What is inventory software?
Inventory software helps businesses track stock levels, manage orders and monitor stock movement. It can be used to track products in a warehouse, store or distribution center. Inventory software can also be used to monitor vendor performance and compliance with product standards.
How to Home in on the Best Inventory Software Solutions for Your Bar
An Introduction to Inventory Management for Bars
Your bar ticks all the right boxes- it serves the best liquor in town, offers free WiFi, meets all the protocols on health and sanitation, and draws in a large and loyal crowd. The one box you can't quite check off your list is your inventory and supply chain management.
You're struggling with an outdated system that doesn't give you an accurate picture of the quantity or quality of goods entering your warehouse; what needs to be reordered and when; and what's lost to spoilage and theft. You've run out of stock a couple of times, and have had to shell out more than necessary on emergency supplies. If things continue this way, you'll be losing more than you make, and in time, you could lose your clientele and business altogether!
Your inventory management, clearly, needs an overhaul.
The importance of inventory management cannot be underestimated. It can make or break a business. Good bar inventory management involves keeping track of all alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic drinks, sodas, mixers, garnishes, and everything else that goes into making what's on your menu. It also involves keeping count of equipment and supplies needed to operate the business, such as refrigerators, utensils, carboys, airlocks, cutlery, crockery, napkins, and so on.
Poor inventory and supply chain management can have you suddenly running out of supplies. And if these very items are in demand, your image and revenue will take a real beating. It also means you'll end up buying more than you need, with the surplus stock tying up your capital and your storage space. Worse, when the surplus stock expires, you'd have wasted all that money.
Therefore, it's imperative that you hold the right amount and type of stock at all times, using hard data to tell you what you need and how much of it, not just for the present, but the future as well.
Types of Inventory Management
Inventory management is of three types- manual, periodic, and perpetual.
Manual
Back when we didn't have software solutions at our disposal, practically everything related to accounting and inventory management was done manually. Items were counted and tallied using pen and paper or spreadsheets, which was a lengthy, laborious, and error-prone exercise.
Small businesses still find it convenient to manage their inventory using manual or spreadsheet-based methods, because they hold relatively small stocks and have very basic stock-taking needs.
Periodic
Periodic inventory management involves physically counting products, but occasionally. Physical stock counts may happen once a month, once a week, once a year, or more frequently, depending on the sort of business you operate. Like the manual method, the periodic method also assumes that the inventory levels are low and only a small number of saleable items are kept on hand.
However, with periodic inventory management, stock levels can't be tracked on a per-transaction basis and it is difficult to calculate the cost of goods sold (COGS) accurately.
Perpetual
Perpetual inventory management tracks stock levels and costs on the basis of each transaction, updating the costs associated with each item at each stage of the life cycle of that item. It is the most efficient method of keeping track of inventory.
A perpetual inventory management system relies on digital technology to update transactions and keep track of inventory in real time. Perpetual inventory management allows you to instantly detect slow-moving products, locate them with pinpoint accuracy, and maintain optimum reordering levels so that your business is neither understocked nor overstocked.
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Inventory Management Software Beats the Rest
The best way to manage inventory is to use cloud based software that allows you to monitor the stocks in your bar at any time and from anywhere. All you have to do is check out the inventory app on your mobile phone for real-time stock updates.
Sophisticated software prevents business owners from making pointless purchases that are unlikely to be consumed or sold. Modern inventory solutions also come equipped with business intelligence systems that generate insightful reports on various business metrics like net sales, cost of goods sold, food cost percentage, and so on. These reports help business owners easily identify bestsellers and slow movers and tweak their sales and marketing strategies accordingly.
This can't be expected of manual or spreadsheet-based inventory management methods, which leave users to do the data analysis themselves. Businesses using traditional methods to manage their stocks end up having to do complex math in order to fine-tune their strategies, and this invariably leads to errors.
Indeed, minimizing human error is one of the biggest advantages of software solutions. By reducing the need for constant human intervention at various stages of the inventory management process, from ordering to record-keeping, software ensures that the entire process is quicker, less taxing, and far more accurate and efficient. Moreover, when bar employees can conveniently transfer their worries about depleting stocks to smart software that does its job with utmost precision and consistency, they can devote their time and energy to enhancing customer service.
Inventory software also helps with vendor management, by helping businesses discover suppliers who offer the biggest benefits. It even allows them to make alternate arrangements in time, when a supply disruption does occur.
Furthermore, for enterprise businesses operating across multiple locations, when a product is out of stock at one outlet, inventory management and point of sale (POS) systems can immediately help identify outlets and warehouses where the product is available, allowing for a quick and easy replacement.
To sum up, sophisticated software, with its powerful inventory tracking, demand forecasting, and ordering, does away with stock-outs and dead stock, and prevents expected and actual stock usage from varying sharply.
Demand forecasting, in this regard, is a particularly useful tool that helps predict demand for products in the future, based on past sales trends and upcoming events or expected seasonal variations in demand. This helps businesses calibrate their purchases better. Sophisticated software, therefore, allows businesses to run smoothly and cushions them financially.
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How Does Inventory Management Software Work?
Inventory software solutions are often linked to barcode scanners (wired/wireless). As stocks arrive, product barcodes are scanned (Barcodes are essentially numeric or alpha-numeric codes that contain information about a product, such as its price, weight, size, manufacturing date, expiry date, and so on.). Following the barcode scan, the decrypted product information is transferred to a computer or mobile device as text that is then stored in the inventory database.
As goods are bought, sold, moved, or sent for delivery, the POS or inventory management system updates stock counts automatically. It maintains a record of items sold, and of new items purchased, and users are notified when stocks start to deplete.
Software systems can also send electronic messages to suppliers when the business decides to reorder an item. Some inventory solutions can even place orders automatically when certain par levels are reached.
Almost all inventory software solutions nowadays have mobile apps that allow inventory management to be done on mobile phones and tablets.
How to Select an Inventory Software Solution
In order to select the best inventory solution for your business, first create a checklist of operational problems and intended outcomes. This list must contain everything you consider important, be it cheaper storage and precise stock-taking, quick operations, easy scalability, or increased earnings.
Consider the size of your operations and your customer base. Bigger the operation, the more sophisticated software you will need. A small business or startup, on the other hand, may prefer a lean, no-frills software solution that addresses its modest immediate objectives without straining its finances.
Therefore, always be mindful of the specific requirements of your business and ensure that the technology you choose satisfies the needs of your business. Identify the inventory management software features your business can't do without. For instance, an inventory solution may offer batch tracking, but your business may not need it. On the hand, every business, irrespective of its size or scale of operation, will want strong data reporting and analysis.
Moreover, a business must choose a cloud based solution if it wants several individuals or teams to make use of the system from different locations at the same time.
Furthermore, if your business uses several sales channels, choose a solution that supports all those channels. It should also be able to work with popular platforms for e-commerce and delivery.
The majority of cloud based solutions for inventory management can be integrated with other essential service providers, such as shipping and logistics services. See that your inventory solution offers those integrations too.
You also need to carefully compare the price of various products on offer. Consider what you get at what cost and see how it serves your specific business objectives.
Top 3 Inventory Software Solutions for Bars
1. Zip Inventory-
This software comes with shelf-to-sheet inventorying, which enables business owners to keep an eye on stock levels directly from their mobile app. Its built-in voice search functionality allows users to perform stock counts by simply saying the product name aloud. Operators can track changes in the price of food and beverages and identify problems that lead to losses with the help of COGS and variance reports generated by this software.
Businesses are also alerted to over-portioning, wastage, and theft; this information can help drive down costs. By processing data on sales, ingredient usage, available stocks, and vendor delivery timetables, Zip Inventory sees to it that businesses don't rely on guesswork when placing supply orders.
Its waste-tracking feature establishes staff accountability, minimizes resource wastage, and controls prices. This software can be purchased from Hubworks, an app store dedicated to restaurant management solutions.
2. AccuBar-
This bar inventory software uses barcode readers and mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones to count inventory and empties, thereby improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of stock-take. AccuBar generates reports on key performance indicators (KPIs) like variance and pour cost percentage, which offer operators insights on how to improve their operations.
The software integrates seamlessly with all popular bar POS systems, as well as with other back-office programs. It helps manage large-scale wine operations, and food inventory counts. Using this software, you can also generate barcodes for products that don't have them.
3. Fishbowl-
Fishbowl offers real time stock updates, which can help businesses operate more efficiently and reduce costs. This software is perfect for small and medium-sized organizations. It includes all the resources and tools required to improve inventory management and scale a business up.
Fishbowl seamlessly integrates with a variety of business applications, including QuickBooks, Adobe, Amazon, Salesforce, and Shopify. Inventory control, barcoding, material requirements planning (MRP), order management, sales forecasts, raw material management, and job shop floor control are some of the notable features of this program. The software can also be easily integrated with barcode readers.
Final Word
The biggest advantage of bar or liquor inventory software, and barcode inventory software in particular, is the convenience it offers. Without the support of technology, inventory andsupply chain management is a slow, tedious, and error-prone process and pins down bar employees to complex mathematical calculations, which should never be their core job. Software, on the other hand, co-opts tools to do that job and with greater efficiency.
Robust software assisted by barcode scanners is therefore your best bet when managing inventory. And by integrating your inventory management solution with other restaurant management tools, you'll give your business the competitive edge it needs.
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People also ask
Which is inventory management software?
There is a variety of inventory management software available, each with different features. Some popular inventory management software programs include InventoryLab, Zip Inventory, inFlow Inventory, and Fishbowl Inventory.
What are the 4 types of inventory?
The four types of inventory are Raw Materials, Work-In-Progress (WIP), Finished Goods, and Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO).
Which is the best inventory software?
There is no one "best" inventory software, as the best software for a given business depends on that business's specific inventory needs. However, some popular inventory software programs include ZipBartender, InventoryLab, inFlow Inventory, and Fishbowl Inventory.
How do I build my own inventory system?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best way to build an inventory system will vary depending on the specific needs of your business. However, some tips on how to build an effective inventory system include streamlining your inventory management process, using technology to automate tasks and improve efficiency, and working with a trusted inventory management partner.