Work in accounting demands precision, efficiency, and audit-proof processes. Yet, many companies still struggle with outdated systems and manual processes that are time-consuming, error-prone, and often stressful. Effective inventory management – particularly for assets like IT equipment, office furniture, or machinery – is essential for creating transparency and accurately preparing financial statements.
seventhings offers a digital inventory management solution tailored to the needs of accountants, making their work noticeably easier.
Inhalt des Blogbeitrages
- What Is Inventory Management?
- Definition and Importance for Businesses
- Challenges of Traditional Methods
- Types and management of inventory
- Types and classification of inventory
- Inventory management methods
- How seventhings supports accountants
- Inventory management systems: The modern solution
- Automation and analyses in inventory management
- Insights into practice: Optimized inventory management with seventhings
- Why seventhings is the right choice
- Future and trends in inventory management
What is inventory management?
Inventory management involves organizing, monitoring, and optimizing company resources such as IT devices, office furniture, and machinery. The goal is to create a centralized database to efficiently manage assets, avoid unnecessary costs, and comply with legal requirements such as Section 240 of the German Commercial Code (HGB). Keeping a comprehensive digital record of all inventory movements plays a crucial role in achieving this. Orders must be meticulously tracked to maintain optimal inventory levels.
Inventory management is not just a process; it’s a strategic advantage for companies. It provides transparency over all assets by making real-time data available at any moment. This facilitates the creation of accurate reports essential for audits and annual financial statements. Furthermore, automated processes help save time and resources.
Die Bestandsverwaltung ist nicht nur ein Prozess, sondern ein strategischer Vorteil für Unternehmen im Zusammenhang mit Einkaufs- und Verkaufsprozessen. Es ermöglicht Transparenz über alle Vermögenswerte, indem jederzeit aktuelle Daten zur Verfügung stehen. Dies erleichtert die Erstellung fehlerfreier Berichte, die für Betriebsprüfungen und Jahresabschlüsse entscheidend sind. Darüber hinaus helfen automatisierte Prozesse, Zeit und Ressourcen zu sparen.
Definition and importance for businesses
Inventory management is a critical process for businesses that sell products. It includes the management of stock levels, tracking inventory movements, and optimizing storage capacities. Storage locations play a vital role in ensuring accurate localization and handling of goods in warehouses.
Effective inventory management is indispensable for improving customer satisfaction, reducing costs, and enhancing cash flow. By precisely managing inventory, companies can ensure that they always have the right products at the right time in the right place. This minimizes shortages and overstocking, which in turn reduces operating costs and increases efficiency.
Challenges of traditional methods
Many companies still rely on manual methods, which come with a host of challenges. Poor inventory management is one of the leading causes of failure for small businesses. According to a business report, 46% of small and medium-sized enterprises (with 11-500 employees) either use no inventory management system or rely on manual methods like Excel spreadsheets.
It might be hard to believe, but ensuring accurate and updated inventory is crucial for business success. Every mistake can have devastating effects, often causing business owners to realize they’re literally “burning money.”
A study found that poor inventory management leads to financial problems for 43% of small businesses, particularly when manual processes like Excel are used for tracking.
Manual processes such as using Excel spreadsheets and paper-based inventories often result in errors and rework. Mistakes easily creep in, and manually transferring data between systems can lead to data loss or inaccuracies.
Without centralized data, companies often lack visibility into their inventory, especially across decentralized locations. This makes precise inventory management difficult and frequently results in “ghost assets”– assets listed in accounting that no longer exist in reality.
Manual inventory checks also consume valuable time that could be better spent on strategic tasks, such as budgeting or financial planning. In addition, incomplete or inaccurate documentation complicates compliance with regulatory requirements like ESG standards or Section 240 of the German Commercial Code.
seventhings addresses these challenges with automated, audit-proof processes. All inventory movements are digitally documented, providing up-to-date and precise data that meet the requirements for tax and business audits. This ensures that companies can easily provide all necessary documentation, avoiding potential compliance issues.
Types and management of inventory
Accurate inventory management is essential in order to have the right resources in the right place at the right time. Common stock types include safety stock, which acts as a reserve for unexpected peaks in demand, and reorder points, which act as a trigger for reordering before stock levels get too low. Inactive stocks are items that have not been moved for a long time but still need to be documented. This also includes inventory items such as IT equipment, machines or office supplies.
Inventory items can be managed particularly efficiently with digital solutions such as seventhings. Good inventory management enables companies to maintain an overview at all times.
Types and classification of inventory
There are different types of inventory that vary depending on the type of company, available space and storage system. The management and classification of inventory includes consideration of physical stock, maximum and minimum stock levels and non-perishable stock. The classification of inventory can be based on expiration date, functionality and operational criteria. For example, stock can be divided into active and inactive items, with active items being moved regularly and inactive items remaining in the warehouse for longer. Correct stock management is essential, especially in times of ever-increasing competition. Companies that manage their stock efficiently can react more quickly to market changes and increase their competitiveness.
It is important to note that seventhings focuses exclusively on the management of inventory items such as IT equipment, office equipment and machinery. This means that active and inactive items are managed in the context of fixed assets, but not consumables or other stock items.
Inventory reconciliation and its importance
Regular inventory reconciliation is extremely important. As a rule, each system keeps its own inventory; online store and merchandise management use different databases. Interfaces enable the inventory of both systems to be synchronized, usually with a time delay.
This ensures that stock levels in both systems match and that customers always receive up-to-date information on the availability of products. Accurate stock reconciliation prevents overselling and improves customer satisfaction.
Inventory management methods
Modern methods that can be supported by inventory software are versatile and offer decisive advantages. Safety stocks ensure that there is always sufficient stock to avoid business interruptions, which is particularly important in times of crisis.
In addition, historical data is used to create forecasts and predict future requirements. This allows seasonal fluctuations or trends to be better planned and stocks to be optimized accordingly.
Digital tracking also enables precise documentation of all stock movements in real time. This increases transparency and makes it easier to create precise reports.
How seventhings supports accountants
Our cloud-based inventory software provides a centralized platform that combines efficiency, accuracy and security. seventhings is designed to ease the burden on accountants and businesses alike. Specific features, such as depreciation automation and tax compliance support, make work much easier and ensure reliable preparation for audits. Seamless integration with ERP systems such as DATEV and SAP ensures smooth data transfer, minimizes manual data entry and reduces the susceptibility to errors.
Automated updates guarantee complete and transparent data, so that up-to-date and audit-proof information is available at all times. Simple operation via intuitive dashboards makes it quick and easy to get started. Even accountants who have less experience with modern software tools can use seventhings without any problems.
The automation of inventory processes can reduce inventory work by up to 80%. Less time spent on administrative tasks means more time for strategic projects and greater added value.
Inventory management systems: The modern solution
A modern inventory management system goes beyond mere tracking. It makes it possible to centralize all inventory data in one place, which facilitates an overview and enables well-founded decisions. A good example of this is the University of Bern, which was able to optimize its inventory processes by introducing seventhings. The centralized management of all relevant inventory data led to faster and more accurate decision-making, avoiding unnecessary costs and increasing efficiency. Find out more in our success story from the University of Bern.
Real-time data ensures transparent stock movements that can be tracked without delay. This real-time transparency helps to react quickly to changes and avoid bottlenecks. In addition, inventory analysis enables processes to be optimized, reducing redundancies and unnecessary storage capacity.
Real-time data ensures transparent stock movements that can be tracked without delay. This real-time transparency helps to react quickly to changes and avoid bottlenecks. In addition, inventory analysis enables processes to be optimized, reducing redundancies and unnecessary storage capacity.
Automation and analyses in inventory management
Automation tools provide opportunities for systematic tracking and analysis of inventory data. By using inventory management software, companies can automatically collect data on existing inventory. This enables more efficient inventory management and improves customer satisfaction. Automated systems can track inventory movements in real time and provide detailed analytics to help companies make informed decisions. This leads to better planning and optimization of inventory levels.
Insights into practice: Optimized inventory management with seventhings
A medium-sized company has introduced the seventhings solution to efficiently manage IT equipment and office supplies. The results are impressive:
The time spent on inventories has been reduced by 80%, as the team can concentrate on more important tasks thanks to automated asset tracking.
Costs have been reduced by 70% as unnecessary stock has been eliminated and warehousing has been improved.
100% compliance: Audit-proof data and complete transparency ensured that the company was always prepared for tax audits and could provide all the necessary information at the touch of a button.
Organization and customer satisfaction
The way your inventory is physically organized affects how much time your employees need to find and ship items. This in turn affects how quickly you can fulfill orders and increase customer satisfaction. Effective inventory management is important to increase customer satisfaction and improve business success. Through well-organized inventory management, companies can ensure that products are found and shipped quickly and efficiently, reducing delivery times and increasing customer satisfaction.
Why seventhings is the right choice
seventhings offers a quick start: our intuitive software is implemented and ready to use in just a few days, so no lengthy training is required and the team can get started right away.
Onboarding process
Our onboarding process includes several steps to ensure a smooth onboarding process:
- Kick-off meeting
Discussion of the company's individual requirements and goals. - Technical setup
Support with integration into existing systems, such as DATEV and SAP. - Step-by-step introduction
Joint introduction to the most important functions of the software. - Training and webinars
Comprehensive training for all team members so that they can use the software efficiently. - Personal support
A team of experts is available to answer questions to ensure that all processes are clear and understandable.
Further details on onboarding can be found in our help center.
Long-term security is ensured through automated backups and encryption, so that sensitive data is stored securely and is available at all times, even in crisis situations. In addition, seventhings supports companies in achieving their sustainability goals and improving their environmental footprint.
Unused stock can be passed on or disposed of sustainably via our Circularity Hub.
Future and trends in inventory management
The future of inventory management will be significantly shaped by technological advances and changing requirements. Companies must adapt to several trends in order to remain competitive and manage their inventories efficiently.
One major trend is the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These technologies make it possible to optimize inventory processes and strategies by making accurate predictions about future inventory needs and thus avoiding shortages or overstocking. AI and ML can also help to identify patterns in stock movements and take appropriate action.
Another important trend is the implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. By networking devices and sensors, companies can monitor and control their stocks in real time. This leads to greater transparency and makes it possible to react quickly to changes.
Cloud-based inventory management systems are also becoming increasingly important. They offer a flexible and scalable solution that allows companies to manage their inventory data centrally and access it from anywhere. This facilitates collaboration and improves efficiency.
The integration of inventory management systems with other enterprise systems, such as ERP systems, is another trend. This integration provides a comprehensive view of the entire supply chain and improves decision-making. This allows companies to better plan and optimize their inventory management.
Try seventhings for free
Say goodbye to error-prone Excel spreadsheets and outdated processes. With seventhings, you get a centralized tool that transforms your inventory management and makes your work easier.
Try our solution free for 14 days and find out how seventhings can help you take your accounting processes to the next level. Use our ROI calculator to evaluate the potential time and cost savings compared to the investment.
