Your stock is right
until someone counts it.
For companies where the standard package almost fits: multiple locations, articles you assemble yourself, batch or serial numbers, or a webshop and a point of sale drawing on the same stock. First the question of whether a package will do, and only then building.
Where stock management goes wrong.
Three systems, three numbers
The webshop says seven, the till says five and the warehouse has three. Nobody knows which number is right, so people count instead of sell.
Overselling or dead stock
You keep things offline for fear of selling what is not there. Meanwhile money sits on a shelf you cannot see.
Assembled articles do not fit
You sell a set or a kit, but your package only knows separate articles. So someone converts every order back to components by hand.
Batch, serial or shelf life
Which serial numbers went where, which batch is about to expire. In a spreadsheet next to the package, because the package cannot do it.
The package charges per user
Add five people in the warehouse and your licence doubles, while those five only need a scanning screen.
Purchasing is guesswork
What needs ordering and when? Without insight into lead time and turnover that is a feeling, and that feeling costs working capital.
From counting to correct.
First check whether a package will do
Exact, Picqer, Katana and others do this work well and cost less than custom software. If your process fits, I say so and that is the end of it. That costs you a call and saves you a project.
Mapping the real process
Where does stock arrive, who books it out, what happens on a return, and which step is currently done on instinct. Part of the wish list usually falls away here.
One source, the rest follows
There is one place where the number lives. Webshop, till and bookkeeping take their number from there instead of keeping their own administration.
Scanning and counting in practice
A screen that works on a phone or scanner in a warehouse, not a dashboard only usable at a desk. Including counting without shutting the shop.
Package first, custom second
Stock management is a solved problem as long as your stock behaves the way software expects: separate articles, one location, in and out. There are good packages for that, and at a few tens of euros a month custom work cannot beat them.
Custom starts to pay off when your stock behaves differently. That is almost always one of these four situations.
Multiple locations or channels
Warehouse, shop, service van and webshop drawing on the same stock, with transfers between them that stay correct without anyone rebooking them.
Kitting and assembly
You sell sets, kits or assembled articles. On a sale the components come off, on assembly they go back on.
Batch, serial and warranty
Which serial number sits with which customer, which batch is near expiry, what is still under warranty. This is exactly where spreadsheets next to the package appear.
Your own purchasing or picking logic
Reorder advice based on your lead times and season, or a picking order that matches how your warehouse is laid out.
What a system like this looks like
Not a second administration, but a layer that guards the source. Usually your bookkeeping stays the financial system and this becomes the place where quantities, locations and movements are correct.
- Scanning on a phone or handheld
- Counting without stopping sales
- Movements with history: who, what, when
- Roles for warehouse, purchasing and admin
- Integration with webshop and till
- Export to your bookkeeping
What it costs
A package costs tens to a few hundred euros a month and is almost always the cheapest route for a standard process. Custom is a one-off investment that pays back on the hours you now lose to counting, correcting and retyping, and on the overselling it prevents.
What moves the price are the integrations and the exceptions in your process. How pricing works is on pricing; the wider track on custom software development. Why quotes for the same question vary so wildly is in what custom software really costs.
Does it start with a spreadsheet?
At most companies it does. There is one file holding the real stock that one person understands. How to move off it without a big bang is on from spreadsheets to software, and if you also sell from that stock online, ecommerce development belongs with it.
Stock in practice in the real world
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Translated from the Dutch originals on Google.
I am Bas Voets. Since 2021 I have been building websites, client portals and business software for small and mid-sized companies, from Hazerswoude-Dorp in the Netherlands. From first call to launch you talk to me, not to an account manager.
Is a package like Picqer or Exact not cheaper?
Can it integrate with my webshop and bookkeeping?
Does it work with scanners?
Can we migrate our current stock?
How long does it take?
What if we want to extend it later?
Tell me what you want to build.
A half-hour call. You get an honest answer about what it costs, how long it takes and whether building it is smart at all.