Keeping track of your inventory can be quite the hassle. Depending on your specialty you can have hundreds of materials in stock. So how do you sort through all of your inventory? How do you keep track of what materials you have in stock and which ones you don’t? Is there a method for keeping track of how much of a particular material you have? Most of this information is handled through some form of data entry.
There are some drawbacks to taking a paper-only or digital data entry approach for keeping track of your inventory.
Inaccuracy: When relying solely on a data entry approach, it will then be up to the individual to enter in any inventory information. Mistakes can and will be made. If you are using a paper-only approach then you are at the mercy of an individual’s penmanship
Time Consuming: The amount of time it takes to track inventory can be massive depending on your business. What if you have over a thousand unique materials in your warehouse? That’s going to take quite some time and effort to sort out.
The rise of construction accounting software over the past decade has made it easier than ever to keep track of your inventory. Now you have the ability to track all of your materials from a desktop. The Inventory Control module featured in STRUCTURE has all of the tools to make tracking inventory a simple automated process. You are able to produce a complete history showing all additions and subtractions. For example, let’s say one of your service contractors performs a job, in STRUCTURE, all you have to do is select the materials used when filling out the work order. Those materials will then be automatically subtracted from your inventory. No need for paper or Excel spreadsheets.
Flooring contractors can take of advantage the Roll Inventory module. Roll Inventory allows for the contractor to control individual rolls and dye lots, while also having the option to record each cut made. A breakdown is provided of total square yards of carpet broken down into one or several individual rolls.
Service contractors who use trucks to store their inventory are in luck too. With Truck Inventory a truck can be assigned to a service contractor and when the parts get billed on their work order they instantly com off of the truck’s inventory. You have the ability to locate materials that are in specific trucks and can print out a report that tells you how much of a material you have on each truck.
A decade ago if you needed information about your inventory you would have to go digging through an Excel spreadsheet or through a binder. Now you can access a database that has all of your inventory information in one place. Construction accounting software has been able to alleviate many of the difficulties of keeping track of your inventory. Freeing up your staff to take on other work responsibilities. So why not take advantage?