Tracking and updating it, this will provide you with the necessary information to calculate sales and needs of the company. For a small business having poor inventory management could be the make or break of your business.

Have you ever gone to a store several times looking for a particular product and you were informed they didn’t have it in stock? What usually happens is you stop going to that store to even inquire about that item and start going to another store that has it in stock. This is one of the downsides of having a poor inventory management system as you are unable to keep up with demands from your clients. Furthermore, this leads to loss of money and poor customer satisfaction.

Accurately managing inventory can increase revenue by preventing stockouts, overstock, and unsold products. When learning how to organize inventory in Cameroon businesses it an added advantage having accounting software to help you.

What is inventory management?

Inventory management is a step in the supply chain. Here you use the data from your inventory sheet to create usable information. In a dedicated inventory management system, all the math is automated and it’s made easy to use. Here you can track your sales, purchases, and losses in inventory. All of this allows you to reduce inventory costs and improve profitability.

Some of the key benefits of having good inventory management practice for small and medium-sized businesses are:

Customer satisfaction: Having a good inventory management system will give your business the ability to always have a good track of your incoming and outgoing stock. Thus keeping your stock of goods at the right level at all times to serve customers and have them coming back. Furthermore, in some unforeseen circumstances when you run out stock you can accurately tell your customers when the items will be available. Product tracking It will give you the ability to see which products are doing well and which are a waste of investment. Turning your attention to productive. This will let you market items that you are more likely to sell.

Financial management

tracking the number of items you sell by improving your bookkeeping automatically imputing sales value when you sell a product, costs of acquiring the item, and depending on what you add to your inventory tracking, the cost of acquiring the system. Giving you an accurate overall profit. Theft Control Theft is a big issue for small businesses and medium-sized businesses in Cameroon. Many businesses in Cameroon are unable to scaleup due to the misappropriation of cash and inventory. Inventory management allows you to see the number of products you have at any given time, with the associated revenue made from sales, so it’s easy to see when something goes missing. Hopefully, that never happens, but it is something to keep in mind.

Demand and supply adequacy

Long term supply and demand information can give you the knowledge which products sell, which customers want more of, and which you should discontinue.

Inventory Management for Small Business Operations

Commonly you can use an excel spreadsheet for inventory management at the start of the business and scale-up to a dedicated system as your business grows. At Bluemoon we make sure you have the most appropriate and cost-effective inventory management system for your business. If you don’t have the budget for a dedicated small business inventory management solution, then Excel is a solution for early-stage businesses.

While it requires a bit more work than using apps and software, you can track and analyze your inventory just like you would with a program, albeit with a bit more headache. If you don’t organize it or if you have too many products, but it works well for small businesses. With built-in formulas, you can automatically tally sales figures, organize based on the number of sold products, or based on sales value to integrate with your accounting and profit/sales reports.

Creating running inventory totals, and sales data based on the period is also possible, so long as your Excel inputs are correct. In Cameroon, a small business can use a Point of sales system to do their inventory management and enjoy all the benefits that come with having both systems in place. Get started with your inventory management system and point of sales