Tracking inventory has historically been a relatively straightforward process. Anyone with a pad and paper has been able to operate at the cutting edge of keeping track of stock and inventory. One imagines that, in the general stores of times past, the task of keeping inventory could have been performed by children.

While the basic task of keeping inventory has remained the same—the process of keeping track of how much stock you have of a given product—the processes by which people keep track of inventory have grown increasingly sophisticated and complex. The source of the growing sophistication and complexity of inventory is related to automation. Inventory is now tracked electronically. Of course, all electronic systems receive constant attention from the brightest engineers and entrepreneurs seeking to make electronic processes more useful and efficient.

When a process as straightforward as keeping inventory is automated, there are certain to be a great number of benefits in terms of increased convenience and efficiency. There is a risk, however, that those used to doing things the old-fashioned way will be left behind by the ever-changing innovation that occurs when a process becomes automated. Here are a few concepts that everyone needs to remain familiar with when working with barcode inventory software to stay on top of current progress.

Point Of Sale

Point of sale may also be referred to as point of purchase. Each of these terms refers to the actual location from which an item was sold. Tracking point of sale using barcode software can be an important tool for businesses that sell products from multiple locations. Keeping track electronically not only of total inventory volume, but also of the individual point of sale, allows businesses to understand where certain items are being purchased. Not only does this allow them to more quickly and efficiently replenish their stock, but it also provides valuable data that may assist them in sales and marketing strategies going forward. A rental inventory scanner linked up to certain types of inventory software may be of interest to people who think this could benefit their business.

Barcoding

Businesses have barcoded their inventory for many years. You might think barcoding is as complex as it can possibly get. While this is true to some degree—barcodes are still simply a series of numbers assigned to a unit of your stock—there have been considerable advancements in barcoding software. One way to work with this newer software, which allows you to do more as far as organizing and strategizing with the data provided by barcodes, is to attach a barcode reader directly to your computer. This allows you to quickly integrate the data yielded by the barcodes to be used by the new software.

Interactive Reporting

Interactive reporting is a feature of a lot of newer inventory control software. Interactive reporting is basically a means making sure your inventory is always balanced. What makes it so advanced is its ability to notice trends in your inventory, such as what is selling quickly and what is not selling very well, and adjusts your inventory based on these factors. For example, if you have only sold 1 of Item #1 and 1,000 of Item #2, interactive reporting makes sure the stock of these is not replenished at the same rate. When an item in category #1 is sold that stock would be replenished by more of Item #2. Advanced metrics would make sure that your inventory is routinely reorganized so that inventory costs are optimized to most effectively meet fluctuating demand.