One of the most widely used applications that help to make tables and databases a lot easier to use is Excel; it is provided by Microsoft and it is incredibly versatile for what it is. It is used across the world in the financial sector, as well as in various types of businesses, from SMEs all the way to industry leaders.
However, if there’s one thing that Excel shouldn’t be used for, it’s inventory or stock management; and here’s why.
Mistakes Will Be Made
The main source of errors with regards to Excel is that data must be entered manually, which can lead to various discrepancies, such as the wrong amount of stock being inputted into the spreadsheet, or someone forgot to save the document, meaning that the work that was put in to count the stock was wasted.
Over Time, It Can Become Too Large
Because Excel is essentially a spreadsheet, it means you can just add items and data continuously. This is good for tracking small numbers of objects, but for a warehouse or a large retail store, they have to deal with hundreds and thousands of items every day.
As such, managing such a large spreadsheet can be incredibly cumbersome; the reason why you want to track your stocks is so that you want to find items quickly and efficiently. Therefore, if you can’t search the spreadsheet where your information is located, how do you expect to find the actual items in your stock room?
There is an Increased Risk of Fraud
One benefit of using Excel is that it will not allow more than one user to access the spreadsheet at a time, however, Excel can’t track who has accessed the spreadsheet while it has been rolled out. As such, it means that anyone can access the spreadsheet without being tracked, which can be one of the biggest opportunities of someone committing fraud.
As such, it is important to bring in an official stock management system, since multiple employees can access the spreadsheet/database at the same time. This is beneficial, as it will mean someone, whether it be another stock taker or one of the managers, or even a director, will be able to maintain a tight level of control and prevent any possible case of fraud occurring.
Stock management systems are a great way to checking on the amount of stock that you have present, as well as managing the stock that has been sent off and the entire stocking process. GSM Barcoding provides expert barcoding inventory systems that can be used to manage your stock quickly and effectively.
If you want to know more information, then please don’t hesitate to contact us on our Northern Office (01833 637 647) or our Southern Office (01582 869 000) and we will be more than happy to help.
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