Factories, warehouses, or shop floor contains thousands of assets and inventory items that must be tracked and maintained. This must be done with the best powerful inventory tools coupled with an equipment tracking solution like a barcode. To avoid unexpected business interruptions that emanate from poor maintenance planning or back-ordered part, ensure to use of the best tool inventory software. In this article, we compiled the best inventory tool system suitable for businesses.
Overview
Tool inventory software is a system used to store information about the revolution of the tools owned and used by a business. Hence, these systems provide teams with the ability to share information across job sites and keep track of things like maintenance requirements, warranties, required training, and tool availability. In addition, the capacity to view inventory across multiple sites is especially helpful, allowing managers to immediately determine where a tool is needed and if one is unavailable. However, with real-time, accurate information, companies can make informed decisions about what they need to order and when.
How Do I Track My Inventory?
You can do so by doing the following:
- Make a list using an inventory management system.
- Adding barcodes and QR codes to tools.
- Consider categorizing, bundling, or “kitting” tools.
- Tracking items as they move to different locations.
- Setting up a system for reordering.
Best Tool Inventory Software
The best tool inventory software helps you manage and tracks essential factors, such as asset location, maintenance records, tool costs, user permissions, and checkout and return dates. High-quality tool management solutions also come with auditing and reporting functions that help you make decisions about asset inventory needs and future tool purchases.
In addition, the best tool inventory software for your organization is one that your team can use with minimal effort and training, which helps ensure the software will be used correctly and consistently. The best inventory software also syncs in real-time, ensuring seamless transactions whether your customers shop online or in your store.
Best Tool Inventory Software: Factors to Consider
No matter the type of business you run, there are a few essential things to look for when it comes to choosing the inventory software that is right for you. Here are some important things to look for.
#1. Overall Price
You may need it to do certain things. However, the price should be at the front and center of the decision-making process. Lots of features usually mean a higher cost, so careful consideration of this during the selection process is key.
#2. Simplicity of Use
You want to find tool inventory software that has everything you need. But, you also want to find a platform that is easy to use and understand. Remember, a program is really only effective if it is intuitive and usable for everyone.
#3. Prestige
Reputation is likely going to play a factor in the decision-making process as well. So, make sure you read through reviews that users have posted, check into the customer service situation, and make sure that the program you choose has a good reputation.
#4. Integrations
Integration is very important. You need to make sure that the platform you choose allows for easy third-party integrations into other tools that you use to run your business. This allows things to run smoothly and your entire system to work as together as one.
#5. Analytics and Reports
In addition to all the other things that good inventory management software provides, you have to make sure that you get solid and easy-to-understand analytics and reports. These reports will provide detailed data that you can use to increase productivity and sales.
#6. Multi-Location Inventory Management
Many businesses operate in more than one location and because of that, they have inventory scattered throughout multiple locations. Make sure that the system you choose allows you to operate inventory from more than one facility.
Best Tool Inventory Software: Examples
Below is a list of the best tool inventory tool software for different types of businesses.
#1. Cin7 Orderhive
They make plans to meet the needs of companies in most industries, from large enterprises to start-ups. They stand out by offering unlimited stock-keeping units (SKUs) and hundreds of integrations in its feature-rich plans, making Cin7 Orderhive the clear winner for best overall inventory management software.
#2. inFlow
This easy-to-use platform provides a central inventory database and business-to-business (B2B) showrooms where clients can view and shop your products. The inFlow software is web-based (inFlow Cloud) or computer-based offering an intuitive app for Android and iOS devices. It supports FIFO, moving average, and last in, first out (LIFO) methods.
#3. Light speed
Lightspeed Retail is a web-based inventory management tool designed to meet brick-and-mortar and e-commerce stores’ needs. Its industry-specific options and in-store sales functionality earn it the top spot in our best-for-retail stores category. Although Lightspeed Retail’s main service is the point of sale, it provides excellent retail inventory tools.
#4. Ordoro
It’s hard to practice good inventory management techniques when you’re shuffling multiple sales channels. Fortunately, Ordoro makes multichannel selling easier. With Ordoro, you can create master products within your inventory system, allowing you to update descriptions, images, branding, and more across all the sales channels of your choice.
#5. Upserve
Upserve provides a dynamic inventory solution for the unique needs of restaurants. Specifically, Upserve offers a greater focus on expiration date tracking and specialty supply chain needs (like refrigerated shipping) than other inventory control software options. Also, it provides everything you could need in one service. You can run your online ordering, point-of-sale (POS) services, and workforce management even across multiple locations.
#6. EZOfficeInventory
EZOfficeInventory is the perfect inventory control software for businesses with a lot of not-for-sale assets, like employee computers and other equipment. In addition to traditional inventory management tasks, the inventory system lets you plan maintenance, track wear, and tear, and assign work orders
#7. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor
Is a thorough asset documentation system, listing servers and the software packages that they host. This tool keeps a constant check on server performance, watching the key metrics of activity, such as disk space, CPU, memory, and network interfaces. Also, this application dependency map enables the tool to quickly identify the root cause of performance impairment.
#8. Asset Panda
Asset Panda is an ideal choice for inventory businesses that need a software option with flexible pricing. It is effective for tracking small hand tools to large pieces of industrial equipment, has a built-in scanner feature that reads barcodes, and is compatible with any device. With Asset Panda, each entry of an asset requires a name, asset ID, brand, description, cost model, and activity status.
#9. Megaventory
If you run a manufacturing company then Megaventory is probably perfect for you. It is an operations management solution that helps you oversee and track the bundling or assembly process. You can then monitor inventory, ordering, and fulfillment. The system is easy to use and easy to implement, so others that need to be a part of using it will not have a large learning curve to get over.
#10. QuickBooks
You may know QuickBooks Commerce by its former name, TradeGecko, and while the name might have changed, the software still offers everything you need for your wholesale business. It allows you to easily monitor products as you sell, manufacture, and restock goods across all of your warehouses, sales channels, and locations. Plus, you can also set up a B2B e-commerce site, allowing all your clients to pay the agreed price.
#11. Oracle Netsuite
Oracle Netsuite is an equally built-in set of tools designed to simplify the inventory management process. It’s a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software with a dedicated inventory management module that allows businesses to track and manage inventory, incoming and outgoing stock, and inventory-related transactions.
What Can I Use to Keep Track of Inventory?
Inventory Tracking Methods include,
- Manual Tracking: Those who aren’t ready to invest in an inventory tracking system often track their inventory using pen and paper
- Card System
- Spreadsheets
- Accounting Systems
- Inventory Management Systems
Tool Inventory System
Tool inventory system involves applying a unique barcode to every tool and piece of equipment across all of your job sites. This helps companies know exactly what they have, the condition it’s in, and where they should be located so they can be prepared for projects and eliminate inventory surprises.
One of the most powerful benefits of an accurate tool inventory system is the way that it will boost the productivity of employees and job sites. When everyone knows where specific tools are located, whether they’re functioning and whether they’re currently available
Tool Inventory System: Types
Businesses can choose from either of the three tool inventory systems below. Let’s take a look at each one of these systems and find out how they are different from one another.
#1. Manual Tool Inventory System
Before the advent of technology, almost all accounting activities were managed manually, and it was the same to manage inventory levels. Typically, the process starts with an employee scanning through a checklist of the items, counting each one of them, noting down the results, and entering the data in a spreadsheet. Now this crucial information, without being cross-checked by an automated system is used to take all the inventory-related decisions.
#2. The Periodic Inventory Management System
This is a perfect bridge between manual and perpetual inventory systems. This method of tool tracking inventory system gives room for employees to adopt both methods at their convenience. When using a periodic inventory management system, you take physical counts of your inventory only periodically, which could be; monthly, weekly, or yearly, depending on your business. This system works well for businesses that maintain lower inventory levels and only stock a limited number of sellable products.
#3. Inventory Management System
Is the best-proven method to keep a close track of your inventory without any errors. A perpetual inventory management system tracks cost and stock levels on a transaction-by-transaction basis, perpetually updating costs associated with each item at every phase in the product life cycle. This system uses digital technology to track inventory in real-time and update purchases and return transactions on a regular basis, accurately.
What Are the Most Common Inventory Systems?
What are the three most common inventory control models? Three of the most popular inventory control models are Economic Order Quantity (EOQ), Inventory Production Quantity, and ABC Analysis. Each inventory model has a different approach to help you know how much inventory you should have in stock.
Free Tool Inventory Software
Just because a solution is free does not mean it lacks features or benefits. Free tool inventory software may not be a winning choice for globe-scaling enterprises, but it could be the first step toward organization and profitability for smaller operations. Free tool inventory software offers small businesses a cost-effective way to manage their stock. Typically, Free tool inventory management software is a cloud-based solution that helps you keep track of stock movements, manage your inventory levels, and oversee sales orders and product availability.
Free Tool Inventory Software: Examples
While free inventory systems are more limited than their paid counterparts, I found free options with enough tools for small businesses to get started, forever-free subscriptions with options to upgrade, cloud-based functionality, and easy-to-use interfaces.
#1. Odoo
A fully open-source inventory system takes the top spot for free inventory management software because it offers so much in its free plan―even automated POs and expiration date tracking. It’s also completely unlimited, making it great for small businesses with huge inventories; for a small fee, you can tie the inventory software to Odoo’s dozen other sales and marketing tools. Odoo also integrates with e-commerce systems.
#2. Square
Square is best known for its POS capabilities for retailers and restaurants, landing it at the top of our lists of the best POS systems, best free POS systems, best POS systems for retailers, and best free restaurant POS. However, Square also offers incredible inventory management tools in all of its POS accounts. With every Square for Retail account, retailers get live inventory tracking as they make sales, e-commerce integrations, mobile capabilities, POS, order management, product variants, and more.
#3. Zoho Inventory
Zoho Inventory’s free tool inventory software came in third because it allows unlimited inventory, a strong range of integrations, low stock alerts, kitting and bundling options, and shipping tools, allowing you to print packing slips and generate discounted shipping labels from major logistics providers like the United States Postal Service (USPS) and UPS right from your dashboard.
#4. SalesBinder
Offers excellent free tool inventory software that works in more than 130 countries and a wide array of currencies. Its intuitive interface also includes lots of room for customization so you can make it work how you need it to, wherever you are in the world.
#5. Stockpile
Stockpile provides small to medium-sized businesses with free tool inventory software support. This system uses a tiered access model to manage users and administer locations, manufacturers, preferences, and physical areas. It contains reporting features that give the users valuable information on inventory turnover and other business-critical considerations. It is available with a SaaS deployment and is compatible with all platforms.
Can Excel Be Used for Inventory Management?
With integrated tools, features, and formulas to make spreadsheets more dynamic and interactive, Excel is also capable of handling basic inventory management for small businesses. While not ideal for a medium or large-sized inventory, Excel is cost-effective or, if you use it in OneDrive, even free.
Tool Inventory Software Barcode
Barcodes are the numeric codes attached to the items, showing the specific product’s details upon scanning. Barcoding inventory is an efficient way to manage a large amount of stock. It’s also recommended if your inventory contains high-value items that need to be carefully tracked and maintained. In both cases, barcodes are the starting point for efficient inventory management and a good way to save heaps of time and money.
In addition, the company has to store the information of all the products in their system. The tool inventory software barcode brings the data or information of the product after scanning. But, this will work only after updating the proper digital context of the product. So, one needs to initially load the database before the barcoding process.
What to Consider When Creating a Tool Inventory Software Barcode
You’ll enjoy multiple benefits from using barcodes to track inventory, starting with perpetual inventory counts instead of a periodic inventory system. You’ll also have more data for inventory control processes such as setting safety stock levels, calculating reorder points, and determining economic order quantity (EOQ).
#1. Inventory goals
This tool inventory software barcode management keeps you updated on what you do and doesn’t have in stock. But it can perform other functions, depending on your needs: theft prevention, order fulfillment speed, and first-in, first-out (FIFO) accounting.
#2. Software
If you have a retail operation, you can probably use your POS system to create barcodes. If you have a large number of products, multiple warehouses, or are a logistics provider, you may want to invest in inventory-specific barcode software.
#3. Hardware
You must also decide what kind of barcode hardware to use. Do you need portable inventory scanners or fixed flatbed scanners? Will you scan one barcode type or many? What are the environmental conditions where you’ll use your scanners?
Tool Inventory Software Barcode: Examples
Let us look through some tool inventory software barcodes that will assist in simplifying the workflow so that one can do tasks more efficiently.
#1. Shortly
This is a small-scale business barcode inventory system. It permits individuals to associate barcodes or certain QR tags with their product inventory. Additionally, users can quickly add images and item descriptions of each product. Sortly can be used for a simpler approach to managing the business inventory remotely without any physical permissions required.
#2. Finale
With Finale Inventory, one can get fast tool inventory software barcode generation compared to other platforms. This platform will be helpful to every type of industry such as automotive, apparel, fireworks, solar-related companies, healthcare, and many more. Thus, business owners can always track the amount and location of the products at a minimal cost.
#3. Fishbowl inventory
Fishbowl Inventory is a best-in-class and powerful barcode app that is designed specifically for your business’s warehouse inventory management and manufacturing. Its tools transform your inventory management processes and scale your business. Moreover, it decreases the steps needed in your manufacturing process and integrates with business solutions such as Amazon, QuickBooks, Shopify, Salesforce, and more.
#4. HandiFox Desktop
HandiFox Desktop is one of the best barcode generators around, and it also controls inventory and manages sales orders. The software is designed to work with a wide range of barcode scanners and printers, making it very convenient for businesses. They manage all data flow processes, from fulfillment processes in the warehouse to accounting applications in the office.
#5. CheqRoom
Collaborating with CheqRoom can help a company take its inventory management to a higher level. They provide various services like equipment for the checkout process, maintenance, reports, asset tracking, and equipment scheduling. Moreover, they have trusted allies such as Netflix, Google, Harvard University, DJI, and FOX Sports. This software can be easily accessed from any part of the world, and one can manage multiple inventories from this app.
References
- greengeeks
- forbes
- tallysolutions.
- geekflare.
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