Stock Workflow

[newburns]

I have a serious workflow issue with my store!!

Some Background:

I sell both CD and MP3 Downloads of church sermons ( mtrosemedia.tk/store )

I have MagneticOne POS software, which is awesome by the way.

I sell CD's immediately following the end of a service. The stock is updated based on a standard number of 6 each Sunday folowing that service ( ie: Sunday July 7 will have 6 CDs in stock by the end of that Sunday).

I have a order status system of Pending, Unpaid Balance, Balance Due, Order Complete.

All downloads are set to Order Complete

All "Cash On Pickup" are set to Unpaid Balance

All others are set to Pending

 

Stock is set to replenish/alert at "0"

So if there is any stock at -1 or less, there are CD's that need to be duplicated

 

Once all stock is up to date, orders are filled and statuses are changed to Order Complete or Balance Due, depending on if the customer elected the payment of Cash On Pickup

 

The workflow seems solid, but every week I have issues with Stock Control.

Has anyone implemented a better workflow or design for stock control? Some kind of Barcode system? Are there reports I can add that just list all of the out of stock? This would show the duplicating team what to make without much PC/Admin Panel knowledge and may help control the stock.

 

Anything will help. I'm at my wits end. I thought I had a great system, but each week shows me that the system is somehow faulty!

[burt]

I have in fact implemented a "home made" barcode system into a shop selling shoes - you can imagine that shoe sellers carry a massive range of shoes each of which in different colours each of which in different sizes.

 

The barcode system is in place; on the website, in the bricks and mortar shop, in the warehouse. Some teething difficulties but now fairly solid and very user-friendly. Shop owner can increase and decrease stock by doing nothing more than scanning the barcode.

 

However, this was an expensive project, both in terms of money and time.

[newburns]

How much are you looking for it? Can you adjust it to work with my POS system?

[burt]

Would be less expensive most likely for you to get MagneticOne to make their POS work to your specifications. I am simply stating that stock by barcode is possible.

[newburns]

@@burt

Does stock by barcode work well for the shoe store owner? What difficulties is he having now?

Regardless of the POS system, how much for the addon. This is useful for stock control, the POS system doesn't really integrate with stock other than subtracting stock by the amount purchased. And i don't believe your addon changes the way stock is stored. Just an added way for how it is manipulated. Were there any reports that assisted with your addon?

[MrPhil]

What sort of "stock control" issues are you having? At some point, I take it that physical inventory is not matching up with what osC thinks is the stock level? Are you selling "bricks and mortar" in addition to online? That's always a problem with keeping inventory in synch that way. Have you thought about some sort of dummy osC customer account to "sell" things sold in the store (walk-in buyers)? That way, inventory should stay true.

[burt]

@@burt

Does stock by barcode work well for the shoe store owner? What difficulties is he having now?

Regardless of the POS system, how much for the addon. This is useful for stock control, the POS system doesn't really integrate with stock other than subtracting stock by the amount purchased. And i don't believe your addon changes the way stock is stored. Just an added way for how it is manipulated. Were there any reports that assisted with your addon?

 

You are correct that the way the stock is stored is unchanged by the addon. The only real difference is the fact that stock can be increased or decreased by scanning a barcode.

 

Obviously in the real life shoe shop implementation there is a lot of extra code to deal with the ability to track stock not on the product, but on the size/color of the product.

 

The Shop Owner is ecstatic that he has a system that cost 20% of what a well known barcode/sku company was looking to charge him - it's almost certainly not as "polished" as some system that costs many thousands of $, but it does do everything needed.

[♥bruyndoncx]

if you are looking for a quick fix, i think burts solution is easy enought to implement.

If you want to do it full circle, you are better off looking at an accountiing system with stock control and pos to have the correct stock numbers online and offline.

We use osfinancials exactly for this, but it might be overkill in your situation.