If your business deals with stock, using a cloud-based inventory management system can help teams collaborate, communicate, and share information securely.
And if your small business has gone remote due to COVID-19, investing in a reliable cloud inventory platform may be crucial to your team’s continued success. Once you’re ready to go back to the office, cloud services can help you make that transition. In the meantime, here are five benefits of moving your inventory management to the cloud.
The cloud enables everyone on your team to see inventory levels, review orders and be productive from anywhere. With cloud inventory management software, you and your team can access stock levels, sales data and documents at any time, from any device.
Although you’ll need an internet connection to work on the cloud, many platforms are accessible offline. Teams can still work offline, and in many cases, as soon as they’re reconnected to the internet, updates sync automatically.
When it comes to inventory management, many business owners struggle to get a clear picture of important financial data such as warehousing costs. Fortunately, cloud-based inventory software in South Africa can automate and streamline tasks to make managing finances easier.
QuickBooks Online, for example, automates accounting functions like expense-tracking, invoicing, and accounts payable and receivable. You can upload data from sales transactions, business expenses, and inventory to the cloud automatically. Automated accounting saves time and means no more manual data entry, which can minimise costly clerical errors.
Reliable cloud inventory management providers offer robust security solutions that include firewalls, data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and virus detection. These solutions deal with cloud security full-time and are prepared to combat any online security issues you might experience. This is especially critical if you’re dealing with customer data such as credit card information from online sales.
The safety of your valuable data is also guaranteed with cloud inventory management. Data backup on storage devices isn’t necessary as all data is securely stored in the cloud.
Because many key tasks are automated with cloud inventory software, the risk of human error is virtually eliminated.
With cloud-based apps, every user on your team – as well as external users such as your accountant or manufacturer – gets up-to-date information instantly, with no risk of duplications, missed orders or incorrect information.
Embracing the cloud can give you the freedom to scale your small business quickly. If you’re anticipating higher sales, more inventory or a spike in users, your cloud provider can offer you more servers and bigger bandwidth to accommodate.
The cloud gives you the flexibility to scale and, in many cases, only pay for what you use. This model lets you customise what you need when you need it.
QuickBooks Online allows you to manage your inventory in real-time, so you always know what’s coming in and what’s going out. Try it free for 30 days (no credit card required)
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