r/InventoryManagement

Question for the operators. Card readers and telemetry tell us what's in the machines, but how are you tracking what's in the garage, unit or storeroom?

- Spreadsheet, notebook, or just in your head?
- How do you decide what needs ti be bought at the cash & carry?
- Ever been caught out by stock going out of date, or cash tied up in stuff that doesn't sell?

I'm a small operator in Essex and I've been struggling with this myself, so I'm curious what works for everyone else.

Disclosure up front: I'm the developer. This isn't a sales pitch; I'd really like this sub's take on how I've modeled the inventory side.

Who it's for: resellers who buy stock locally (thrift, pawn, flea, estate, outlet) and resell it online or in person. Spreadsheets break down for them fast. One sourcing trip can mean 30 different items at 30 different costs, and the real cost of each item includes the gas spent getting it.

How it handles inventory (the part I'd like feedback on):

- One row per unit, with no quantity field. If you buy three identical mugs, you get three records. Each one has its own cost, status and sale history. Selling or deleting one never touches the others.

- Landed cost includes gas. You log the miles for a trip. The app works out the gas cost from your MPG and gas price, then spreads it across the items bought on that trip. ROI is shown both with and without gas.

- Refunds add records instead of editing old ones. A refund puts the item back into inventory in the status it had before the sale. The original sale and invoice stay untouched, so the history still adds up.

- An item only becomes sold through a sale record. That's either a full invoice or a quick "mark sold" that creates a minimal invoice. Analytics never counts a sale that has no record behind it.

- Receipt scanning for item costs, and in-person card payments: Tap to Pay on iPhone or a Stripe Bluetooth reader.

Questions for you all:

1. One record per unit or a quantity field: has one-per-unit caused you trouble at scale, or saved you from it?

2. How do you allocate shared costs like gas, ? Evenly per unit, or weighted by cost?

3. What would you expect next: CSV import, marketplace sync, or something else?

It's an iOS app called Sourcerer, with a 7-day free trial and no card needed. If you want to try it:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sourcerer-resell

Happy to answer questions about the data model

Where do you think AI could help with managing inventory?

Some ideas that come to mind are suggesting reorder quantities, flagging unusual stock movements, or answering questions like “Which items haven’t sold in the last 90 days?”

What inventory task takes up your time or causes headaches that you’d want AI to help with? If you’ve tried any AI features in inventory software, were they actually useful?

Hey everyone,

Like many founders and small business operators, I noticed how tedious and expensive traditional inventory tracking can be often requiring bulky hardware or overly complex software.

To solve this for everyday operations, I built a quick, mobile first inventory tool that turns a standard smartphone camera into a live barcode scanner for instant stock-in/stock-out management.

Here is a quick look at how the scanning flow works in practice. For those of you running product based businesses, how do you currently handle inventory management, and what is your biggest pain point?

Would love to hear your thoughts or feedback!

Hello!

I’m currently working on my master’s degree in Instructional Design and Technology and working on a needs analysis involving inventory management and transaction reporting.

I’m looking for two individuals with professional inventory management experience who would be willing to complete a short questionnaire and participate in a 15–20 minute interview.

The questions will focus on inventory reporting procedures, common challenges, and the knowledge and skills that are needed to maintain accurate records.

I’m hoping to conduct the interviews Sunday, October 11, but I’m flexible with scheduling.

I would appreciate the opportunity to learn from your experience.

Thank you for considering it!

I’m building a forecasting API for developers and businesses.

The idea is:

• Send a time series through an API
• Specify the forecast horizon
• Automatically run rolling backtests on the historical data
• Report how well the model performs on that particular series
• Generate a future forecast with prediction intervals

The API would look something like:

POST /forecast

You send historical data and receive a forecast, accuracy metrics, and prediction intervals.

I’m currently considering Chronos-2 as the forecasting model rather than building a large collection of models.

I’m trying to find out whether this solves a problem that people would actually pay for. If you work with forecasting in a real business or project, would this save you time? What other features would you want?

I'm a tech/business process designer at a 3PL running a ~5-digit pallet position facility. Looking for practical advice from folks who've solved this…

We have an F&B client whose goods arrive from central distribution centers or directly from manufacturers. We handle the full flow…receive, store, pick, pack, ship.

The problem:
A lot of their product arrives with zero barcodes. Think items like plates, wrappers, sauce bottles the kind of stuff you'd see moving through a McDonald's supply chain. Non-Bulky, non-barcoded, and we still need inventory accuracy and traceability.

What I'm trying to figure out:
• How do you handle inbounding when there's nothing to scan?
• How do you handle outbounding without introducing errors?
• What approaches do businesses typically use for inventory accuracy and traceability on non bulky, non-barcoded goods?
I'd love to hear real-world solutions…labeling at receiving, lot tracking, license plating, vendor compliance pushes, WMS workarounds, whatever's worked (or failed) for you.

If you've dealt with this in foodservice, QSR supply chains, or any high-volume 3PL environment, I'd really appreciate your input.

I used to mostly look at how much stock I had on hand. If the numbers looked healthy, I assumed my inventory was in a good place. After running a small boutique, I've started paying more attention to how quickly products are actually moving.

Having plenty of inventory doesn't mean much if a large part of it has been sitting there for months. I've found that looking at movement gives me a better idea of where my inventory is actually healthy and where I might be holding too much. It also makes decisions like reordering, discounting, or dropping a product much easier.

I also sell both in person and through Shopify, so looking at movement across both channels has become important for deciding what to reorder and what not to bring back. I'm curious what other people actually watch.

Inventory turnover, days on hand, sell-through rate, stock accuracy, dead stock, or something else? What inventory metric gives you the clearest picture of what's really happening in your business, and has it ever changed a decision you were about to make?

We have around 150 assets and are currently tracking everything in a Google Sheet but it's starting to get pretty messy.

We're comfortable with technical setups, so self hosting isn't an issue.

Just curious what others are using management and what's worked well for you.