How to avoid inventory missing and other problems

fleetwoodm 2019-01-14 03:59:30 UTC #1

Currently I am not using any inventory management software. So I keep having inventory missing and sometimes ghost inventory where it shows 2 on Amazon but I only have 1 on the shelf

Would an inventory management software be enough to avoid these problems? Would any of these inventory management programs warn me if inventory on Amazon is different than what the program suggests?

Lake 2019-01-14 04:29:15 UTC #2

Ghost listings are more likely to occur with some inventory management software, not less.

fleetwoodm 2019-01-14 05:10:22 UTC #3

I see

Then if I keep track on excel everyday, and delete whatever sold in excel the total in excel should match to Amazon inventory. If it does not then have to find why

But this is time consuming

Arizona_Dave 2019-01-14 12:55:51 UTC #4

An accounting program can cut down on the time you spend keeping track of your inventory and you won’t need Excel.

fleetwoodm 2019-01-14 14:57:25 UTC #5

Can you recommend one?

In order to catch inventory problems, the books need to be entered twice one to amazon one to acctg program

fleetwoodm 2019-01-20 03:40:30 UTC #6

Anybody else?

mbe 2019-01-20 07:49:10 UTC #7

We use QuickBooks Enterprise with Advanced Inventory plus Entriwise. This way, we don’t have to enter anything twice because Entriwise with Advanced Inventory allows us to do financial accounting and better inventory tracking in one system.

With Advanced Inventory we set up multiple warehouse locations like: main, fba-inbound, fba-outbound, fba.

Entriwise posts FBM sales to main warehouse, while FBA sales are posted to fba warehouse. When inventory is sent to FBA we first move it from main to fba-inbound. After Amazon receives the shipment, we move it from fba-inbound to fba. We do similarly for removal.

Maintaining this system helps us track missing inventory because we can compare stock level of fba warehouse in QuickBooks with actual stock level reported by Amazon.

fleetwoodm 2019-01-20 13:18:54 UTC #8

Thanks for the reply. I am a small shop and I was looking for a more affordable solution. Something that is not connected to AMAZON API and works independently so that I can compare both to see what is missing.

Thanks

RedWing 2019-01-20 14:34:16 UTC #9

Probably not since most inventory management systems use the data they download from Amazon to populate their program. Classic GIGO.

My inventory management system (Inventory Lab) does tell me what item are lost or damaged and if they have been reimbursed or not, but frankly I do not know if it compares expected inventory with actual inventory. That is a good thing to know so I will submit a ticket to IL to find out. I will post back when I get an answer.

A few years ago I wrote a macro in Excel to match expected inventory levels with actual inventory levels. It isn’t difficult to do if you know how pivot tables work in Excel.

fleetwoodm 2019-01-21 14:22:06 UTC #10

Your last sentence

A few years ago I wrote a macro in Excel to match expected inventory levels with actual inventory levels. It isn’t difficult to do if you know how pivot tables work in Excel.

I have been writing macro for years. Actual inventory is what Amazon shows in inventory. But how do you determine what expected inventory is?

cpapdepot 2019-01-24 12:52:46 UTC #11

Hi, RedWing,

Is there any chance I can get the copy of your excel sheet,

Thanks.
Kaya

RedWing 2019-01-24 13:12:03 UTC #12

Sure, it will take a couple of weeks. I’ll need to update it so it is generic and I don’t have much time to work on it right now.

RedWing 2019-01-24 13:17:58 UTC #13

Expected inventory is what you have sent minus sales, inbound, and everything that is in Reserve. The difference is unaccounted inventory.

cpapdepot 2019-01-24 14:47:11 UTC #14

Thank you, I really appreciate.
Please, let me know.

SELLC 2019-01-24 16:01:52 UTC #15

Yes. Inventory management is the resource you use to drive your profit and should take time to management it. Photographing a new product, creating a listing, and shipping the item has nothing to do with inventory management, they are required secondary tasks.

All bought inventory management programs are based on excel format. We looked at many different ones, and none of them had everything we wanted, so we just wrote our own. It is quite easy actually, because you only need to create the columns you want, and then write one line of formulas to do what you desire, Then, you copy the one line, 10,000+ times. Ours tracks 5 retail stores, and 5 online stores easily with over 100,000 sku’s. It does not matter if you enter a quantity of 5 in stock, in 3rd party software or on your own spread sheet, the 5 stays there until you change it.

Amazon inventory management gets it right 99.99% of the time, but Ghosting is a problem, and YOU cannot fix Amazon. You accept it as a part of Amazon business. We always have a copy separate from Amazon which we know matches what is in our building. Managing inventory is what allows you to see what is a good seller, what is a slow seller, when to reorder new stock, what to put on sale, etc. Cash flow is the life blood of any business, and managing your inventory is the heart that keeps the blood flowing.

Mas_Des_Bories 2019-01-24 16:12:45 UTC #16

SELLC, if you are running inventory control for 5 stores and 5 online stores in Excel I would strongly suggest you do that in MS Access. It will be much easier. Now Access is not for beginners, your could have an outside person come in and import your Excel data into Access and do a bit of training for a somewhat skilled person at your org to use it. The hardest part about Acess is just getting started, it can be intimidating but if you have someone come in to set it up for you, running it, maintaining it and improving it is not that hard.

I have to pay you a high compliment for your Excel skills though, that’s impressive.

fleetwoodm 2019-01-25 17:54:53 UTC #17

SELLC:

fleetwoodm:

Anybody else?

Yes. Inventory management is the resource you use to drive your profit and should take time to management it. Photographing a new product, creating a listing, and shipping the item has nothing to do with inventory management, they are required secondary tasks.

All bought inventory management programs are based on excel format. We looked at many different ones, and none of them had everything we wanted, so we just wrote our own. It is quite easy actually, because you only need to create the columns you want, and then write one line of formulas to do what you desire, Then, you copy the one line, 10,000+ times. Ours tracks 5 retail stores, and 5 online stores easily with over 100,000 sku’s. It does not matter if you enter a quantity of 5 in stock, in 3rd party software or on your own spread sheet, the 5 stays there until you change it.

Amazon inventory management gets it right 99.99% of the time, but Ghosting is a problem, and YOU cannot fix Amazon. You accept it as a part of Amazon business. We always have a copy separate from Amazon which we know matches what is in our building. Managing inventory is what allows you to see what is a good seller, what is a slow seller, when to reorder new stock, what to put on sale, etc. Cash flow is the life blood of any business, and managing your inventory is the heart that keeps the blood flowing.

So if you have it in excel then that means you manually add subtract inventory to excel and make sure total matches to amazon right?

SELLC 2019-01-25 19:36:56 UTC #18

On Amazon only. All of our retail and online stores any changed automatically with the sale. We use Amazon accounting as an out the back door outlet. When the inventory is deleted from our regular business, it is simply placed in the Amazon inventory to be liquidated.