Maximum Efficiency Through Integration of Inventory Software with Back Office Processes

You may find that today’s inventory management processes involve a lot of Inventory Software in the warehouses. And now, inventory control and management has become more efficient, accurate, fast, and timely than ever before. Thanks to the continuous advancement in technology, better Inventory Software, and management tools keep popping up to make inventory processes even easier. As a businessperson, you must already know that the key to having a successful business or growing one significantly depends on how you control and manage your inventory. So, unless you integrate inventory management with your back-office systems, your inventory won’t be efficiently optimized.

Now, you will be able to know whether the inventory asset value in your financial reports matches what’s physically in your stock, At least not without significant manual intervention. But thanks to the newer, more sophisticated Inventory Software that keeps popping up, all this is now possible. You no longer have to do all the counting and physical work or reconciliation.

To successfully optimize your business’ inventory management, you must integrate proper Inventory Software directly with your back-office and accounting systems. What this integration does is that it provides you with a competitive edge over your competitors. In that, it offers you the ability to plan your inventory more effectively, minimize labor costs, and also execute predictably with your customers. Inventory Software also helps to eradicate the issue of simple counting errors associated with manual reconciliation.

Atop all this, you must also determine the right inventory management system that you can integrate into your business. A proper strategy for your back-office integration processes is also just as important. All these require you to thoroughly assess your needs at the moment and plan for your future growth.

Your integrated solution must also be in real-time for your business to achieve maximum benefits. This must be in real-time, transparent to users, scalable, reconcilable, and flexible.

Why integrate your back-office systems with Inventory Software?

For starters, integrating your back-office systems with Inventory Software provides you three key benefits.

• Starting inventory accurately in your financial reports

• Provide inventory visibility to your supply chain partners

• Optimize inventory to meet your ROI and product availability goals

If you properly integrate your Inventory Software and back-office systems, then there is a myriad of benefits you can enjoy. Here are other benefits that can provide an even more significant impact on your business’ bottom line.

Supply chain visibility

Today, you find that many businesses use supply chain partners to control and manage their inventory levels. However, to efficiently manage to do this, you must not only integrate your inventory system with your back-office processes but also with the supplier or third-party logistics. This process can help ensure that your inventory is always available whenever your clients need it. And that’s precisely what you need to root for to have a competitive edge in your business.

Inventory optimization

It is paramount that as a business, you have the right mix and amount of inventory in your warehouse at all times. This is what will ensure both your customers and investors satisfaction in your business. Your customers are always looking for ‘fresh’ products on demand. Your investors, on the other hand, will ensure that no working capital is tied up in your inventory. You must already know by now that balancing these two conflicting objectives is no easy task. You don’t want to end up with excess inventory as your investors consider this wastage of money your initial material and labor investment.

With excess, ‘dead stock’ in your stores, other activities such as counting, storing and reworking inventory ramps up your additional working capital. And this can potentially lead to a reduction in the availability of the products that your customers want. So, to successfully plan the right level and amount of inventory in your store, you must consider:

• Purchase order

• Sales order

• Planning systems

Incorporating all these systems in your back-office processes enables you to have excellent real-time visibility of your inventory.

Accurate financial reports

As mentioned earlier in this context, Inventory Software, if properly integrated into your back-office processes, can ensure the accuracy of your annual reports and tax returns. This is an extremely crucial step especially on the side of your investors and even the government. For most businesses, inventory value is usually a significant portion of all its fixed assets. It is essential that the recorded value in your financial books correspond to the physical value in your store. Therefore, the only way you can ensure the financial integrity of your business reporting is by integrating your inventory system transactions with your back-office processes.

What’s important in the integration

It is crucial that you always have your inventory and back-office systems fully integrated in real-time. The processes must also be transparent, to the users, scalable, and reconcilable. The best form of visibility you can provide your customers and supply chain partners is real-time inventory provision. Inventory Software works to ensure that your financial reports are also always up-to-date and accurate as well.

Businesses are always looking to be flexible and transparent with both their clients and investors. Continuous changes in the business processes also require businesses to make the necessary adjustments to the integrations. After all, your users don’t want to even think of integration or how it works, as long as it works. It is, however, regrettable that most businesses tend to undermine scalability during integration designs. And this is what comes back to haunt most businesses. Neglecting to consider your inventory scalability can put your business in jeopardy. Think of the time the success of your business overloads it with loads of high transaction volumes that it can’t handle efficiently.