Inventory management can be time consuming and frustrating, but it’s an important part of keeping customers happy and cash flow moving. Follow these fiv best practices for managing inventory to streamline your processes, take stock of your company’s financial situation and stay on top of business decisions.
Maintain quality control.
Whatever size business you have, you want to make sure that someone is checking the quality of products when they arrive. Morning rush hour is not the best time to open the last sack of coffee and find out that all the beans are spoilt. Quality control on arrival saves time and money later on as you can fight any fires before stocks are running low.
Automate your system.
Look for inventory management software that suits your needs and makes your life easier. The right software helps you control costs and keep track of inventory — and it gives you real-time data at your fingertips. Tracking your stock manually eats up time and can lead to errors.
Stay well stocked.
You need enough stock to supply your customers but you don’t want to be sitting on an expensive surplus. Set up automatic reordering for popular products that you routinely run low on. It’s also worth doing manual inventories every month or so to make sure the automated system is correct.
Categorize items.
Itemized stock control can help you gain a deeper understanding of which specific products are selling out quickly. Square Point of Sale’s inventory management tool can even send you an alert when certain items are running low: Just set the threshold and it lets you know when you need to reorder.
Use data to forecast demand.
You probably have a feel for what type of products are popular with your customers, but using sales data from previous years, months or even the last few days can paint an especially clear picture of where your business is making money. It also gives you the information you need to set up effective promotions and sales based on surplus stock.
Find out how Square’s inventory management system can help you track your inventory across multiple locations.