replenishing should be reordered.
- Inventory and stock level management
- Sales orders reorders, and stockouts can all be customized.
- It has a mobile app that works with smartphones (iOS and Android).
Customer Service and Training
Even if the inventory software solution is fantastic, it will be useless if you cannot use it properly. As a result, please choose a product with excellent customer service to assist you in using it and all its inventory management features.
Sixth, dependability and security
Choose inventory management software with excellent security features to ensure that all of your data is kept safe and secure. Look over the software’s encryption, password management, and other features.
Look for a solution that provides cloud-based access as another beautiful approach to assure uptime and security. It ensures that your inventory data is always available, no matter where you are or what device you’re using.
Cloud-based technology can help you cut down on downtime, boost productivity, and facilitate scalability.
7. User-Friendly Interface.
Use software that is easy to use and can be easily integrated with how your company already manages its inventory.
One of the most sought-after aspects of inventory software is a user-friendly interface. Check out its features, such as whether it can import data from other programs, how easy it is to use, etc.
It’s also crucial to assess whether the software solution you’re considering includes all of the best practices for getting started with the system and how easy it is to teach new staff how to use it.
Field service management
You supervise field service technicians, often called “mobile workers” or “field agents,” because they don’t work in an office.
Field service management software allows businesses to monitor where their technicians are at any given time, what work needs to be done, and how to improve route efficiency.
The Best Inventory Management Software of 2023
1. Inventory on Zoho
There’s a lot to like about Zoho Inventory. To begin with, Zoho provides a relatively complete free plan that allows clients to take backorders on out-of-stock items, set up drop shipping, and handle multi-currency transactions. This allows small firms to keep their inventory organized without worrying about their budgets.
However, if you want to increase your subscription, you will gain access to more benefits. You can keep track of serial numbers and batches, manage multiple warehouses, and link your account to various Shopify businesses.
However, we believe that Zoho is best suited to small and medium-sized organizations. Although its plans include a variety of order restrictions, including the newly announced Elite plan ($239 per month, payable annually), which allows for limitless orders, it’s the other elements that let Zoho cater to a small-and medium-business audience. Orders, shipping labels, and tracking are all unlimited with the elite plan. It’s an excellent plan for medium-sized enterprises that do a lot of shipping and e-commerce, with five Shopify stores and 15 warehouses.
If you’re a small firm that doesn’t need to fulfill tens of thousands of orders per month, Zoho Inventory is a great solution. When you’re ready to expand, you can also stick with Zoho.
2. Inventory of inflows
InFlow Inventory is a superb inventory management system for small enterprises on a budget. InFlow provides the most excellent free inventory management service on the market, in our opinion (inFlow On-Premise). InFlow’s subscription plans, which start at $89 a month and include more features, are some of the most affordable.
In addition, many of inFlow’s inventory tracking functions are automated, making it a breeze to use. It even has a terrific mobile app that allows you to scan barcodes and keep your sales agents and inventory manager on the same page regarding stock inventory levels.
But there’s one thing to keep in mind. Because it is more scaled back than the other systems on our list, inFlow Inventory is less expensive. While it makes inventory management simple, inFlow has a monthly limit on the number of orders you may handle before being charged extra. The most expensive plan, for example, includes 10,000 monthly sales orders.
3. Ordoro
It isn’t easy to exercise appropriate inventory management strategies when juggling various sales channels. Ordoro, fortunately, makes multichannel selling a breeze. With Ordoro, you can set up master goods in your inventory system. This lets you change descriptions, photos, branding, and other things across all (or some) of your sales channels whenever you want.
Ordoro also has vendor management tools that make dropshipping simple. Vendors, for example, can be assigned to specific products in your catalog. Then, suppose a customer wants those things. In that case, Ordoro can send the order to the proper vendor immediately, eliminating the middleman (you), increasing supply chain efficiency, and ensuring your customers receive their items as promptly as possible.
Ordoro also allows for an atypical inventory management method, which we enjoy. For example, you can strategically oversell your goods or limit the number of in-stock items visible to your customers, creating a sense of scarcity and encouraging potential buyers to complete their purchases. Lastly, this lets you make a more significant profit and avoid keeping expensive extra goods.
4. Cin7
Most enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions have modules for every part of your organization (such as accounting, point of sale, inventory, and shipping), and you’ll be charged for each module you add to your plan. ERP systems become too expensive for all but the most prominent companies to use when these costs are added up.
Cin7 breaks the mold by including built-in modules as part of every design. Cin7 includes B2B eCommerce features, manufacturing features, a payment site, and a fully integrated POS system. That’s on top of the barcode scanning, inventory tracking, and order fulfillment capabilities you’d expect from an inventory management system.
Cin7 also provides advanced demand forecasting and multichannel capabilities, including five-minute cross-channel synchronizing. This ensures that you have a dynamic inventory system that is always up-to-date, allowing you to manage your inventory efficiently.
What’s the drawback? Cin7 is one of the more expensive platforms on our list (beginning at $299.00 per month), yet it isn’t as expensive as most ERP solutions.
5. Upserve
For the specific demands of restaurants, Upserve offers a dynamic inventory solution. Compared to other inventory control software, Upserve focuses more on tracking expiration dates and special supply chain needs, such as the need for chilled transportation.
Yes, Upserve is a little costly, but it gives you everything you need in one place. Even if you have many locations, you can manage your online ordering, POS services, and labor management. Upserve also offers information and tools to help you run your business more efficiently.
Furthermore, Upserve has features explicitly designed for eateries. You can, for example, utilize Upserve inventory software to build recipes for the foods you sell, tailoring each one with the same components and quantities required. Upserve can automatically deduct those quantities from your inventory levels for the ingredients utilized when you sell that dish. You can also use this tool to determine how much to charge for your menu items and how much food is wasted.
We also like that Upserve has a built-in point-of-sale (POS) system, albeit we don’t care that you have to use (and pay for) Upserve’s proprietary POS hardware. Upserve is undoubtedly the most excellent inventory management software available for running a restaurant.
6. Inventory of Fishbowls
Fishbowl Inventory does a fantastic job of covering all of the bases for inventory management. They’ve managed to merge production and warehousing functions into a single package. Barcoding, multichannel tracking, shipping, customer relationship management, simple purchase order creation, and cost reconciliation are all included. Add in the dozens of integrations, and Brightpearl was developed from the ground up to operate with QuickBooks, and you’ve got yourself a pretty capable inventory management system.
However, while its features are excellent, its premium pricing and add-ons detract from the overall grade. Fishbowl Inventory is most suited for medium-to enterprise-level enterprises because it concentrates on manufacturing and storage, but anyone may use it. Just make sure it fits into your budget first!
If you only need warehouse capabilities, Fishbowl Warehouse is available for a one-time price of $4,395.00 and provides limited functionality tailored to warehousing enterprises. Fishbowl Inventory is a part of the Fishbowl Manufacturing software, which has functions for both warehouses and factories.
Oracle Netsuite 7
Oracle’s systems aren’t for everyone, and the user experience (UX) on this one is notably lacking. On the other hand, Oracle NetSuite is useful for multi-location enterprises that move products. Its features are geared toward warehouse and product management rather than shipping or record management. However, this makes it ideal for larger companies with various locations.
The cost is a significant disadvantage. The starting price is $999 a month, eliminating many businesses from consideration. The barcoding and warehousing functions, on the other hand, might be pretty helpful for organizations with many locations. So, if you’re already utilizing Oracle products, NetSuite is a good fit for you.
8. Brightpearl
Brightpearl is a one-stop-shop for running your business that brings a lot to the table. However, it excludes many small businesses because it is exclusively for large enterprises (those with sales above $1 million). Brightpearl, on the other hand, is an excellent choice for large companies looking for new inventory management software.
The pricing is only given upon request, which is a significant disadvantage. Because we don’t know anything about the price of the software or its add-ons, it’s tough to endorse it.
9. Inventory Unleashed
For firms that require advanced warehouse management, we recommend Unleashed. It’s a little cheaper than Fishbowl, whose warehouse-only software costs $366.25 per month, and it supports an unlimited number of warehouses, transactions, and products. It also has a B2B eCommerce site and basic production features to help you implement your ideal inventory management strategy.
So, what’s the catch? The midsized business plan (Unleashed’s cheapest option) only includes three users, and B2B eCommerce costs an additional $129 per month. When you factor in the mandatory managed onboarding fee of $329, you’re looking at a software purchase to set you back $737 for the first month! It’s probably not worth it if you’re a tiny business that uses warehouses.
10. EZOfficeInventory
EZOfficeInventory is the ideal inventory management software for companies with many non-sale assets, such as employee computers and other equipment. Along with the usual inventory management tasks, the system lets you schedule maintenance, keep track of wear and tear, and assign work orders.
However, because EZOfficeInventory is primarily focused on asset tracking, it is designed for a specific type of business instead of other systems that are mainly focused on retail. This is a beautiful software for any size business if you want to keep track of assets rather than sell merchandise.
QuickBooks Commerce 11
QuickBooks Commerce is a strong and versatile solution fully integrated with the QuickBooks accounting software. As a result, you can keep track of your inventory while also working on things like invoicing.
Overall, QuickBooks Commerce simplifies accounting and improves financial management with capabilities like tax computation, sales reporting, cost monitoring, and invoice management.
Conclusion
This list included some of the top inventory management platforms for tracking your products, from the producer to the warehouse to the retail outlet. The reviews had crucial facts regarding their key features, benefits, drawbacks, and pricing.
You don’t want to wait another day to effectively manage your inventory and keep track of every unit, whether you run a retail location or a successful internet firm. After all, it’s your product, so you should have complete control over it.
However, deciding on the best inventory management solution is a personal decision. It all depends on your company’s needs, budget, team members, product categories, number of locations, and other factors. If you’re in charge of a small business, I prefer Katana or Dear Systems. However, if you have a mid-sized or large-scale firm, you might want to look at more well-known choices like Zoho Inventory or QuickBooks Inventory Management.
Do your homework and perform a thorough comparison before making a final purchase. Which of these inventory management software tools did you prefer? Please share your thoughts in the comments box below.
