The Agony and the Ecstasy of Inventory Management

“When will you make an end?” Pope Julius II famously asked Michelangelo concerning his painting of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling in The Agony and the Ecstasy. Michelangelo’s epic response? “When it is finished!” It took Michelangelo four years to complete his masterpiece. Thankfully, you don’t have to go through as much time and agony as this master artist to turn your inventory management into a work of art. Many companies are in pain. They’re suffering from bad inventory management, double data entry, poor tracking of inventory in Excel spreadsheets, and slow picking, packing, and shipping. And that’s just scratching the surface of many companies’ inventory woes. Here are four inventory agonies companies face and how to turn them into ecstasies.

Inventory Balance

Agony: Out-of-whack inventory management can lead to carrying cost overruns as you try to store too much inventory in your warehouse. It can also lead to a scarcity of products in stock, delaying order fulfillment. Ecstasy: Imagine keeping a perfect balance of inventory on hand at all times and also planning ahead for seasonal changes in demand and other historical factors that need to be considered.

Double Data Entry

Agony: Having to enter the same numbers in your accounting and inventory management software increases the risk of errors being made. The quantities might not match up as these mistakes pile up over time. Plus, double data entry takes a lot of time. Ecstasy: Integrating your accounting and inventory management solutions is the answer. Fishbowl integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks and Xero, making it possible to instantly transfer data between them, so you can scan barcodes and record quantities once and then know that it will be recorded everywhere the same way.

Excel Inventory Management

Agony: It’s a struggle to update your inventory spreadsheets whenever you receive inventory or sell products. At times, it feels like you’re managing the spreadsheet more than the actual inventory. Ecstasy: Excel spreadsheets are meant to be used as a conduit and a temporary vessel for inventory data, not the final depository. Download inventory numbers into spreadsheets to be transferred between Fishbowl and other solutions, but use the much more intuitive Fishbowl for all of your inventory needs. It helps you find and collate data much faster, keep data secure through user rights, and so much more that Excel can’t do.

Pick, Pack, Ship

Agony: Disorganized warehouses lead to messy results. You never know where to find all the products to fill an order and you waste a lot of time running back and forth through your warehouse to pick orders one at a time. Ecstasy: Imagine being able to pick multiple orders at the same time and automatically generating the most efficient path through your warehouse so you can just go through it once and get everything you need. You can. Fishbowl Go is an app designed to work on Android devices to scan product barcodes, cycle count inventory, pick orders, and much more. It makes quick and efficient picking, packing, and shipping possible.

It Is Finished

You didn’t have to go through four grueling years to get to the end of this blog post – just four sections. The point of all of this is to simply say that you can enjoy the ecstasy of proper inventory management without having to toil through all the hassle of poor inventory management. When will I make an end? When it is finished. Well, guess what. We’re finished.