What Are The Pros And Cons Of Using An Inventory Spreadsheet?

When you first started your shop, you may have used spreadsheets to manage your operations. But now, you have to deal with so many levels of complexity, right from tracking orders, arranging finances, managing customer database and more. 

When you have so many tasks to do, especially if you have opened a new branch or have multiple locations to operate, or in the process of expanding your business, it may be time to look beyond tracking stock in spreadsheets to manage your inventory.

An inventory spreadsheet helps you to track your stock levels. It keeps an account of your stock inflows and outflows to let you know about your stock and its movements.

This spreadsheet consists of tables and columns with inventory numbers, item descriptions, purchase costs, quantities, locations and store reorder levels. Let’s look at the pros and cons of using spreadsheets and what you can do about them.

Advantages 

1. Simple to Understand

In the early stages of starting your shop, spreadsheets can be a simple and easy way of stock management. They are easy to understand and do not require much experience to use them.

Also, they provide the right solution to help you organise your data.

2. Free to Use 

Inventory spreadsheets are available in open source and do not require to be purchased. Since it is a practical solution that is easily accessible and free of charge, it can be a popular tool of choice.

Disadvantages 

But there are numerous disadvantages to using an inventory spreadsheet. 

1. Rigid and Inflexible

Some of the risks of using spreadsheets to track stock include lack of control, less flexibility, limited capacity and unreliability.

So, while they may be cost-effective during the early days of your business, as you gradually grow and expand, either through numerous outlets, online presence and others, managing your inventory through spreadsheets will become challenging.

2. Requires Manual Updates 

An inventory spreadsheet requires you to perform stock management manually. It does not offer you automatic updates each time you make a sale or purchase. Also, you have to keep a reminder on when to order more stocks. 

3. Leads to Confusion 

Also, it can become challenging for your employees or staff to update the spreadsheet if they are not familiar with the process. And if many individuals use one spreadsheet file, it could lead to miscommunication, manual errors, confusion and waste of time.

4. Increase in Expenditure 

Using spreadsheets to monitor your inventory may also increase the workforce. So, as a growing business owner, it can be almost impossible to manage inventory through just one spreadsheet.

5. Prone to Theft or Loss

If you lose your desktop or laptop on which your stock management spreadsheets are stored, it could result in loss of data. And if you do not have a backup, it means all the information is lost forever.

6. Complications in Business Operations

Once your business starts to expand and grow, spreadsheets could add troubles instead of reducing them.

For example, entering data manually, verifying information, correcting the data, and database management expenses may soon become time-consuming with spreadsheets. This could slow down other important areas of your business and lead to loss.

Spreadsheets are old-fashioned in today’s business environments. If you’re looking for effective stock management options in your warehouse, multiple shop locations or even in a single shop, you need the right application. 

It’s time to look beyond spreadsheets and find smart ways of managing your business and running your shop operations smoothly.

Spreadsheets can be convenient when you start a new business. But once your retail store grows past a certain volume, it can complicate matters and slow down business operations.

Upgrading to dedicated one-stop shop management offers you a wide range of features and brings you many benefits of stock management without the hassles or limitations you see in spreadsheets.

Look at an app with integrated POS software to take care of your stock management and run your shop smoothly. 

Zadinga turns your mobile phone into a powerful shop management system to easily track your stock levels in just a few clicks.

With Zadinga app, you can save numerous hours on making inventory notes and using your precious time to find new ways to increase profits.