Stock management software for rental and trading
A stock that moves every day will always end up lying when it is kept by hand. Contact's inventory management software tracks incoming and outgoing items, updates stock automatically and displays your theoretical stock at any given moment. This varies depending on whether you rent, sell, or do both.
Renting and selling do not pose the same question to inventory
When you sell a part, it leaves the inventory and does not return. When you rent it out, it goes out, spends a few days or months with the customer, and has to come back. The same figure on the screen therefore does not mean the same thing in the two businesses.
Inventory management software designed for trading answers one question: how many do I have left today. Equipment rental inventory management software must also answer a second question, the one the customer asks on the phone: do you have three available on 14th March. It is then necessary to take into account what is already booked, and what a pending quote might be holding.
Contact is fully customisable according to your activity. The range includes a rental module, a sales module, a purchasing module and a case management module, and you only activate what your business requires. This is what enables a single database to manage trading stock, a rental fleet, or both within the same company.
No re-entry required
What the stock management software keeps up to date while you work
The inputs and outputs
The tracking of incoming and outgoing stock is kept up to date as activity happens, not at the end of the month. Every recorded movement updates the inventory, without requiring a second entry anywhere.
The theoretical stock
You can view your theoretical stock level at any time and with a single click. It is the figure that allows you to answer a customer without having to go and count items on the shelves or call them back in the afternoon.
Statistics
As the stock is kept up to date automatically, numerous statistics are derived from it. They show, item by item, what sells and what stays on the shelf all year round.
Order preparation
Order preparation sheets are created automatically. The warehouse worker works from an accurate list, and errors that cost a second trip disappear with it.
The inventory, and the hours it takes
Inventory control is an accounting obligation: companies that keep full accounts must verify at least once a year the existence and value of their assets, as recalled by Bpifrance Création. It will happen anyway, and the only variable is how long it takes.
Taking stock is a lengthy task that adds nothing to the month's turnover. It is precisely the kind of work a business seeks to automate as much as it can, without accepting a drop in reliability. Stock control software does not eliminate counting; it cuts the time spent on it and makes the results more reliable.
Contact incorporates reliable inbound and outbound tracking as well as barcode management, for both recording and creation. Your stocktakes are thus simplified, and you can add a collaborative dimension to them. Stock is updated automatically, and you can print your stocktakes at any time, including during counting.
What you gain on the preparation
Accurate stock improves order preparation and prevents human errors—the kind that result in an incomplete pallet being dispatched and coming back as a dispute three weeks later.
What you save on your shopping
Automatic stock updating prevents you from having surpluses compared to your actual needs, since your purchases align with stock changes rather than an estimate.
Stock when hiring equipment
In rental, stock and scheduling are the same thing viewed from two angles. A part that has left is not sold, it is expected. Equipment rental inventory management software must therefore work with dates just as much as quantities.
What remains available on a given date
Contact shows the number of items available on a given date, including and excluding quotes, over a month, six months or even a year. The distinction matters: a quote awaiting signature ties up equipment without it having left, and this is what leads to promising the same machine twice when tracking is done on a spreadsheet.
Where is the equipment
The visual planner and management of start and end dates make it possible to know where the equipment is. Stock is automatically kept up to date with each movement, and numerous statistics are available to you based on this history.
The weights and the tare
For parks where transport is invoiced, Contact manages gross and net weights with tare calculation. The figure follows the item from the product record through to the delivery note, with no separate calculations done on the corner of a desk.
Two pages detail the rental use: the event equipment rental management software for the sound system, the marquees, the reception and the stands, and the general page of the equipment rental software.
Stock when you buy to resell
In wholesale trading, what is asked of inventory management software is shifting towards speed. You need to log a delivery, process a sale and find a product code without spending the whole morning on it. Trade Contact, the retailers and wholesalers module, covers the management of sales, purchasing, stock and barcodes, with import and export capabilities.
Le order management software take over, from the purchase order to the preparation sheet. Both modules share the same database, so a recorded sale updates the stock without anyone having to report the movement elsewhere.
Site inventory
Construction adds a difficulty that neither trading nor event rental knows: equipment goes out to a site, stays there for weeks, and rarely comes back complete the first time. Construction stock management software must therefore track more than just an end-of-day balance. Contact ensures rigorous tracking of site entries, exits and remaining items.
The outstanding balance is the point that determines the accuracy of the stock. As long as it is not tracked, the discrepancy between what the screen says and what is actually in the warehouse grows from one job to the next, until the annual inventory where everyone notices the variance without knowing where it comes from. The page of the construction equipment rental software detail the complete day, from departure to the depot up to invoicing.
What's in it for you
What poorly managed inventory ties up
Idle cash
Slow-moving lines tie up money that is doing nothing anywhere, and inventory management software makes them visible. Stock statistics identify them by name, which means you can stop reordering them out of habit.
Office hours
As customer and supplier order invoicing and tracking are kept from the same database, the time spent copying figures from one document to another disappears from the weekly schedule.
Time for your customers
The resources saved are shifted elsewhere. That is time and financial means given back to the customers rather than to maintaining a spreadsheet that nobody wants to open.
Guided setup
ComputerLine assists with software parameterisation, provides daily maintenance and offers cloud hosting for remote stock control. The company is also a registered training organisation with the prefecture of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, under number 93132385313.
Frequently asked questions about inventory management software
We keep track of inventory on Excel, what difference does it make?
A spreadsheet records what is entered into it, and it does that well. What it cannot do is update itself automatically when a sale is recorded elsewhere, nor say what will be available on a given date taking into account pending quotes. Inventory management software updates stock automatically with every movement, and Contact displays theoretical stock in one click.
Does Contact handle barcodes?
Yes, for recording as well as creation. You can therefore work with your suppliers' existing codes and create your own for items that do not have any. This is what makes inventory management faster and order fulfilment more secure.
Can several people do the stocktake together?
The inventory in Contact has a collaborative dimension. To find out precisely what organisation your premises and your equipment allow for, it is best to discuss it with the team, who will look at your specific situation rather than describing a general case to you.
Do we need two pieces of software for renting and selling?
No. Contact is modular, and the rental, sales, purchasing and folder modules share the same base. A company that rents out part of its equipment and resells another part keeps both stocks in the same place, with the same item records and the same accounting behind it.
How can I know what will be available in three weeks?
The schedule shows the number of available rooms on a given date, both including and excluding quotes, over a month, six months, or even a year. You can therefore see both what is firmly booked and what an unsigned quote is still holding.
What does the accountant receive?
Customer and supplier invoices as well as payments are transferred directly, without any re-entry, into your accounting system or that of your accountant. You also generate in just a few clicks the accounting entry files that are sent to them.
Can stock be checked outside the depot?
Contact is used for Windows Remote Desktop, and cloud hosting opens as many sessions as needed on a shared server, with integrated automatic backups. Support is provided by telephone and remote assistance.
Our way of counting is peculiar. Is that a problem?
Construction, trade and rental do not count in the same way, and a construction stock management software is not set up like that of a retailer. The tool is fully adaptable according to your activity, and ComputerLine develops modules or specific features on the software especially for you. A method of counting that does not fit into any standard category is handled through configuration.
Talk about your stock
Tell us how many references you track, whether you sell, rent or both, and how many people take part in the inventory count. The full range is shown on the Contact software solutions.