Inventory software - which one to choose and are free programs any good?

Conducting an inventory or physical inventory is not an easy activity. A very high degree of accuracy is involved. A mistake gives rise to a number of additional explanatory steps. It involves miscalculation of the tax base, incorrect knowledge of the inventory, and in the worst case, even liability under the Internal Revenue Code. Interestingly, this applies not only to the entrepreneur himself or the head of the entity conducting the inventory, but also to the person who oversees the process itself. Thus, traditional inventory methods not only make the process itself take much longer than it could, but also carry the risk of human error, which, after all, can be eliminated. That's why it makes sense to use an inventory program. Combining it with a mobile reader will significantly shorten and streamline the work.

What do you need inventory software for?

If you're asking yourself "how to do an inventory?" you've surely heard of the existence of special software. If there are huge amounts of fixed assets to be inventoried from inventory, counting them can take ages, and it's not hard to make a mistake anyway. Applying all the values to the inventory sheets by hand is also later a challenge for those who are supposed to make a final report out of everything. What's more, many, if not all, inventory software , when combined with a mobile reader, automatically updates the inventory and also generates a final report at the end, in some cases even with suggestions of actions that should be taken. For the most part, companies providing inventory services have long been working with this modern inventory system, as it is simply more efficient.

What should a good inventory software have? What is the best one to choose?

Of course, everything depends on the purpose and objectives of the inventory itself, but a good fixed asset inventory program should be as easy to use as possible. It should also give you the full range of activities that you perform when conducting an inventory, that is, the ability to apply data efficiently, update balances, connect with mobile readers, count all the information and generate a final report. But an important feature of fixed asset inventory software is also its intuitiveness and ease of use. If an entrepreneur decides to take a physical inventory by hand using the program and engages specialists to do it - so the idea is that any employee will be able to learn how to use it without any problems.

Are free inventory programs good and safe?

When using free inventory software , we must know that this will always be making some kind of compromise. In this matter, as in life, nothing is free. There are free inventory programsavailable for download on the Internet, but most often we are talking about programs that are in trial version, i.e. for a short, specified period of time or with reduced functionality. When it comes to freeware, we are usually talking about programs that yes are able to accept data, but do not generate from it precise statements ready for submission in the final inventory report.

An additional issue is security - free inventory software found on the Internet may not contain adequate security features. Inventory software often works with clouds where data is hosted. Lack of adequate security can lead to the leakage of such data, and, after all, among them may be confidential information. It is worth taking this into account when choosing inventory software.

How much should an inventory program cost?

The inventory software itself should not be extremely expensive. In many cases, a lifetime license costs up to £1,000. However, some software manufacturers use a different payment model - a subscription form. An entrepreneur using a service in such a formula pays a monthly amount and in return receives the full functionality of the entire system created by the developer. In such an arrangement, the monthly amount usually does not exceed PLN 100.

It is worth remembering that inventory software in the vast majority of cases must be closely linked to the operation of mobile readers. Their number depends, of course, on the size of the inventory to be inventoried. The cost of purchasing such a device depends on its complexity and quality. The simplest barcode readers can be purchased for as little as PLN 150, but quality terminals that are also small computers for physical inventory are amounts as high as PLN 2,000, but the most expensive of these devices are able to send data directly to the cloud, which contains all the data on the inventory.