Field Service Inventory Management with QuickBooks
Originally published by The Capterra Field Service Management Blog
You’ve already got QuickBooks managing most of the accounting for your business, why not tap into it for inventory management, as well? While QuickBooks often suffers from its desire to have every feature for every company, leading to some bloat — it takes up over 2 gigs when installed — it also means that things like inventory management are easy to integrate.
QuickBooks is already setup to loosely track inventory. I say loosely because it doesn’t do anything powerful with your inventory — check out how to get up and running with barcodes if you want some real power — but you can keep a list of items with their cost and sales prices, total number in stock, and some other details in QuickBooks using the item list.
This is basically an intelligent spreadsheet that can help when you’re creating invoices. For instance, if you generate an invoice for a customer through QuickBooks and include the five washers and three bolts you used on the job, QuickBooks will add the appropriate charge to the invoice and reduce the number of pieces on hand for those items.
Why use inventory software
What we want to do is supercharge that process, so that you’re not manually entering pieces every time you have to build an invoice. We also want to make the inventory more meaningful, using it to give us updates when items are running low and helping us understand what’s being used in the field so that we can order more effectively.
Like a good retail business, your field service company should be turning inventory into cash as quickly as possible. Inventory that sits on a shelf is like cash locked in a safe — it’s not going to pay the bills.
By using a more robust inventory management system that plays nicely with QuickBooks, you can track the value of the inventory you currently have, keep an eye on reordering inventory that you know you’ll need, and cut down on the amount of inventory you have languishing on the shelves.
Options for integrating with QuickBooks
Many field service software packages, like FieldOne, play well with QuickBooks. In FieldOne, you can sync data between the two systems, with inventory in QuickBooks tying into parts and stock in FieldOne. You can then use your field service software to manage your business, while QuickBooks sits in the background and collects all the data it needs to keep your business in tip top financial shape.
If your business doesn’t have, need, or desire a full field service solution, you can also use one of the many inventory tools specifically designed for QuickBooks. These tools are smaller add-ons, that are designed specifically to make the inventory management side of QuickBooks more palatable.
One of the most popular inventory tools for QuickBooks users is Fishbowl. Fishbowl allows you to use barcoding technology to track inventory, speeding up work in the field. It can also work with QuickBooks to generate invoices and inventory reports, so you’ll never run low on the tools you need to get the job done.
Other inventory options
Apart from QuickBooks, many field service options come with their own accounting software solutions built right in. Wintac, for example, has a built-in accounting package that can help you with reporting, managing accounts payable, and most of the other general accounting tasks your business undertakes every day. Using Wintac’s system, you can manage your inventory and accounts all in one place.
You could also dive into a full-fledged inventory management system, if you think your business requires it. These are especially useful if you have lot of locations, deal with large shipments, or manage multiple warehouses for the inventory your business uses.
Check out Capterra’s field service directory, for a full list of field service programs that play nicely with QuickBooks.
