3 Best Accounting Software For Inventory Management (2024)

If you’re in the manufacturing business, or you’re running a retail store, you probably understand what inventory is and why it is important to manage your business inventory. Apart from helping you in controlling inventory shrinkage, inventory management helps keep a tab on your inventory performance. You probably don’t want to hold stock of goods or products that no one is ready to buy or that simply will take you weeks or months before getting buyers for them.

But again you might be so good in keeping record of your inventory but this can be a daunting and time-consuming task for you if you’re doing it manually. Today, there is software for almost anything to think of, including accounting software for inventory management, which is one of such tools that can simplify all the process of inventory management for you.

While there are many accounting software for inventory management already available out there, you can easily get lost while sifting through the market for the best one for you. To take the burden off your neck, we have waded through the market and, after reviewing a number of the inventory management tools available, we have compiled a list of the best accounting software for inventory management. Read on as we walk you through our list of the best accounting software for inventory management.

What Is An Inventory?

An inventory refers to the goods or products held for resale or materials held for producing other goods. In accounting, inventory is classified into three stages or types before it can be said to be ready for sale. These stages are as follows:

• Finished goods. This is the stage at which the goods are ready for sale or consumption.
• Work-in-progress goods. These are goods that are in the process of being produced
• Raw Materials. These are the products needed for producing the finished goods.

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What Is Inventory Management?

Inventory management is a process of ensuring raw materials or finished goods needed in a business are sourced for, properly stored, and sold for the people who need them. Proper inventory management will ensure the right stocks are available at the right time, in the right quantity, and at the right place.

The primary motive why you want to have proper inventory management is so you will not run out of stock unawares, or so you can avoid overproduction, wastage, overbooking and cost excessiveness. Having an effective inventory management can be a lot of job for your management, and so the need for inventory management software is indispensable for your business success. But before you take the plunge you need to understand what an inventory management is or what it can do for you.

What Is Inventory Management Software?

An inventory management software is a tool that helps you keep a tab on your goods whether raw materials held for producing other goods or finished good ready for sale. It helps source, store and maintain the right level of goods to meet the demand of your customers.

An inventory management tool helps streamline your inventory management process from every stage of your supply chain. It is useful for tackling all your supply chain from the point of placing an order for the goods and to the delivery of the goods to your customers or final consumers.

Best Inventory Management Accounting Software (Upfront Ranking)

Here we are – what you have been keenly asking to know about our lists of the top and best accounting software for inventory management. So let’s get into business.

1. FreshBooks
2. Sage
3. Xero

1. FreshBooks For Inventory Management

FreshBooks is a web-based accounting software created for small businesses, service providers, and freelancers to do the accounting of their businesses. Today the tool has added another feature which allows users to use it for inventory management. With the inventory management integrations for new FreshBooks, you can save a lot of time and money by taking advantage of this new feature in tracking your inventory level. With the tool, you can add, edit and review your inventory for items that are billable and you can do all of these within your FreshBooks account. FreshBooks supports integration with third-party inventory tracking solutions like Shopify, Squarespace, 2Ship, and BarCloud.

What Like About FreshBooks For Inventory Management

• Easy to use
• Automatically reduces stock amount when you invoice for an item

Pricing

FreshBooks offers four pricing plans including Lite, Plus, Premium, and custom pricing. The Lite starts at $4.50 /month billed $108/year with 5 billable clients, the Plus plan costs $7.50/month billed $180/year with 50 billable clients, while the Premium goes for $15.00/month billed $360/year with unlimited billable clients, and the custom pricing plan is available on request.

2. Sage Accounting For Inventory Management

Sage Accounting makes it easy for you to stay up to date with your inventory management by letting you view your inventory level and reorder low stock. One of the good things about this tool is that it was designed with small businesses and freelancers in mind and, as such, it’s within the budget for all businesses. For businesses dealing in physical products or items, Sage Accounting can be helpful when it comes to tracking your inventory, reviewing stock quantities, and reordering products. Also, the tool allows you to bulk-import large number of products using spreadsheet, and you can include description in your product and also separate them into different categories as you deem fit.

What We Like About Sage Business Cloud Accounting

• Supports integration with other platforms like point-of-sale (POS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), etc
• Streamline bulk-importing of large number of items via spreadsheet
• Lets you categorize products and saves you lots of time on manual data entry

Pricing

Sage Accounting doesn’t offer free edition but they offer a free trial. Their pricing plan starts at $12.00 per month.

3. Xero For Inventory Management

Xero is one of the best accounting software for inventory management that allows users to track their incoming and outgoing stocks with ease. With the tool, you can track up to 4000 finished goods via the app’s inventory management system. You can view the number of stock in hand and know what items are available for you to sell. You can also view stock level for each item held in your inventory.

What We Like About Xero

• Easy tracking of item in stock
• Ability to view report on what item is fast-selling
• Easily include items in invoices

Pricing

Xero offers s free trial and their paid plan starts at $11 per month.

Advantages of Inventory Management Software

There are so many advantages you can derive from using inventory management software for your business including inventory order management. For a business using inventory management software it’s easy to track your inventory level and eliminate wastage or overbooking. Since you already know your customer’s demand, you’ll only be ordering exactly what they need and so will be able to eliminate wastage and improve your sales performance.

Another advantage of inventory management software is that it helps businesses improve their business revenue. With inventory management software, you can easily figure out which products sells fast and which takes time to sell. Once you know this, you can focus your attention on the fast-selling products and then increase your turnover which in turn will increase your profits.

Every business owners desire is to continue to grow in both size and profit. Availability of stocks means more sales for your business and more sales leads to more profits. Once your business is growing and you have chosen the right inventory management software for your business, you need to think about maximizing your profit. At this time, you need to increase the quantity of stock you’re ordering and then think about organizing and maintaining your inventory record. Doing this can be tough and time-consuming for your employees, but with an inventory management software you can streamline the whole process. Inventory management software offers a lot of advantages when it comes to smooth record management for ensuring constant stock availability.

Other benefits of inventory management software include price management and trend analysis. There are so many advantages to get from using inventory management software.

What Makes The Best Inventory Management Software

We know you can’t wait to get into our list of the best accounting software for inventory management, but we believe it’s also normal to let you know what make the best inventory management software for us. After trying so many inventory management tools available in the market and wading through the markets, we have been able to figure some key features you need to consider while selecting the best tools for managing your inventory. There are though long lists of features to take into cognizance, a good inventory management tool must offer the following features:

• Tracking feature. This is to help you keep a tab on your inventory including the raw materials and the finished goods.
• Inventory level forecast Capabilities. This will keep you on alert of the level of your inventory and help you meet your customer’s demand.
• Bar Code Scanning feature. This is useful for eliminating data errors and automating your inventory management process so you don’t have to stress yourself or waste any time doing it manually.
• Real-time alerts and updates capabilities. This help you stay up to date with your stock level so you don’t run into sudden stock shortage or overstocking.
• Scalability. Here you want to know if your software allows you to move from the lower level of functionalities to the higher level of functionalities. This is very important so you get more features and benefits as your business and inventory expand.
• Third-party integration. Integrating with other platforms such accounting software is another key feature to look for in selecting the best inventory management solutions.

Why Inventory Management Is Important

The benefits of inventory management software can’t be over-emphasized. Every business owner is in business to make profits. Whether you’re dealing in merchandise or manufacturing goods for people to buy, you need adequate level of inventory to meet your customer’s demand. Inventory management is important for keeping track of your incoming and outgoing inventories so you know when to reorder for new stock. It’s also useful for helping your management and accounts departments in the flawless and stress-free running of the operations of your business. You’ll not only be able to determine what goods are left in your store and when to reorder, you’ll also be able to identify fast-selling and higher-profits products so you can focus selling efforts on such products.

Wrapping Up On Best Accounting Software For Inventory Management

So there you have our list of the best accounting software for inventory management and what next? If you go ahead and select one of the above-listed app for your inventory management and you wouldn’t go wrong. That is very much guaranteed. But don’t forget there are features to look for in your inventory management solution. By taking into consideration the most important features you need, you’ll not go wrong. So go ahead and take the plunge now.

To your success!!!

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