Keeping Track of Inventory

Let’s start with the basics of the processes in a manufacturing setting. Whether your company is building something large, such as a car, or something small, such as a toy car, every piece of material needed to make these items must be accounted for, as do the hours it takes to build the product.

To track a car’s specifications, sales orders or work orders must to be made. Different stages of production may go into each product, which also need to be monitored. Inventory may need to be tracked at a raw material and at a finished goods level. No matter the scenario, getting a handle on inventory will enable you to have a true picture of your financials.

Advanced Inventory
QuickBooks offers a feature called Advanced Inventory with one of its QuickBooks Enterprise versions. Advanced Inventory includes, bin location tracking, barcode scanning, FIFO inventory costing, serial number or lot tracking, multi-location inventory, and more.

Third-Party Add-Ons
If you are using QuickBooks Online and need some of these features, then you need to look at a third-party add-on that can deal with more complex inventory and manufacturing needs. Just a couple examples in the market today are LOCATE Inventory or SOS Inventory. Both are cloud-based solutions that integrate with QuickBooks Online. These solutions expand the options for users to track multi-location inventory; sales orders; PayPal integration; pick, pack, and ship; and more. New add-ons are constantly coming available, so be on the lookout!

When choosing an inventory tracking solution for your business, consider the following:

Every manufacturing and inventory business is different, but what is the same is the need for process control, parts management, and tracking the related costs.

If you’d like help finding the right inventory solution for your business, give us a call.