Financial Clarity with ERP Accounting Systems
Financial Clarity with ERP Accounting Systems
Typically ERP is thought of as only working with operations, such as tracking inventory and shipments. But from a business standpoint, this is only a portion of your operations. A fully integrated financial management is essential in an ERP system.
Accounting practices produce numerous financial statements whether it be payables and receivables, revenue management, expense management, asset management, collections, and much more. Often the missing piece for reliably tracking financials is ERP accounting software, and below we will discuss what could be missing from your current accounting practices.
ERP Accounting Methods
One of the first initial issues is either current ERP systems do not include accounting integrations, or their current accounting methods don’t follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
To compensate for these issues companies will either manually export data to another software system, or simply manually track financials.
Separating ERP information from accounting information can bring about many difficulties and become tedious to compensate for. The ability to track your businesses’ overall financial health from your accounting software directly affects the outcomes of other operations.
For example, your working capital being allocated towards raw materials, payrolls, and other assets directly relies on cash balances and/or accounts receivable data to be accurate in real-time.
Manually transferring data from ERP systems to accounting systems may work somewhat, but is costly regarding the time it takes to communicate between both systems, as well as errors that can arise from accounting mistakes. One discrepancy in your business’s accounting can lead to a cascade of errors in other departments.
Kechie ERP Accounting Software
One of the key benefits of any ERP system is to provide real-time data automatically, and ERP accounting software is no different. It couldn’t be more important to have an effective accounting method to combine with your ERP software, and Kechie ERP integrates both of these areas of your business into one harmonious system.
The Kechie General Ledger module for example documents detailed records of every transaction, edit, modification, and interaction with advanced reporting tools. Plus, you can drill in on each transaction with all financial reports to see all the details.
This enables a company to streamline and control all aspects of its finances while creating real-time connections for decision-making.
Some of the most effective tools in Kechie: 
- Accounts Payable
- Accounts Receivable
- Cash Management
- Bank Reconciliation
- Journal Entry
- Deposits
- Fund Transfer
- Financial Reports
Also included is a flexible chart of accounts structure for detailed reporting.
When considering your current accounting practices, if your ERP software isn’t accommodating your accounting practices it may be time to upgrade.
Contact us today to schedule a demo or learn more about how Kechie from My Office Apps can redefine your accounting practices and improve your financial reporting efficiency.
The Right Warehouse Management Software for Today
The Right Warehouse Management Software for Today's Business
Having the right systems in place, especially for warehouse inventory management is more crucial than ever before. One of the most important aspects being warehouse management software. 
It is without a doubt that Covid-19 presented obstacles and challenges to the business world, obstacles that are still being dealt with by different companies, especially when it comes to supply and demand.
A Warehouse Management Software (WMS) offers numerous key benefits and insights into supply, demand, and your supply chain with real-time visibility. If inventory, storage space, materials, and labor are at the center of your operations, some form of warehouse management software is key to running your business more efficiently.
We will cover some of the main benefits of having the right WMS and what might be missing from your current process.
How Beneficial Is your Current WMS?
Ideally your current Warehouse Management Software highlights areas of improvement to maximize your returns on labor, storage, and equipment investments. Feedback from these areas of your business allows for the right adjustments to increase profits and decrease inefficiencies.
By coordinating and optimizing resource usage and material flows incremental improvements go a long way.
Warehouse management systems are designed to track everything such as:
- The location of products
- Quantity of products
- Availability of materials
- Controlling Costs
- Items currently in production
- Customer Fulfillment Processes
Allowing businesses to optimize inventory management processes, streamlines order fulfillment by tracking which items are in need of replenishment or reordering before they run out of stock.
In addition to managing inventory levels within warehouses, some WMS solutions also provide functionality for storing data related to shipments and shipping management—keeping track of where shipments are in transit and providing tracking information about the shipments.
This functionality if not currently part of your business should be highly sought after for improving on inefficiencies, and ultimately creating more profits.
WMS integrations in Kechie ERP
When it comes to our own WMS systems within Kechie the cloud is key. Moving to cloud warehouse management systems can provide businesses with a solution that offers real-time visibility, scalability, and market reactivity.
On the cloud, you can have real-time visibility into your entire inventory from anywhere in the world, without having to purchase more hardware or software licenses.
Below are some of the key warehouse management tools that Kechie a fully-integrated ERP software is capable:
- Product Category and Grouping
- Audit trail with full traceability
- Multi-warehouse location and transfers
- Billing of Materials
- Serialization and Lot Tracking
- Min/Max Alert
- Managing all warehouse locations- including bin location
If any of these features plus others not listed are lacking in your current Warehouse Management Software, now may be the time to draw a comparison with the full list of capabilities of Kechie.
Being fully integrated Kechie WMS connects with other modules including Inventory, Procurement, Sales, Supply Chain Management and the rest of Kechie ERP software in real-time.
Contact us today to schedule a demo or learn more about how Kechie from My Office Apps can redefine your Inventory Management process.
The Importance of ERP In Inventory Management
The Importance of ERP in Inventory Management
Depending on the type of business you operate, if a comprehensive system is needed to manage all aspects of your inventory then an ERP robust inventory management or warehouse management system is a top priority.
These systems provide real-time information to the entire organization, which allows businesses to expand, have complex workflows or supply chains, have advanced automation, and operate in “just in time” mode.
Below we discuss the benefits of using an ERP with an inventory management system or WMS, signs you should upgrade your current system, and how these improvements can help your business grow.
Inventory Management
The process of measuring and monitoring inventory gives invaluable data for many other areas of your business to perform and use for improvement.
When considering your current ERP software, your business could be lacking not only in the accuracy of information but also ineffective analytics and reporting on the state of your inventory.
Having the right ERP with a focus on inventory management leads to improving your business operations in the following areas:
- Supply Chains- Synchronize orders with deliveries and minimize disruptions.
- Analytics- Determine actionable data such as turnover rates and cost of goods sold.
- Reports- understand top-performing products as well as inventory quality checks.
- Production Planning- Understand the proper inventory flows to bolster manufacturing decisions.
If your business relies on providing products/goods, your business as a whole ultimately revolves around your inventory decisions.
For example, the importance of how efficiently you are able to resupply and provide products for customers can mean huge differences in your profitability and even customer retention.
No matter what business you run the best inventory management practice is to leave nothing to question when it comes to your supply chain.
Kechie Inventory Management
When considering what ERP works best for your business, inventory management, and warehouse management systems (WMS) are often essential even for smaller businesses.
Considering how you currently operate, the points made above serve as a starting point for areas your current software systems can be improved upon.
Here are some of the key inventory and warehouse management tools that Kechie a fully-integrated ERP software is capable of:
- Minimum/Maximum inventory method
- Audit trail with full traceability
- Multi-warehouse location and transfers
- Real-time visibility
- Serialization and Lot Tracking
Depending on what you are currently missing from your WMS and inventory management draw a comparison with the full list of capabilities of Kechie here.
With full integration of an Inventory manager with the rest of your ERP software, Kechie connects other modules including Orders, Procurement, and Supply Chain Management.
Kechie Inventory Management offers enterprise-level organization for distributors and manufacturers of all shapes and sizes making warehouse management software.
Contact us today to schedule a demo or learn more about how Kechie from My Office Apps can redefine your Inventory Management process.
The Advantages of Cloud ERP
What is Cloud ERP?
Cloud ERP is a new model of ERP that runs on a vendor's cloud platform. The cloud platform allows the ERP vendor to host the server space, rather than having your business own this hardware.
By doing so Cloud ERP systems are connected by high-speed internet networks and work with a combination of technologies.
With Cloud services, the server space becomes the priority of the vendor allowing the business to focus on their day-to-day operations.
Traditionally Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software has been installed on a business's own servers, creating more overhead and more difficulties.
Advantages of Cloud ERP
When considering using a Cloud ERP system the advantages this brings to your business are plentiful.
For starters, Cloud Based ERP software offers:
- Better functionality than on-premise systems
- No costs of hosting your own servers
- More modern user interfaces
- Near infinite ability to scale
- More Security
Cloud-based ERPs also offer your team the ability to access any information they need wherever their work takes them.
With a Cloud ERP system there is also no need to be on the premises of your own servers, or worry about upgrades, backups, or disaster recovery.
Your business is able to not only utilize any computer to connect, but you can be in any location as well. This brings any employee the ability to access information instantly from almost any device.
Kechie ERP
When it comes to Kechie, our Cloud Based ERP solutions offer robust and scalable software with advanced features that are user-friendly and easy to implement.
With a modern user interface based on the latest user experience technologies, our ERP couldn’t be easier to use.
Kechie Provides:
- Software ready to use immediately
- Latest technology in data security
- Information from the Cloud on a real-time basis
- Logins for easy access through your browser
- Mobile Compatibility
Being that this is a Cloud-based ERP system, Kechie is not a platform you have to work tirelessly to build or house any equipment yourselves.
Leave the large installation and integration in the past, and make the most accurate decisions for your business needs.
Contact us today to schedule a demo or learn more about how Kechie powered by My Office Apps can take your ERP systems to the next level.
Why Customer Portals are Essential for B2B Sales
Why Customer Portals are Essential for B2B Sales
A customer portal is an integral part of your B2B software. Particularly for B2B sales, a customer portal serves as the most essential part of the buying experience. By providing the tools to easily and effectively get real-time information on pricing, inventory levels, tracking orders, and communications with your customers.
The goal of a customer portal is to have your business effectively handle every customer-oriented part of the sales process. Without an effective platform, your business is likely hindered by creating unnecessary difficulties for your customer’s buying process.
What Defines an Effective B2B E-commerce Platform?
Depending on how your company currently handles your sales, your B2B E-commerce platform should be providing:
- Real-time inventory updates
- Different pricing levels and discounts
- Detail Product Information
- Communication with customers
- Customer self-service capabilities
- Order creation and management
- Payment options
- Shipping and tracking information
If your company finds fulfilling these tasks for customers difficult, it may be necessary to upgrade your B2B E-commerce platform. From the customer’s perspective, any hindrance to placing their orders can become a huge inconvenience, possibly reducing your sales and/or preventing returning customers.
Thankfully with Kechie’s B2B Customer Portal, your business can effectively handle all of these tasks and more from one platform.
Benefits of Kechie B2B Customer Portal
Kechie offers a B2B Customer Portal with advanced features allowing your customers to easily and efficiently communicate with you, place orders, track, and pay their invoices.
This helps increase B2B sales and expand your business with a seamless automation of multiple operation areas while keeping customers satisfied.
Through Kechie you can select:
- Which items you want to show on the portal
- What level of inventory you want to show
- What attributes are displayed
- Images and detailed descriptions
- The look and feel of the store
- Different Pricing levels
- To communicate from the Customer Portal
On top of this, one of the best parts of Kechie’s B2B Customer Portal is being fully integrated with the rest of the Kechie Cloud ERP Solutions.
Every relevant module is updated upon completing an order through the B2B Customer Portal, allowing for complete supply chain management with real-time traceability and accountability.
If the B2B sales for your business are lacking in any way, look no further than Kechie. Contact us today to schedule a demo or learn more about how Kechie from My Office Apps can automate different aspects of your business.
Top Advantages of ERP Solutions For Small Businesses
Top Advantages of ERP Solutions for Small Businesses
One of the most important decisions for any small business is their small business ERP software. Kechie provides cloud ERP solutions for small businesses that can address many challenges your company is facing. 
Decisions no matter how small can have lasting impressions, and as a small business, every dollar counts. Especially for small business ERP software, upgrading to a cloud ERP system for small business is necessary and can help to:
- Cut down on costs
- Improve Efficiency
- Improve Communication
- Accelerate Performance and Growth
- Increase Productivity
Communication challenges such as inconsistent information from multiple business areas, multiple customers, or not having access to up-to-date information when needed are one of the main benefits of updating your ERP systems.
Being left in the dark on this information compounds errors. Where having real-time visibility into inventory, purchase orders, sales orders, and more is essential to operating successfully.
Knowing what are the primary business benefits of an ERP system such as Kechie, allows your business to recognize and replace outdated methods.
Especially for ERP Solutions for small businesses, it's so important to ensure you have the right tools in place to help you succeed. That is where Kechie powered by My Office Apps comes into play.
What are the primary business benefits of an ERP System?
Typically the primary business benefits of an ERP system are both improving efficiency and accountability. Small business ERP software is crucial to the company operating effectively all around.
Increasing efficiency and automating day-to-day operations even a little can be hugely beneficial for both small and large businesses.
Particularly with a cloud ERP system for small businesses, this does not require the business to house their software on servers or have an IT department to manage it, offering huge savings in human resources and capital equipment.
My Office Apps specializes in making Kechie as user-friendly as possible while offering advanced features. Kechie is fully integrated which means data that is entered is automatically available in real-time, in all relevant modules. On top of that Kechie is scalable and can handle your business as it grows. 
As for accountability, the need to recognize pain points in your manufacturing, shipping, or even accounting can be hugely beneficial. For this Kechie provides a complete audit trail and traceability. Having real-time data on accounting or shipping errors, based on who, when, and how the errors happened helps identify and remove errors fast before they compound into bigger problems.
Cloud ERP solutions for small businesses create lasting benefits that greatly improve efficiency over time. To make these small improvements a business needs an effective ERP system in place to provide feedback in real-time. This feedback creates accountability, which in turn allows the business to recognize where improvements can be made in operations.
See how different industries benefit from Kechie ERP, schedule a demo, or learn more about how Kechie ERP can help your business.
Benefits of Using an ERP Software For Manufacturing
Benefits of using an ERP Software For Manufacturing
Making the decision to invest in a new ERP system is no small task. It is important to consider all of the factors that will go into making this decision, such as scalability, maturity, and the ability to handle complex supply chain functions and shop floor automation. ERP implementation can be tedious, time-consuming, and expensive.
By choosing a new ERP platform, a manufacturing company is investing in a product with a long lifecycle that will impact their business for many years to come.
It is imperative that owners and decision-makers tasked with the decision of purchasing a new ERP do so with a balance of cost, ease of use, lifecycle changes, and especially, the unique needs of their company within their industry.
Competitive Edge
In order to maintain a competitive edge in the manufacturing industry, it is important to have the right software in place. Many manufacturing companies are turning to ERP software to help them manage their business more efficiently.
Manufacturing ERP software can automate tasks and help you make better decisions about your manufacturing process. In this blog post, we will discuss the benefits of ERP software for manufacturers and how they can help you streamline your business!
In some instances when a company is in its early stages of growth, it often experiences rapid expansion in product offerings and manufacturing volume.
This can lead to the fragmentation of data where different software systems are used by different departments to control operations.
As the company scales, these problems can become increasingly difficult to manage and can even cause production processes to become disorganized and out of control.
Kechie ERP
To avoid the many struggles that come with both growth and unsatisfactory ERP systems for Manufacturing, many companies are turning to Kechie ERP for manufacturing software.
With Kechie, My Office Apps offers a robust, right-sized ERP software for Manufacturing that can handle the needs of any business - small or large. With our My Office Apps integration, you'll have everything you need to run your business at your fingertips.
Some of the features that work in particular for Manufacturing:
- CRM
- Logistics
- Procurement
- Multi-Location Management
- Complete Inventory Management
- Supply Chain Management
- Customer Support Order Management
- Production
Kechie features hundreds of reports and thousands of configurations designed to provide the most accurate information in real-time. Every configuration can be saved for future use. All reports come standard out-of-the-box with no limits on how many reports users can generate.
Contact us today to schedule a demo and see what Kechie and My Office Apps can do for you and your business.
5 Good Reasons To Use Automated Order Management Software
5 Good Reasons To Use Automated Order Management Software
Automated Order Management Software
Modern warehouses and wholesale distributors have begun to adapt to the cloud revolution. They are making their way to cloud-based, fully integrated solutions. With the fluctuating restrictions imposed due to the COVID pandemic, cloud-based software has become a necessity. Order management software can help any business, but order management software should do more for your company than organize sales orders and sales information.
The right software can make all the difference when running a business. It's an essential part of being able to provide goods and services on a timely basis. Companies can prevent price increases and variations in their profit margins. Having this complex information is of little use when your software doesn't think for itself. Who has time to research and monitor every single order? How do you know who purchased what? How do you know when it is time to fill orders? If you answered none of these questions or took longer to answer them, why not automate them? You see benefits such as:
1. More Effective Sales Teams
Sourcing data is one thing; storing that data is another. Warehouse and order automation offers tremendous potential for companies. Still, you'll just be wasting time implementing an order management system that doesn't provide your sales reps the data they need without the proper infrastructure. An adequate order management system should monitor and track the input of a sales order, critical customer, and shipping information. Knowledge is empowering, and an empowered sales staff is more productive than spending time collecting basic information.
2. Reduce Time Spent on Customer Service
The faster you can resolve problems, the fewer steps it will take you to complete your day-to-day tasks. With customer service procedures such as RMAs (return merchandise authorizations) being automated, it can make managing your busy schedule more manageable. Automating mundane or repetitive tasks such as tracking lot numbers, serial numbers, and warranties can speed up the efficacy of customer service. Automated order management software is not a tool used by your company but instead an extension of your departments to increase productivity while removing unnecessary processes simultaneously.
3. Reduce Opportunities for Errors
The amount of effort every employee puts into ensuring accuracy has shown to increase productivity. Still, in a business world replacing humans with AI-powered software, accuracy and speed are no longer exclusive but are necessities. Automated data entry systems have proven to increase warehouse productivity. But they can also cause significant errors—for instance, mistakenly shipping products to customers who don't need them. Recent reports show that over 50% of data feed errors are due to human error. A sound order management system will check these mistakes constantly, notifying managers and other workers of any problems.
4. Reduce Manual Entries
Manual data entry is time-consuming and error-prone, but these common problems can be solved using the latest organizational technology. Implementing these advanced technologies, such as barcodes or QR codes, is not the headache it used to be. In the olden days, manual data entry meant punching holes in sheets of paper, scanning and entering document info, and endless spreadsheets. Today automated order management systems can do tedious jobs much more efficiently and accurately. Integrating these technologies is no longer a labor-intensive exercise. Having organized warehouses, racks, and bins can improve sales order fulfillment times and customer service satisfaction rates. With an organized warehouse that integrates with an order management solution, the time spent manually inputting data has been either significantly reduced or eliminated.
5. Gain Insight Into Company Performance
Gaining visibility into your organization's performance is crucial, tracking purchases and costs, managing inventory, and reporting earnings, just to name a few. There's no better way to do this than through data. Order management systems are sitting on treasure troves of customer and sales data. Your ability to interpret that data is only as good as your reporting tools. Businesses with an order management system that can quickly monitor, track, and display critical data can provide managers with the necessary insights to make informed business decisions.
Kechie's Robust Solution
When it comes to AI-powered order management systems, Kechie is truly the next generation. The fully integrated order management system is a genuine business improvement solution. Kechie can handle all incoming sales orders, help organize inventory, and update accounting and financial departments in real-time. Kechie accomplishes this by living on the cloud, utilizing proprietary software to ensure accuracy and speed no matter who is using it.
Contact the experts at My Office Apps today to schedule a demo and see what our order management system can do for you.
Medical Inventory Management & Consumable Inventory
Consumable Inventory & the Medical Field
Despite the medical industry operating as a regular for-profit business, they rarely work as such. Medical professionals are bound by their oaths to help their patients no matter what. This focus on patient care pulls them away from managing their business like a businessperson. Unorganized medical inventory management can cause delays in providing patient care, and in the healthcare industry, each second matters. Medical providers often overlook inventory management, especially consumable inventory. Changing regulations, patient relations, labor shortages, and fluctuating supply costs understandably take precedent. A medical inventory management system can be intimidating and overwhelming to the average doctor, nurse, or other medical professionals. After all, configuring and monitoring an advanced business management system is not what they're trained to do.
There is a persistent notion that business owners of all kinds are saving time and money by not learning new software. They have convinced themselves that the time necessary and commitment to learning a medical or hospital inventory management system will derail patient care and take attention away from other operational concerns. This thinking causes difficulties in increasing the number of inventory items proportionately.
What's more, the type of inventory a medical business or hospital has is far from the standard business model. Medical service businesses have stock tightly regulated by many government agencies, on top of perishable, condition-specific, and consumable inventory that all require special consideration. The need for inventory management software is not something that can be ignored forever. Eventually, it will be too much to track.
Medical Inventory Management & Consumable Inventory
Medical inventory management software (IMS) needs a higher level of functionality to help manage the different kinds of inventory. The most sophisticated IMS has "consumable inventory" as a feature. This feature is vital because consumable inventory is a special kind of inventory, how it is used, and how it affects a business.
What is consumable medical inventory? According to Clinicaloncology.com "Consumables include gloves, gowns, masks, syringes, needles, sutures, staples, IV tubing, catheters, and adhesives for wound dressing, in addition to other tools needed by doctors and nurses to provide care." Consumable inventory's unique nature is that there is no reusing it once used or consumed. One and done, as some would say. That is the critical difference between consumable inventory and all other forms of inventory.
Because of the temporary nature of consumable inventory, it can become a large portion of the overall budget. Not just in the amount purchased, but the operational costs associated with consuming a said item. Thanks to the COVID pandemic, new requirements for personal protective equipment have made consumable inventory an even more significant chunk of the operations budget.
Getting a Handle on Consumable Inventory
Understanding and controlling consumable inventory offers a host of benefits:
- Companies can see what items get used the most, when and how it is used, and who uses it by tracking usage rates and trends.
- By monitoring both high and low inventory levels, companies can make informed purchase decisions.
- With a firm understanding of the supply chain, purchases and deliveries become quickly automated.
- Aids in financial management as consumable inventory can be a considerable drain on revenue streams.
Ultimately medical inventory management software is required to tame the beast of consumable inventory. The amount of variables, items, and consistent calculations is too much for pad and pen. The selection process is often overwhelming with a litany of inventory management, supply chain management, warehouse management, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software out there. Knowing what to look for in software and selecting becomes easier when you understand what to identify.
Medical Inventory Management vs. Enterprise Resource Planning System
Your medical inventory management software should do more for your business than provide inventory levels. Often inventory management systems are just that, used for managing inventory. Other software incorporates inventory management into their overall functionality, known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Medical ERP systems operate the same way typical ERP systems do with increased functionality to meet the medical industry's demands.
Medical ERP systems can communicate with other modules that oversee accounting, finance, procurement, and other parts of the business to help provide critical data necessary to get a complete understanding of the state of the company. The network of modules communicating with one another is what we call a fully integrated ERP system capable of managing all business operations. Be warned. Many ERP systems cannot distinguish, let alone count, consumable inventory separately from regular stock. Having a robust inventory management module within an ERP system empowers medical business owners to spend less time gathering data and more time helping their patients.
Automation and Reporting
Other significant features to look for in a system are automation and reporting tools. Automation will enable businesses to have repetitive and mundane tasks such as placing monthly purchase orders, notifying patients of upcoming appointments, and receiving scheduled deliveries. Reports generate data, data is king in the business world, and the medical industry is no different. In this case, less about getting ahead of the competition and more about understanding how the business operates. As any hospital administrator will tell you, knowing how money flows within a facility is just as crucial as obtaining the funds.
The Kechie Difference
Medical inventory management systems are suitable for small businesses with no expansion plans. But, a fully integrated ERP system is the best answer for businesses that need advanced solutions. My Office Apps are the creators of Kechie ERP, a cloud-based, fully integrated solution configurable to the medical industry's needs.
The features discussed above are all present in Kechie out of the box, allowing medical businesses to:
- Monitor and control all inventory types, with advanced consumption functionality
- Streamline their supply chain
- Automate tasks
- Provide comprehensive reports from the hundreds available
- Improve overall efficiency and quality of the business operations
My Office Apps is a company of dedicated professionals who use their expertise to make the process of implementing an ERP as painless and straightforward as possible. Contact us today to learn more about My Office Apps solutions for the medical industry, or schedule a demo to see first-hand what we can do for you and your business.
How to Improve Inventory Management in Shopify
Why Your Shopify Store Needs an Inventory Management Solution
The COVID Pandemic and eCommerce Growth
2020 was many things, not the least of which the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development called a "turning point" in eCommerce. Across the world, the effects of the eCommerce boom were felt. In the United States, we saw an eCommerce growth rate of a staggering 44% increase from 2019. This growth generated approximately $861.12 billion in online sales. For businesses equipped to handle a large sales influx, there was nothing to be concerned over. Still, for companies working with a patchwork of software or working exclusively with the tools provided by their platform, such as Shopify Inventory, the results can be less advantageous. Experts agree that proper inventory management systems are a critical factor for eCommerce businesses to be successful.
What is an Inventory Management System?
An inventory management system (IMS) is a piece of software that can provide for your company's technological needs while managing all aspects of your inventory. When selecting an inventory management system, growing eCommerce businesses need only ask themselves a few essential questions:
- Scalability: Is the software capable of growing with your store?
- Ease of use: Do you understand all the functions of your inventory management system?
- Reliability: Can you access the system in a way that makes sense to you?
- Technology: Is the system capable of handling the tasks you need it to? Such as reporting, dynamically updated data, and more.
The Dangers of Not Using an IMS
For the many businesses that have found success on Shopify, the need for inventory management grows as their business does. It's easy to see a dropshipping site as easy to manage, but managing inventory can be tricky. If your Shopify store is growing too fast, then monitoring inventory levels, tracking sales, managing vendors, and other tasks will become overwhelming. There is a constant threat of mistakes and errors when not tracking inventory properly. However, an IMS has many significant benefits:
- An IMS can plan and prepare for sudden sales spikes or drops by monitoring trends and referring to historical records.
- Provide increased sales productivity and improve delivery times, allowing your business to give customers a more accurate picture of their deliveries.
- By streamlining operations, you can focus on the more critical functions within the business.
Why Shopify Inventory Management Won't Be Enough
Two factors of an inventory management system can cause significant headaches for eCommerce owners. While it is a top-notch eCommerce platform, Shopify won't
- Automate your ordering and shipping processes
- Help to manage your product variants
Shopify can help with basic eCommerce needs but ultimately relies on third-party developers to offer unique solutions for their users.
For example, business owners should also consider accounting software and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to care for and cater to their customers adequately. Shopify does not provide these out of the box. Instead, they have a marketplace with applications and extensions designed to add increased functionality to the platform. This lack of out-of-the-box functionality presents unique challenges for owners who need multiple applications. As you add more applications to manage multiple locations, handle return merchandise authorizations (RMA), and generate financial management reports, the more challenging it becomes. By integrating, synchronizing, and consistently updating an unruly list of software and extensions, you are almost certainly setting yourself up for hardship, if not failure.
What Can Be Done?
Ideally, you would look for an all-in-one solution to help automate the inventory management system, compile various essential reports and improve your business operations overall. While still seamlessly connecting to your Shopify store.
The team at My Office Apps has developed a fully integrated, cloud-based ERP system for Shopify users built to handle all data in real time. The Kechie system is fully integrated with your Shopify store. This allows store owners to take orders from Shopify and update their Kechie system. Any changes made to Kechie will dynamically update the Shopify store. This ensures that Shopify owners are never working with incorrect data.
Additionally, Kechie ERP is an entirely scalable solution, meaning that as the shop grows, so does Kechie. My Office Apps understand that businesses need room to grow, so they've designed Kechie to allow for unlimited transactions of all kinds. Best of all, Kechie is cloud-based, users can access their database from any web browser, a perfect companion for Shopify's Mobile Shop Application. Kechie is more than just an inventory management system; it is a complete business improvement solution.
Contact us today to schedule a demo and see what Kechie ERP can do for your business.