It is important to conduct an inventory survey frequently to check the availability of items. While traditionally, inventory management was done manually, billing software has taken over this task in recent times. Inventory is the set of all the items in your storage, including raw materials and unfinished items. When you check your inventory regularly, you can decide whether you wish to increase or decrease the production or order of certain items to maintain the demand-supply chain. Though inventory management is a huge and integral part of a business, small businesses tend to skip good inventory management practices due to no knowledge or budgetary constraints.

In this article, we will discuss the points you must remember while managing inventory for your business.

Tips for Managing Inventory

Billing software performs the important task of inventory management. Yet, there are some things you can do to keep the process streamlined and easy for you.

Record item information

Every item has a unique code. You must make sure every item in your inventory is recorded correctly. This information includes barcode data, SKU data, name and country of suppliers, lot numbers, date of acquisition, etc. Recording such information helps you keep on top of the inventory and remove stock on a first-in-first-out basis. This is important to avoid stagnation of old stock while the new stock gets sold out. Maintaining these details also allows you to study trends, inflation, and availability over a while.

 Audit inventory

Every company has a different method of inventory auditing. Some companies prefer to do it annually, some do it daily, while others combine a variety of auditing periods. Auditing inventory gives you an instant idea of the number of items you have. You can also check if the inventory number matches the sales figures.

 Take help from the supplier

Suppliers play a major role in inventory management. Supplier inventory management is when the supplier gives the vendor all the information about the items supplied. The buyer can check the data and also change their ordering patterns according to their requirements. This type of inventory management is common and effective in distribution-intensive companies as it eliminates errors.

 Hire personnel

If you have the budget, you can hire an inventory supervisor. This person checks and manages inventory, including those that are being manufactured or in transit. They can assess the number of items in your inventory and give or revoke orders as necessary.

 Follow the 80/20 rule

One of the most popular rules of business is that 80% of your sales happen from 20% of your stock. Hence, you must concentrate on the inventory management of the 20% and make sure the turnover rate is high for such items. In general, these items have a shorter shelf life, so the faster you sell them, the better. When you approach inventory management in a disciplined manner, you can keep track of all the items in your inventory. Billing software comes equipped with the technology to manage inventory. Yet, it is advisable to follow certain rules to manage your inventory.