Excel is considered a great management tool that helps to keep track of inventory. It’s a productivity and spreadsheet software to organize data in a well meaningful manner.
Over the years, Excel has gained popularity over other inventory software because of its charts which make it easier to manage and control. Data is organized in columns and rows and each cell can harbor a piece of single information such as numbers, figures, or formulas. When it comes to tracking inventory with ease, Excel is one of the best options to consider. Let’s ask some important questions.
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Why Use Excel for Inventory Tracking?
A few years back, many business people usually adopt traditional inventory management methods such as sheets of paper and logbooks, pens, and pencils to get their work done. These methods were not effective and saving time but with the existence of Excel, no more worry with inventories problem.
With the help of Excel, traditional issues can now be eliminated to save time and stress. There’s also the option of converting your documents from Excel to PDF for long-term file storage or archiving.
How Can You Keep Track of Inventory on Excel?
Use an Excel spreadsheet to track inventory information such as the product’s SKU, description, quantity available, to mention a few. When working on your Excel Spreadsheet, formulas and calculations can be imported to make work easier to complete.
However, before one can start tracking data, ensure to get the right details first.
- Make a List of Categories and Calculations Required
It is good practice to make a list of the categories and calculations required for the inventory tracking before starting to enter data in an Excel Spreadsheet.
- Inventory Categories
There are important Inventory categories that are commonly used in major management applications.
Item number – This lists the serial numbers, SKU numbers, or product numbers to track the various items on your list.
- Description details – Add short descriptions of your items.
- Product Name – This contains the name of each product so that one can easily figure out which items correspond to the item numbers being used.’
- Quantity in stock – This gives details of the available number of items in your store.
- Location – Put the warehouses, shelves, or bin number where your items are being housed.
This makes it easier to access them when needed.
- Orders Quantity – This indicates the units and quantities that were ordered from each item.
- Vendor – List the names of the vendors who deliver each item.
- Inventory Calculations
After the addition of inventory categories, the next is to add formulas to your excel spreadsheet.
Some of the most important inventory calculation required are:
- Quantity in stock
- Purchase Costs
- Inventory Value
- Quantity in reorder
An Excel user will need more information about categories and calculations to track sales, the performance of a product or item, and other data.
How Can You Create a Simple Section for the Inventory Tracker
1. Launch the Microsoft Excel
2. Point your cursor on Cell A1 which is the first small box at the top left corner of the blank spreadsheet.
3. Input the item details in the cell
4. Click on Cell B1 which is the next cell after Cell A1.
5. Input ‘Amount’ which will serve as the label for that column.
6. Click on Cell C1
7. Type ‘Cost’
So after the above steps, it is now easy to use this excel template to customize or edit your inventory system as well as track inventory on the go. This template is still useful for enumerating every item in your store and getting the exact figure of the ones in stock and out of stock.
Starting from the A column, a storekeeper or business manager can add each item’s name. When he or she is done, a list of item names would have been achieved in an excel inventory.
Let’s move on to Column B which takes care of ‘amount’. This section gives an account of the amount of each item contained in Column B which is after item Name in column A.
Once the amounts have each item have been recorded in the column, a storekeeper can then look at column C which would contain ‘labeled cost’, and input those values there.
Understandably, this inventory system can’t solve math equations just yet, so getting the total costs in this column won’t be possible. But it’s better to have this column loaded with the necessary inventory details before the importation of formulas to the Excel Spreadsheet.
How to Convert Microsoft Excel to PDF
- Click on the select file button above or drag and drop a file into the drop section.
- select the XLS or XLSX file document to convert to PDF format.
- After the uploading file, it would automatically convert the Excel to PDF file format
- Download the converted PDF for your usage.
Other Useful Hacks
Many Excel users can confirm that it’s a viable inventory tool and as a matter of fact, there are essential hacks you must follow to improve your business.
- Keep Everything Easy and Simple
While Excel is a great tool to track item information every second, keeping everything simple should always be your goal. When your excel spreadsheet is simple to access, it becomes easy to quickly locate any inventory details in it.
- Learn to Use the Program Shortcuts
Another way to save time while working on Excel Spreadsheet is to know how to use the program shortcuts.
Knowing the basic shortcuts such as how to create a fresh workbook, open an existing workbook, save a workbook, Insert a new worksheet can make your work more effective.
Conclusion
Excel is one of the best inventory software that business owners can use to manage their products. No doubt, there are numerous applications to use as inventory tracking, Excel Spreadsheet however ranks highest for business purposes or personal uses. With its easy-to-use tool, one can quickly input the item details and still keep track of it every time.
To enjoy the full features of Excel, it is advisable to use it with other specialized programs to save time and achieve better results.
