Take the time and stress out of Inventory with DEAR: Our app partner of the month

Every month at Xero, we recognise one of our 600+ app partners for their contribution to our ecosystem and the great work they are doing to help businesses thrive.

This month, it’s DEAR Inventory

DEAR Inventory is a cloud-based inventory and order management platform. It’s designed to help startups and small to medium-sized businesses take the time and stress out of managing their inventory and sales.

If you’re a retailer, wholesaler or manufacturer – or if you’re an advisor with clients in these industries – this blog is for you.

We caught up with the team at DEAR Inventory to find out how their solution helps these businesses thrive:

Who is DEAR Inventory For?

It’s ideal for small to medium businesses and startups who are just making the leap from manual or outdated inventory and order management methods, like inefficient spreadsheets to a more streamlined and automated modern solution.

It’s particularly useful for:

• Ecommerce retailers and wholesalers with multiple warehouse locations and/or sales channels.
• Light Manufacturers with complex bills of material that need to accurately manage raw material and finished goods inventory and track costs of goods sold.

What Are the Key Challenges Facing These Businesses?

Businesses using manual inventory management methods face a number of common challenges. These often include lost time and productivity, persistent inventory and accounting errors, as well as obsolete inventory and stockouts.

Here are some of the top challenges our customers faced before using DEAR. If you’re currently using manual inventory processes they may sound familiar.

Top challenges for Ecommerce retailers and wholesalers:

• Lost sales, lost orders, and frustrated customers thanks to poor manual order management and fulfilment.
• Constant stockouts and lost productivity from manually updating and syncing product and inventory data across sales channels.
• Ordering too much or too little stock due to inaccurate forecasts and reports from unreliable spreadsheets.

Top challenges for Manufacturers:

• Difficulty in accurately tracking inventory flows, expenses, and complicated bills of materials manually through spreadsheets and system hacks.
• Lost profits, sales, and business growth through a lack of understanding of the true cost of goods sold and an inability to forecast customer demand.
• Obsolete inventory and stockouts, especially without an accurate stocktaking process or actionable metrics and reports.

How does DEAR Inventory make life easier for these businesses?

Here are the three of the biggest solutions DEAR offers their customers:

Streamlined and automated inventory and order management for optimised business processes

• DEAR integrates with top ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, as well as top marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. We also integrate with top accounting, sales, and shipping platforms like Xero, PayPal, Capsule CRM, and ShipStation.
• DEAR Inventory tracks your orders and inventory in real-time. Consequently you’ll have up-to-the-minute insights into your stock levels and fulfillment processes.
• We also automate the tracking and reporting of inventory from sending purchase orders, receiving raw goods, manufacturing and warehousing, to sale fulfillment through pick, pack, and ship.

Accurate accounting and up-to-date reports for effective business decisions

• DEAR’s internal accounting system matches industry best practices, allowing you to establish the true cost of your goods.
• Specialized needs like food inventory management are easily handled through batch tracking and serial numbers, along with expiration date tracking.
• Real-time financial data helps you maintain healthy cashflow, while our powerful financial reports help you make the right decisions to keep your business growing.

More time, less stress, and greater productivity for faster business growth

• DEAR pulls together all of your inventory, sales, and financial data into one central platform that is easy to learn and implement.
• The user interface allows you to switch seamlessly between any of your applications for quick task management. Additionally a host of different reports and metrics are available at your fingertips to make smart business decisions.

What Key Tips Do You Have for Ecommerce Retailers, Wholesalers, and Manufacturers Who Want to Improve the Way They Manage Their Inventory?

There are a variety of ways that businesses of all types, sizes, and industries can improve their inventory management. Here are some tips and tools to get you started:

1. 1. Focus on inventory reduction
   2. Work on lead time reduction
   3. Reduce your working capital
   4. Reduce your cost of inventory
   5. Optimize your rate of inventory turnover
   6. Accurately calculate your safety stock inventory
   7. Use an effective reorder point formula
   8. Set achievable inventory KPIs
   9. Improve your inventory receiving processes

Why Did You Choose to Partner with Xero?

The original idea for DEAR Inventory was to create a platform for accurate and actionable accounting as it related to inventory management.

DEAR stands for Double Entry Accounting Records. Our goal was to make it easy for businesses to use actual accounting costing methods instead of problematic methods like cost-averaging.

We believe that financial projections and accounting act like a scoreboard for businesses – and what separates successful small to medium businesses and startups from those that fail is fully understanding and making decisions based on this scoreboard.

Because Xero has earned its way into becoming a top accounting platform for over a million businesses globally, we knew our shared values, and complementary solutions would make for a great partnership.

The post Take the time and stress out of Inventory with DEAR: Our app partner of the month appeared first on Xero Blog.

Source: Xero Blog