Written by Trevor Schoenmaekers, Director of Ashfords Digital

Over the past ten years, the world of accounting has changed with the introduction of cloud-based accounting systems.

Xero and MYOB are probably the most prominent players in the market for small to medium businesses today.

Each of these has inventory management systems that provide:

• Product & Service Management
• Basic Inventory Management 
• Sales Order Quotes & Sale Invoices 
• Purchase Orders & Purchase Invoices

But these are basic systems and are not necessarily going to fulfil the needs of every business. It is likely you will need to invest in a more comprehensive inventory system when you start to require more complicated inventory procedures such as:

• Supplier management
• Batch tracking 
• Serial number tracking 
• A bill of materials (BOM)
• Assemblies & disassemblies
• Warehouse & location management
• Complex invoicing & purchasing procedures

People often consider using large 'enterprise resource planning' (ERP) solutions that manage all the above, including the financial accounts – your general ledger (GL). The problem with this is that you do not have the beautiful accounting functionality from Xero, such as bank feeds, debtor management and reporting. This can remove some of the flexibility from your business procedures, which has the potential to limit your business.

Did you know that cloud system integrations, when done professionally, can often achieve comparable results to ERP solutions for a fraction of the cost?

You may have heard "best of breed" or "application stack". These terms refer to the use of a range of business applications rather than just one to achieve the same, or better, outcomes.  By creating a stack of applications that do their parts well and integrating them, you prevent any data or functionality loss. And ultimately, you can build greater functionality and the flexibility that your business needs.

There are several products on the market that provide varying functionality and complexity levels and are at a price point that will suit almost every business.

Some of the most popular options are:

The hard part is working out which one is right for you and your business. If you're interested in an obligation-free demonstration or conversation about how an integrated inventory system can help your business grow, contact Trevor, Director Ashfords Digital or your trusted Ashfords advisor today.