Inventory management (small scale)

[Big Jim]

We probably stock less than 50 product lines, But I'm wanting to manage inventory a little better,
I'm thinking of creating something using Excel, but before I spend a fair amount of time doing that is there a better way ?

Is there an existing spreadsheet that exists ?

I would like to be able to see current stock for each item, alongside its order history, and possibly history of any prices changes we have made

 

[britechguy]

I can't speak to Excel, but I do know that there is an MS-Access template out there for this purpose, though I cannot remember where I sourced it at the moment.

It's what I used when I was running an art and fine craft gallery to track all our inventory, sales, and to create monthly reports so we could pay the various artists and craftspeople who showed with us. I suspect it might be the one from Microsoft, available here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...emplates-e14f25e4-78b6-41de-8278-1afcfc91a9cb

Others exist as well.

 

[Peperonix]

A self-hosted Prestashop could be a good option.

Like any PHP / MariaDB (~ MySQL) project, you can host it locally using xampp / mampp / lampp.

Although not truly an inventory software but a shopping cart system, you could use Prestashop as an inventory software.
Furthermore it will let you sell you your products online if you want.

If I remember well, for each product it keeps the history of items added and removed, although likely not with the price changes.

To see data as tables, in addition to Prestashop's backend you can see the records in its MySQL tables, in phpMyAdmin for instance.
If necessary, you can also create MySQL VIEWS on tables to make things more readable in phpMyAdmin.

To keep trace of price changes, you could add a TRIGGER on the price table that duplicates the record in another table when a price changes occurs.

To my opinion, Prestashop is really powerful but sometimes a little bloated for small business needs.

With versions 7 and 8, the Prestashop's developers are migrating from the legacy version and to a new framework (Symfony if I remember well).
It can sometimes makes adapting the frontend tricky because it is between two worlds.

AbanteCart is another good option, which I personally prefer for quick edits.
Contrarily to Prestashop, its backend does not keep history of changes in quantities.

Both Prestashop and AbantCart have additional modules that you can buy.

Or simply create a database in phpMyAdmin (or else) with one or a few MariaDB / MySQL tables that suits your needs, and edit them through phpMyAdmin.
You can still code some PHP things in later time to make your inventory management easier.

 

[Diggs]

Most accounting programs offer an inventory section or module. Maybe something you already have?

 

[HCHTech]

Most accounting programs offer an inventory section or module.

Yes - we struggle along with QB Desktop. It.....sort of.....works. You can definitely see what items and how many you have, but the reporting is...lacking. What was the price of that thing last year? Who knows - do a search for an old invoice to see what we charged and do a search for an old vendor bill to see what we paid. Want any advanced level reporting? Too bad. Will it let you sell something you don't have in stock because someone made a mistake? Sure! If we had a ton more inventory or hardware sales, we would have to use something else.

 

[PaulTech]

Try Invoiceninja simple and cheap. Settings enable inventory tracking.