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Inventory Management Overview

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Overview

Solid inventory management is mandatory to the success of a business that buys, assembles, sells or rents physical items.  The system must facilitate quality receiving, maintaining, consumption, shipping, and tracking of inventory.  This applies to both raw material, assemblies, and finished goods.  

Ascent ERP has tools which allow you to maintain your inventory, whether you use those tools on the desktop or use handheld mobile devices with easy-to-use screens and scanners to monitor your inventory. 

Every inventory movement is tracked with fully auditable movement journals. The movement lines contain the user and date/time stamp, so you will always know who performed an inventory movement and when. In addition, Ascent ERP can be configured to track the debits and credits relating to all inventory movements, so that this data can be integrated to your financial system of record. 

To view detailed information regarding Inventory Management, please click one of the following:

Cycle Counting – this is the process of auditing the inventory counts in your system, and letting the system post variances where physical counts are different from system quantity.  To view detailed information about this click here

Serialization – certain products require unique identification, to differentiate it from other like products, like a fingerprint identifies a person.  A serial number is a unique identifier used to differentiate a single quantity of an item from another single quantity of an item.  Serial numbers are usually used to identify a physical object (like an automobile, a medical device, or a musical instrument), however, it can also be used as a product key, to identify a software license.  For this document, serial numbers will be considered for physical objects.  To view detailed information about this click here

Lot Management – lot tracking and management is required for those items that are subject to product recalls or FDA (Food and Drug Administration) or similar mandates.  Traceability up and down the bill of material (formula) used in the manufacture of product is necessary to support returns and recalls.  Lot management is also used to track quality.  To view detailed information about this click here

Item Movement – moving inventory from one location to another may be required for reasons such as warehouse rezoning, efficiency of space, or shipping material to a different warehouse where demand is high.  In addition, any in-or-out of inventory is recorded for reporting purposes.  All of these movement transactions create audit records which are helpful in analyzing product trends.  To view detailed information about this, click here

RMA and Returns – customers can return product, and companies can return goods purchased back to the supplier.  In both cases, return material authorizations can be required, and those returns need to be tracked by the inventory management system, to ensure proper disposition of those items.  To view detailed information about this, click here – [TBD]

Mobile Menu – warehouse personnel don’t always need a laptop or desktop computer to perform inventory management functions.  Warehouse mobility is easily achieved through the use of handheld devices where scanners are incorporated. Personnel can receive, move, ship, and adjust inventory as required, simplifying these tasks with easy to use menus, touch sensitive screens, and barcode scanning capabilities.  To view detailed information about this, click here – [TBD]

 

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