Stockroom inventory for retail shops
Know what is in the back room, what is on the shop floor and what each branch holds
A shop manages its stockroom with Inventory Management by creating the back room and the shop floor as separate storage locations, registering supplier deliveries into the back room, and booking a move whenever stock goes out to the shelves. The inventory overview then shows per product how much is in the back and how much is out front, on every phone in the shop.
Why the stockroom goes out of sight
In most shops the till knows what was sold, but nobody knows exactly what is still in the back. The only way to check is to walk to the stockroom and look. That walk usually happens while a customer is waiting. If the item is not found quickly, the customer hears that it is sold out, and a week later somebody finds a full box behind the door. With more than one branch the question gets harder: is it in the back here, or in the other shop?
How it works in the app
Every place stock can sit becomes a storage location: the stockroom shelves, the shop floor and, if you have branches, the same set for each branch. A supplier delivery is registered with In, against a stockroom location. When someone fills the shelves in the shop, they book a Move from the stockroom location to the shop-floor location; the total stays the same, only the position changes. Before telling a customer that something is sold out, an employee looks the product up in the inventory overview, by scanning its barcode or typing part of the name, and sees per location how much is left and where.
Setting it up in five steps
A shop can do this itself, without preparing a product list first.
- Create your locations — Make one location per stockroom shelf and one for the shop floor, for example with Create series for shelves 1 to 10. Give each branch its own prefix, so a location code always tells you which shop it belongs to.
- Book what is already there — Walk past the stockroom shelves and register what is on each one with In. The app creates each product the first time it sees its Product ID, so the product list builds itself.
- Receive deliveries into the back room — When a supplier delivers, scan the barcodes on the packaging with a phone camera and book the goods onto the stockroom shelf where they are put away.
- Move stock to the shop floor — Each time the shelves in the shop are filled, book a Move from the stockroom location to the shop-floor location. Moving products is part of the Basic plan.
- Count one location at a time — With Premium you count a single shelf or the shop floor instead of the whole shop, and correct what you find on the spot. Premium also adds replenishment, for topping up the shop floor from the stockroom before it runs empty.
What does it cost for a shop?
Pricing is per device, not per user or per branch. A worked example: two shops, each with one phone on Basic, cost 2 x 12,50 = 25,00 euro per month, or 2 x 134,99 = 269,98 euro per year. If both shops also want counting and replenishment, two devices on Premium cost 2 x 25,00 = 50,00 euro per month, or 549,98 euro per year. The free plan, with 100 transactions per month, does not include moving stock, so a shop that keeps the back room and the shop floor apart needs Basic. Every plan starts with one free month, without a credit card.
When it is not the right fit
Inventory Management is not a point-of-sale system. Sales at the checkout are not deducted from the stock automatically. The app records the stock movements you register in it yourself: deliveries, moves and goods booked out. That suits shops where the stockroom is the real problem and the shop floor can be treated as one location that is counted regularly. If you need every sale to lower the stock figure on its own, you need a till system with stock management built in. The app also needs an internet connection, so a stockroom without wifi or mobile coverage will not work.
The facts, in short
- Runs on Android phones and tablets, on Android barcode scanners, in a desktop browser, and on iPhone and iPad as a web app.
- The app and this website are available in four languages: English, Dutch, German and Spanish.
- Every stock movement is stored with five details: the product, the storage location, the quantity, the moment and the device that registered it.
- The Premium plan contains 17 built-in analyses, from stock value and location fill rate to dormant stock and busiest hours.
- There is a free plan with 100 transactions per month. Basic costs 12,50 euro per device per month or 134,99 euro per year. Premium costs 25,00 euro per month or 274,99 euro per year.
- Every plan starts with one free month. No credit card is needed to start.
- The app is hosted on European servers at Scaleway. Stock data can be exported as a CSV file on the Premium plan.
Checked against the app on
Frequently asked questions
Can I see the stock of another branch?
Yes, if both branches work in the same company account. Each branch is its own set of locations, and every device on the account works on the same live stock, so an employee in one shop can look up a product and see how much sits in the other shop's stockroom. Sending stock to the other branch is booked as a move between their locations.
Do sales at the till lower the stock automatically?
No. The app is not connected to a till. Goods that leave the shop are registered with Out in the app, or corrected when you count the shop floor, which is part of Premium.
Which devices do shop staff need?
An ordinary Android phone is enough to start, because its camera reads the barcodes on packaging. The app also runs on Android tablets and barcode scanners, in a desktop browser, and on iPhone and iPad as a web app, all on the same stock.
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