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An inventory system for small business, built around your stock

The spreadsheet worked until two people started editing it. We build stock tracking the way your business actually counts: from a phone or a scanner, with reorder points that fire before you run out, and orders in and out in one place.

An inventory system for small business does not need to be a warehouse product with a training course. It needs to answer three questions without a count: what do we have, where is it, and what do we need to order this week. Most small businesses answer those with a spreadsheet, a whiteboard and a walk out the back, and that works right up until it does not.

We build the small version. One business, its real items, the way it actually receives and uses stock, on a phone.

How small businesses keep track of inventory

The four stages, and where it breaks

A notebook or a whiteboard

Fine for a dozen items. Breaks the first time someone forgets to write it down, which is the first week.

A spreadsheet

Works for one person. Breaks when two people edit it, when it lives on one laptop, and when the count and the sheet drift apart and nobody trusts either.

Free inventory software

Generic. You spend the time making your business fit the software, learn its names for things, and still pay for the plan that has the one feature you needed.

Built for the business

Your items, your units, your locations and your reorder points. Counted from the phone in your pocket. Nothing to learn because it uses your words.

With a scanner, or without

Counting from a phone, a scanner or a barcode

Phone camera

Most small businesses need nothing more. Point the phone at a barcode or a label you print, tap the quantity, done. No hardware to buy.

A handheld scanner

For a counter or a store room where the same person counts all day, a scanner is faster and the system works with one. Still the same screen, same items.

Your own labels

Items without barcodes get a printed label with a code the phone can read. Raw materials, made up kits, and the odd sized stuff suppliers never label.

A count that takes minutes

Walk the room, scan, confirm the number, and the system shows what moved since last time. The stocktake stops being a Sunday.

Reorder points

The part that stops the phone call that starts with we are out of

Every item gets a minimum. When the count drops below it, the item goes on this week's order list, with the usual supplier and the usual quantity already filled in. You check the list, change what you want, and send it. The system does not order on its own, because you know things it does not: the supplier's lead time changed, the job got cancelled, the price went up. It just makes sure nothing is forgotten.

A real one

What we built for a window and door fabricator

Fineline Systems is a window and door fabricator. Their stock and orders are built as business tools alongside the site: what is in the factory, what each order needs, what to bring in next. It replaced the mix of paper and spreadsheet that every fabricator starts with, and it is used every day by the people on the floor, not just the office. We describe it in words only because what is inside it belongs to them.

What it costs

Quoted per job, scoped for free

Inventory is one of our business tools, so it is scoped for free and quoted per job. A stock list with counts, locations and reorder points for one site is a small build. Orders in and out, several locations, or a link to your point of sale is bigger. The scope says which, the price on the quote is the price you pay, a 25% deposit starts the build and the rest is due when it is live and you are happy with it.

Fair questions

What people ask about inventory systems

What is the best inventory management system for a small business?
The one that matches how you actually count. For most small businesses that is a phone camera, your own item names and a reorder list, not a warehouse product. The best system is the one the person out the back will actually use on a Tuesday.
Is there a free inventory system for small business?
Yes, and for a short list of items a free tool or a shared spreadsheet is fine. The cost of free shows up as time: fitting your business to the software, and the count drifting from the sheet until nobody trusts either.
Does it need a scanner?
No. A phone camera reads barcodes and the labels we print. A handheld scanner is an option for a counter or store room where one person counts all day.
How do I create an inventory system for my small business from scratch?
Start with the list of what you actually hold, in your own words and units. Give each item a minimum. Decide who counts and how often. That is the whole design, and it is what we build from, so bringing that list to the scope saves time.
Can it track stock across a van and a shop?
Yes. Locations are part of it, so a trade can see what is in the van, what is in the store, and move stock between them with a scan.
Does it connect to my accounting software?
Where the accounting tool allows it, orders and stock values can be sent across. We check that in the scope rather than promise it blind.

Scoped for free

Tell us the job you do by hand

One message about what you are tracking on paper, in texts or in a spreadsheet. We scope it for free and come back with one price for the job.

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