Inventory Automation: What Really Gets Automated?
Once limited to only large companies, inventory automation is now more affordable and accessible to small and mid-sized retailers, wholesalers, and other businesses.
Best-in-class financial management software solutions like Sage Intacct now offer comprehensive inventory management solutions and barcode technology solutions that can help any business track inventory, cut costs, and ensure they have the items they need to keep business running smoothly.
To appreciate all the benefits that inventory automation brings to businesses, it helps to understand the many different kinds of inventory automations available, including receiving, shipping, physical counts, and adjustments.
Automating Receiving
Automation in receiving includes printing receipt labels for all the inventory you receive from suppliers. Systems like Sage Intacct will also automatically record the receipts into inventory against the purchase orders. You can also assign inventory items with lot numbers, serial numbers, and expiration dates at the time of receipt and as the items are issued, picked, or transferred.
Automating Shipping
Automated shipping can help you get your products out the door faster. You can have barcodes printed on the actual cases or items, as well as on pick sheets, and a double-check can be performed to ensure that the correct product is being shipped. With Sage Intacct, you can also validate items, quantities, and other information in real time. The act of shipping actually creates the invoices, leading to an added benefit of eliminating accounting time.
Automating Physical Counts
Traditional methods of physically counting inventory are so time-consuming and labor-intensive that many businesses simply skip them, leading to errors and oversights. With automated systems, handheld devices and barcodes cut the time of physical counts by as much as 80%, so you can perform more counts, catch mistakes sooner, and ensure more accurate accounting records.
Automating Adjustments
Many businesses don’t realize it, but adjustments are another area in which automation delivers benefits. When an item discrepancy is found, the manual process is for a warehouse team member to make a note of it and record it later. It is much, much easier for that worker to instead record the problem on a handheld device by scanning a barcode.
Get Professional Support to Choose the Right BI Tools
The experienced professionals at ACI Consulting can help you take control of your inventory and manage operations more effectively across your entire business. Contact us today to start the conversation.
