Real-Time

Inventory Management Software

Real-time inventory means knowing exactly how many products you have in stock at any moment. It involves continuously tracking product movements to control inventory levels and meet customer demand. Many companies use software with real-time tracking functionality to avoid stockouts throughout the supply chain and inventory management lifecycles.

Explore inventory management software costs in our guide to The average cost of an inventory management system or jump straight to the Unleashed pricing page. 

Inventory management software works by creating a ‘digital twin’ of a company’s physical inventory along with records for sales, purchases and any manufacturing activities. 

This live inventory tracking largely removes the need for manual stocktaking. For example when new stock is purchased and arrives at the warehouse a barcode scanner is used to record its arrival, with the inventory management software system updating the inventory count for those products – along with details such as: 

• Storage location 

   

• Purchase price 

   

• Additional variable costs i.e transport fees 

   

• Date of arrival 

   

• Physical dimensions.  

When a sale is made, this process runs in reverse. Inventory levels are reduced and further details such as sale price is recorded.  

Finally, if stock is used in a manufacturing process inventory management software will reduce the stock held for all the components or ingredients as these are consumed, and increase the inventory count of the finished goods produced. 

Inventory management software will also update accounting records in real time, allowing for much more accurate financial management in companies that buy and sell physical goods. 

For an in-depth explanation of all things inventory management see the Unleashed Inventory Management Guide.

Inventory management software helps businesses minimize holding costs by aligning inventory levels with demand across multiple products and warehouses while maintaining high customer service levels by preventing stockouts.

It does this by automatically prompting users to create and issue purchase orders when inventory levels drop to a specific ‘reorder point’ or minimum inventory level. 

Other key tasks for inventory management software include: 

• Gathering and processing sales orders and managing order fulfillment (also known as the ‘pick, pack and dispatch’ process).
• Planning for production via documents known as bills of materials. 
• Record-keeping and reporting.
• Document management – from printing shipping labels to storing sales orders.
• Recording details of suppliers, customers and shipping carriers.
• Maintaining live records of the location of each inventory item by tracking internal stock movements.
• Recording a lot or serial number for every batch or individual inventory item.
• Facilitating drop shipments directly from suppliers.
• Integrating with third-party websites via API, for example shipping integrations or distributors, retailers or supermarkets.
• Removing manual data entry and errors through automated workflows plus integrations with existing tools.

For an in-depth explanation of what inventory management software does, see the Unleashed Guide to Inventory Management Systems.

We use the average landed costs methodology only. This methodology is at the heart of Unleashed’s perpetual inventory management system. Obviously you are free to use FIFO/LIFO principles in terms of physical stock movement (but not when costing).

Yes, you can use warehouse transfers to transfer inventory between multiple locations. You can also perform manual stock adjustment to maintain inventory counts if stock is written off. Furthermore, Unleashed’s inventory-on-hand report allows you to understand how much inventory is available for a particular product in all locations. This is perfect for customer inquiries to ensure you don’t miss out on a sale if the inventory's actually available, yet in a different location.

As soon as you start holding stock you need to have batch and serial numbers associated with this inventory (if applicable). It depends how products are brought into Unleashed. If you are bringing inventory in through a purchase order, serial and batch numbers must be added at the time of receipt. If you are doing an adjustment, you need to add a batch or serial number when you are completing the adjustment. If you are doing a credit, then you need to advise what you are bringing in via the credit. Note: Using batch or serial tracking for each product is not mandatory.

Yes, you can see a full transaction history of when the serial and batches were created, when the product(s) were actually sold, used, or deleted.