Stop overcomplicating your inventory system for a small business

I see so many posts here about setting up complex ERP software for a 3 person shop... drives me nuts. I went independent 5 years ago and tried three different inventory apps before I realized a simple spreadsheet worked better. The problem is people think they need enterprise solutions when they're moving 50 parts a week. I manage 200+ HVAC parts with a Google Sheet and it takes me 10 minutes a day. Has anyone else scaled back their operations tools and found it actually helped?

2 comments

2 Comments

linda6261d ago

My first two years I was using QuickBooks for everything and it was way too much for what we needed... I finally switched to a simple notebook system and it cut my daily paperwork time in half. The spreadsheet thing sounds smart for 200 parts, I only track about 80 and paper works fine for me. It's funny how we think we need all this fancy tech when a basic system does the job better.

oscarmurray1d ago

300 parts for me and honestly even a notebook would drive me crazy at that point. Not sure it's that deep though, like if paper works for 80 parts that's fine, but calling it "fancy tech" feels like a stretch. I mean QuickBooks is overkill for most small shops sure, but a spreadsheet is barely more complicated than a notebook. Maybe it's just me but I feel like people get really precious about going analog when the real issue is just finding something that doesn't make you wanna throw your desk out the window. idk, whatever gets the job done without headaches is probably the right call.