Friday, June 19, 2015

Common Features Of Barcode Tracking Software

By Jeanie Bailey


For small businesses and large companies alike, keeping track of assets and inventory is a critical business function. Barcode Tracking Software is designed with a standard set of features to help meet this need. These features can be found with nearly all programs either as included sets or add-on items for additional expense. The main items are inventory control, asset management, multiple site controls, scanner and printer integration, and finally inclusion of export formats to be used with other software systems.

Inventory control is the basic act of counting the number of products or parts the company has on hand. Older paper systems have proven to be a burden to growing companies that must move fast and be able to order more product from the manufacturer in order to fulfill customer orders in a timely fashion.

Keeping track of assets includes items that are usually not considered part of the products to be sold. Office furniture, work computers, and vehicles are primary examples of items a company may own as an asset. Keeping track of this information is important for tax purposes and can eliminate duplicate purchases when assets such as desks are already available for new employees.

Many companies have several different locations to store, sell, and ship products. Often, retail stores need to track what they have on hand rather than being included with a single inventory location. Warehouses also ship or trade products within a company by shifting inventory to better meet customer needs. Being able to track where the products are located helps when deciding when each site needs to order or if a site simply needs to have products replenished from another one that has an abundance of the item.

Scanners come in various shapes and sizes. One of the most popular style is the wireless hand scanner. These can be carried by employees as they do manual inventory counts. Costly mistakes can be avoided by using scanners due to data entry mistakes. Desk and wired scanners are popular for receiving stations in warehouses, making it easier to mark products as they arrive or depart the location.

Special printers were created to print barcodes on sticky paper. These can been placed on products and allow a company to provide their own codes for each item. These codes can also be printed on regular paper using standard printers. Using these systems makes inventory control very efficient. Inventory sheets can be printed with space for the codes printed from these specialized printers.

Integrating the data with other software programs provides greater flexibility. Being able to transport the date electronically through an export process means the information will not be lost or changed when being imported into financial software, spreadsheets, or even via the Internet. Most will include the more popular data formats for export.

Keeping track of both inventory and assets in a company is an essential need met through the tracking software. The standard features available make it easy to keep track and provide big savings by reducing employee time and lost inventory. Without a proper system in place, a company could easily become overwhelmed and lose control of the manual process. Keeping track of each item, asset, product, and part is essential to growth.




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