Managing Inventory With a POS System

In this guide we will explain what inventory management is, why it’s important and how it can work in sync with your POS System.

Inventory management is vital for any business, whether you’re a retailer or a restaurant. It allows you to evaluate your business and see which products are selling, and which you might need to discount, so you can make smarter decisions about your stock and ultimately, boost your profit margins.

Your inventory management system needs to be easy to use and well documented so you can add and edit products, know how many of each item you have in stock, and be able to keep track of when you need to re-order.

To get complete control over your inventory management system, there can be a lot of manual admin involved, But fortunately, that doesn’t have to be the case.

With a good POS Inventory Management system, you can automate the vast majority of what would be manual tasks, saving you time and staffing costs.

What is Inventory Management?

Inventory Management is a process and business function that allows you to track and control the products you buy from suppliers and sell to customers. It involves purchasing, order fulfilment, and keeping track of how many products you have for sale.

Inventory Management is effectively the complete supply chain for a retail business, from sourcing and purchasing products to selling them to customers.

Why is Inventory Management important?

Inventory Management is important because it allows you to centrally manage everything your company buys and sells. It ensures your records are kept accurately, and that you never run out of your best selling items. It also allows you to identify under-performing, or low-margin products you might want to cut back on.

What does Inventory Management Software do?

Inventory Management software is much more than a paper ledger, or a folder of confusing spreadsheets that are easy to forget to update. It will help you streamline your processes so your business can work harder and smarter for you, allowing you to really focus on scaling your business.

Improves Cash flow and Reduces Costs

Solid inventory management allows you to completely evaluate the products you stock, meaning you can improve your cash flow and reduce costs.

It will improve cash flow by allowing you to analyse what your best and fastest-selling products and categories are so you can expand on those to sell more of what your customers want.

Inventory Management software will also show you what your least popular items are so you can stop wasting money on products that aren’t selling.

It Centralises Everything

Good Inventory Management software will keep everything in one place, so there’s no more need for messy ledger books or multiple spreadsheets that you then need to consolidate.

Whether you have one store or a hundred, it’ll allow you to easily see total stock as well as stock at individual stores allowing for easy transfers between stores.

In addition, a smart inventory management system will integrate with your e-commerce store such as Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce so you can share stock between your online and bricks and mortar stores.

Provides Easy Barcode Management

Good inventory management software will connect with a barcode scanner so you can easily scan products when they’re purchased. This means you won’t have to find them manually or input prices. You’ll also have the ability to bulk upload multiple products at once.

Inventory management software will also integrate with a barcode printer so you can print custom barcodes for products that you make in-house.

It Automates Processes

Instead of spending time manually subtracting stock when it’s sold or at the end of the day, good inventory management software will automate this process for you.

It will also have a whole host of other automation tools that will improve efficiency such as the ability to set minimum stock levels, automatically send you low stock alerts and even populate purchase orders.

It’s Cloud-Based

All of the best software in the 21st century is cloud-based so you won’t even need to be in your store or warehouse to know what inventory you have. Instead, you’ll be able to access your inventory management software from any device, anywhere in the world. 

Inventory Management & Epos Now

An Epos Now POS System is more than a POS system as we offer a full back office suite with its own leading inventory management system that works harder and smarter for your business, so you can focus on scalability or more days off.

To talk to us about your Inventory Management POS requirements, get in touch: Contact Us