Inventory management is critical for your business and profits. Failing to understand what to stock, and what is not selling, can adversely effect your bottom line. The Auto Shop Writer Inventory system is comprehensive, and not only tracks your parts stocked, and special orders, but also assists in wise ordering, and stocking with accurate price tracking.
Inventory is maintained with a single record for each partnumber. The Inventory Editor is the primary screen for viewing, and updating, the information contained within the files. It also allows you to run special utilities for pricing, core handling, returns, ordering, stocking, and more.
The Menu Bar
All options are displayed for processing your complete inventory from just one screen. Special utilities may pop up other screens, but you will always be returned to the primary inventory editing screen. These are the options.
Add: Add a new record to the file
Expand: Popup a larger screen for editing Notes
Save: Save the record and/or any changes you have made
Search: Select how you want to search ( All items, Stocking Parts, Non-Stocking Parts, in partnumber, description, or cross reference order.
Delete: Delete the highlighted record. The Stock Here value must be 0.00
Stock:: Run the programs to create a purchase order, or to input newly received stock
Tools: Inventory management tools and pricing utilities
Prices: Recalculate the selling prices using the assigned mark up table
Photo: Pictures associated with the highlighted part
Reports: Reports for all inventory data
Navigation
Initially, when the screen first displays, you can simply start typing a partnumber to reposition the highlight bar to a new part. You can also select a different search option ( description, cross reference, etc. ) by selecting the locate button, then the search option, and pressing OK. You can then start typing the data to reposition to the proper place in the inventory listng.
Considerations
Before you enter parts into the inventory, you must know what stock you actually possess. This is quite simple if you have a working card file currently available. However, most people without computers do not currently track stock. We suggest that you create a simple form. You may then have someone enter the parts onto the form by working through your current listings. Once your lists have been gathered, you can type the data into the machine.
You will find that young people, with a desire to earn some spending cash, can perform this job quite easily. Give them a clipboard, with blank forms, and have them go down the aisles of your store room, making notes of all the parts they find. College students with typing skills can enter the data quickly, correctly, and for a very affordable rate. Remember, your professional staff is paid well to perform crucial services. Although they can perform these tasks, it may be more cost effective to use part-time personnel.
Your inventory input is critical to saving money utilizing The Auto Shop Writer. Inventory expenses occur easily, as shown by using parts in a repair and not itemizing them on the workorder, buying new parts when old ones are currently in stock, stocking parts that do not move on a regular basis, repeatedly buying parts on individual orders when you move a large volume, and other similar issues. Each of these adds to the cost of doing business, and does not provide for an appropriate return on your investment.
The information within the computer will provide you with an excellent understanding of your inventory issues, and you can then make appropriate management decisions which improve your business' bottom line.
Be sure to read the other sections of the Inventory manual to understand how these operations are handled.