Simplify Inventory Management: Acumatica's Smart Solutions

The global wholesale market will reach approximately $64 billion by 2025 with the current compound annual growth rate. This is undoubtedly a great result, and this number will gradually grow. As you might expect, given the nature of the business, wholesalers and retailers may face several issues or problems along the way. Today, we want to address one of the toughest challenges - item management.

The more your inventory grows, the more variations in style, size, colour, and materials you get, and the harder it is to manage. You may sometimes make mistakes during order entry, picking and so forth. Moreover, it's tedious work regarding cost management, pricing and other details.

All processes regarding sales and purchasing can become painless, automatic and time-saving with Acumatica Distribution Edition. This edition included kitting, lot and serial control, flexible units of measure, and expiration dates for extra management of complex and variable items.

Let's look in-depth at solutions that Acumatica provides and our company, AcuPower, can implement.

Matrix items 

Using item attributes and values, Acumatica matrix items automate and streamline the operations of item generation, sales, and purchasing for product families. Initially, a master SKU or template is used for matrix products. Options for each property specify the features of the particular inventory item. The following are typical characteristics and choices:

- Size or Dimension

- Colour or Style

- Material or Grade

- Manufacturer or Model Year

- Product Composition

- Packaging

Templates speed up the production of new items by offering preset parameters for order fulfilment, purchasing, stocking, and general ledger settings; templates speed up the production of new items. A predetermined amount of characters for each item segment, attribute values, and separators like dashes can all be used to mask part numbers. This procedure generates "smart component numbers," which are distinctive, significant, and simple to locate. Before creating an item, you can delete unavailable combinations.

2. Kitting and Disassembly 

In most industries, wholesale distributors oversee kits of components that have been manufactured, stocked, and sold together. Distributors frequently preassemble kits to fulfil orders. In other circumstances, the kit is sold, and the components are selected during the fulfilment process. Distributors commonly include non-stock products in kits to accommodate labour, instructions, or manuals. Many distributors disassemble kits into their constituent parts, and there is a probability that kit components may be lost or damaged during the disassembly procedure.

3. Serial and Lot Traceability

Serialized inventory is essential for overseeing product replacement or service recalls and manufacturer warranties. Lot tracking boosts compliance with industry and customer quality standards. To determine which serial numbers were included in the client order, Acumatica records serial and lot numbers throughout the receipt of goods process or sales order input. To identify components manufactured in kits, serial and lot tracking may be necessary for some circumstances.

4. Unit of Measure (UOM)

Distributors frequently suffer from unit conversion. They may buy in one unit of measurement, stock in another, and sell in still another. A beverage distributor, for example, may acquire inventory by the case, stock per unit, and sell in six or twelve packs. Distributors may purchase larger bundles of products and disassemble them for resale. Kitting and disassembly benefit from a unit of measure management. A distributor, for example, may utilise kitting to make more extensive packages of items for bulk orders. In contrast, they may dismantle more extensive packages into smaller amounts to produce unique SKUs or to meet demand when smaller packages are out of stock to avoid costly backorders or urgent orders from vendors.

5. Expiration Dates

Perishable product distributors manage inventory by combining expiration dates with the lot or serial numbers. Expiration date tracking can be utilised for order fulfilment to choose goods near expiration. This is referred to as first-expired, first-out (FEFO). It reduces risk and exposure for perishable inventory distributors while boosting turnover, cutting costs, and enhancing profitability. Expiration dates can be used in physical inventory to identify merchandise approaching its expiration date and may need to be inspected for quality. Expiration dates promote stock rotation by bringing older lists to the front of the shelves for selection.

Conclusion

Distributors struggle to manage goods and product families properly without modernized ERP technology. It is difficult to distinguish between things that have minor differences, resulting in mistakes in purchasing and sales. It is also complicated to handle large product families with varying units of measurement, characteristics, and serial or lot tracking with expiration dates.

With matrix items, kitting and disassembly, lot and serial traceability, adjustable unit of measure conversions, and expiration dates, Acumatica simplifies variable item administration. Acumatica Distribution Edition assists distributors in lowering shipping and handling costs, reducing write-offs due to spoilage or obsolescence, and increasing revenues through integrated commerce.

Plenty of distributors from various industries have already tried Acumatica and are completely satisfied. Our team in AcuPower LTD can become your guide and assistant in its implementation, customizations and technical support. We have 50+ Acumatica-certified experts who will support your company on your way to a successful digital transformation.

Our team absolutely appreciates your feedback and reactions to our posts and articles. They help us understand your interests and prepare the most essential data for you. Schedule a free demo to see Acumatica and its value for your business.

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