Everything You Need to Know Before You Outgrow Spreadsheets
If you’re running a small business that sells physical products, chances are you’ve tracked your inventory in a spreadsheet at some point. It’s a simple and familiar starting point. Open Excel or Google Sheets, enter your products, quantities, and maybe a few notes. Done.
But as your business grows, things get more complicated. Suddenly you’re dealing with more orders, more products, more locations, and more chances for human error. That’s when you start hearing about something called inventory management software (IMS) and wondering what it is, whether you need it, and how it works.
This blog post is here to help you understand exactly that. If you’re evaluating inventory software options for your business, start with our complete guide to choosing the right inventory software.
Table of Contents
What Is Inventory Management Software?
Inventory management software (IMS) is a tool that helps businesses track, manage, and organize their inventory in real time.
Instead of updating spreadsheets manually and hoping nothing falls through the cracks, inventory software gives you a live, centralized view of:
- What products you have in stock
- Where those products are located
- What’s selling, what’s not, and what’s running low
- What needs to be reordered and when
- How much everything is worth
In short, it automates what used to be a manual, error-prone process so you can run a tighter, smarter operation.
Why Is Inventory Management So Important?
If you’re just starting out, you might think, “I don’t need anything fancy. I only have 20 products!” And that may be true for now.
But as soon as your business grows, even a little, or you sell out of your first product that takes two months to receive, managing inventory well becomes the difference between smooth sailing and daily chaos.
Poor inventory management can lead to:
- Stockouts, which means losing sales because you don’t have what customers want
- Overstocking, which ties up cash in products you don’t need
- Inaccurate financials, which makes it harder to understand the true financial position of your business
- Missed reordering deadlines, which can create unnecessary supply chain delays
Inventory software helps you prevent those problems before they happen.
What Can Inventory Software Do?
Here are a few key features most inventory software offers:
1. Real-Time Stock Tracking
Know exactly what’s in stock at any moment without guessing or double-checking the shelf.
2. Low Stock Alerts
Get automatic notifications when products are running low so you can reorder before it’s too late.
3. Purchase Order Management
Generate and track purchase orders directly in the system instead of chasing down email threads or PDFs.
4. Barcoding & Scanning
Many systems support barcode printing and scanning for faster, more accurate tracking.
5. Multi-Location Support
Selling from a warehouse, a retail store, and online? Good software can help you manage inventory across those locations in one place.
6. Reporting & Forecasting
Get data on what’s selling well, what’s collecting dust, and how to improve your purchasing and restocking strategy.
When Do You Need Inventory Software?
If you’re asking the question, you’re probably getting close to needing it. Some clear signs that it may be time to move on from spreadsheets include:
✅ You’ve made inventory mistakes that cost you money or time
✅ You have multiple sales channels, such as ecommerce, email orders, or sales reps
✅ You’re regularly losing track of what’s actually in stock
✅ You’re spending too much time updating spreadsheets manually
✅ Purchasing and reordering depend too heavily on one person’s knowledge
✅ You want to grow, but your current process can’t comfortably grow with you
The goal isn’t to add software simply for the sake of adding software. It’s to introduce a system when your manual processes begin creating more work and risk than they eliminate.
But I’m a Small Business. Isn’t This Overkill?
Not at all. Inventory software isn’t just for big-box stores or companies with complicated global supply chains.
In fact, adopting the right system before your processes become overwhelmingly complex can make growth much easier. You can establish consistent procedures for purchasing, receiving, fulfilling orders, and tracking inventory while your business is still manageable.
Thanks to modern cloud-based tools, many inventory systems are designed specifically for growing small and midsized businesses.
The important part is choosing a solution that matches the complexity of your business. A company that buys and resells 50 finished products has very different needs from a manufacturer managing raw materials, assemblies, work-in-progress, and hundreds of finished goods.
Where Does SOS Inventory Fit In?
For businesses already using QuickBooks Online, one inventory management option worth considering is SOS Inventory.
QuickBooks Online is an excellent accounting platform, but growing product-based businesses can eventually need operational capabilities beyond basic accounting and inventory functions. SOS Inventory is designed to work alongside QuickBooks Online, allowing businesses to manage more of their day-to-day inventory and order operations while keeping their accounting system connected.
SOS Inventory offers functionality such as:
- Sales order management
- Purchase orders
- Multiple inventory locations
- Lot and batch tracking
- Serial number tracking
- Barcoding
- Partial receiving and shipping
- Backorder management
- Assemblies and bills of materials
- Work-in-progress tracking
- Manufacturing workflows
- Landed costs
- Picking, packing, and shipping processes
It also integrates with QuickBooks Online through a two-way synchronization process, allowing operational and accounting information to move between the two systems.
This can make SOS Inventory particularly useful for a business that likes QuickBooks Online for accounting but has started saying:
“QuickBooks does what we need financially, but we need more control over inventory.”
Instead of replacing QuickBooks Online entirely, the business can use SOS Inventory as the operational inventory system while continuing to use QuickBooks Online for its accounting functions.
For example, a growing distributor might use SOS Inventory to create purchase orders, receive inventory, manage sales orders, track stock across several warehouses, and fulfill customer orders. QuickBooks Online can remain the accounting system where the financial impact of those activities is recorded.
For a manufacturer, SOS Inventory can go further by supporting assemblies, bills of materials, work-in-progress, and other manufacturing-related processes.
The key is recognizing that implementing an inventory system isn’t simply a software installation. You’re connecting your operations with your accounting, which means the data and processes on both sides need to be ready.
Preparing QuickBooks Online for SOS Inventory Implementation
One of the most important parts of an SOS Inventory implementation actually happens before you begin using SOS Inventory day to day.
Your QuickBooks Online file needs to be reviewed and prepared first.
Why?
Because when two systems are going to exchange information, inconsistencies that already exist in your accounting file can become implementation problems later. Duplicate items, outdated products, incorrect account mappings, or inconsistent naming conventions are much easier to address before your new inventory processes go live.
Here are several areas we recommend reviewing before implementation.
1. Clean Up Your Products and Services List
Start by reviewing the products and services currently in QuickBooks Online.
Look for:
- Duplicate items
- Old or inactive products
- Inconsistent item names
- Incorrect item types
- Products that were created multiple times because employees couldn’t find the original
- Items that are no longer sold but remain active
This is also a good opportunity to decide on a consistent naming convention.
For example, instead of having:
Blue Shirt
Shirt – Blue
BLU SHIRT MED
you may decide to create a structured item naming system that can scale as your product catalog grows.
Cleaning this up before implementation creates a much stronger foundation for SOS Inventory.
2. Review Your Chart of Accounts
Your inventory transactions ultimately have financial consequences, so your Chart of Accounts matters.
Review accounts associated with areas such as:
- Inventory assets
- Cost of goods sold
- Sales income
- Inventory adjustments or shrinkage
- Shipping
- Discounts
- Purchasing
SOS Inventory’s setup guidance recommends configuring the QuickBooks Online Chart of Accounts before completing the integration and making sure account names are unique.
This is an area where your accountant or QuickBooks advisor should be involved. The goal isn’t just to make SOS Inventory work. It’s to make sure the transactions flowing into QuickBooks Online produce the financial reporting your business needs.
3. Review Customers and Vendors
Inventory doesn’t exist in isolation. You’re purchasing products from vendors and selling products to customers.
Before implementation, review those lists too.
Look for:
- Duplicate vendors
- Duplicate customers
- Inconsistent company names
- Old records that should be made inactive
- Missing information that will matter to purchasing or order fulfillment
Cleaning these records beforehand makes it easier for employees to select the correct customer or vendor once they begin working in the new system.
4. Understand Which System Will Track Inventory
This is an especially important technical consideration.
When SOS Inventory is being used as the inventory management system, SOS’s setup guidance recommends turning off QuickBooks Online’s “Track inventory quantity on hand” setting so that SOS Inventory, rather than QuickBooks Online, is responsible for inventory quantity tracking.
If you already have an established QuickBooks Online company with inventory tracking enabled, don’t simply start changing settings without planning the migration. Existing inventory items and quantities need to be evaluated as part of the implementation process.
The goal is to establish a clear source of truth instead of having two systems independently trying to maintain inventory quantities.
5. Review Your Current Inventory Quantities and Values
Before going live, you also need confidence in your starting inventory.
If your spreadsheet says you have 47 units, your warehouse says 39, and QuickBooks says 52, implementing inventory software won’t magically determine which number is correct.
You first need a reliable starting point.
Depending on the business, that may involve:
- Performing a physical inventory count
- Reconciling discrepancies
- Reviewing inventory valuation
- Identifying obsolete or damaged inventory
- Confirming quantities by location
Think of your implementation date as establishing a clean starting point:
“From this point forward, this is our trusted inventory position.”
The cleaner that starting position is, the more useful your new system will be.
6. Review How You Currently Handle Orders
Software configuration should follow your actual business processes.
Before implementing SOS Inventory, document what currently happens when:
A customer places an order.
Who enters it? Where is it recorded? When does the warehouse see it? When does inventory become committed? When is it shipped? When is the customer invoiced?
Then do the same for purchasing:
Someone realizes inventory is running low.
Who decides how much to order? Who creates the purchase order? Who approves it? What happens when part of the order arrives? Who records the receipt?
These conversations often uncover process problems that have nothing to do with software.
An implementation is a great opportunity to fix them.
7. Decide What Belongs in QuickBooks and What Belongs in SOS
Once the systems are connected, employees should understand where different activities take place.
SOS Inventory and QuickBooks Online exchange data, but that doesn’t mean every employee should freely perform every task in either system.
As part of implementation, establish simple rules such as:
- Where sales orders are created
- Where purchase orders are created
- Where receiving happens
- Where inventory adjustments happen
- Where invoices are created
- Who can create new inventory items
- Who maintains customers and vendors
- Who is responsible for resolving synchronization issues
The clearer those responsibilities are, the less likely employees are to accidentally create duplicate transactions or conflicting records.
Good Software Still Needs Good Processes
This is one of the most important things to understand about inventory software:
The software can automate a process, but it can’t fix a process your business hasn’t defined.
If three employees currently receive inventory three different ways, adding software doesn’t automatically solve the inconsistency.
Successful inventory implementations combine three things:
Good software + clean data + clearly defined processes.
That’s why implementation preparation matters so much. The businesses that get the greatest benefit from systems like SOS Inventory aren’t simply installing another app. They’re using the implementation as an opportunity to decide how inventory should move through the organization from purchasing through fulfillment and accounting.
Final Thoughts
Inventory software might sound technical or intimidating, but at its core, it’s simply a smarter way to keep track of your products and the processes surrounding them.
If you’re currently managing inventory in a spreadsheet, you’re not alone. Spreadsheets can work extremely well when a business is small.
The problem isn’t the spreadsheet itself.
The problem comes when your business has grown beyond what the spreadsheet can reliably manage.
As you add more products, customers, suppliers, employees, warehouses, and sales channels, the risks and costs of manual inventory management grow too. Inventory software helps businesses move from reactive to proactive and from chaos to clarity.
If you already use QuickBooks Online, a system such as SOS Inventory can provide a natural next step by adding more advanced inventory and operational capabilities without requiring you to abandon the accounting platform your business already uses.
At Mariner Consulting Group, we help small businesses navigate that transition, from evaluating inventory software and cleaning up QuickBooks Online to configuring SOS Inventory and developing the processes needed to use it successfully.
Ready to Explore Inventory Software?
Not sure whether you’ve outgrown spreadsheets or whether your QuickBooks Online file is ready for an inventory system?
We can help you assess your current inventory processes, evaluate your QuickBooks setup, determine whether SOS Inventory is a good fit, and support the implementation from planning through go-live.
Contact us here to schedule a free consultation.
This article was written by Kevin Lacey CPA/MBA, principle of Mariner Consulting Group, Inc. Too many small businesses are stuck with spreadsheets, the wrong software, or data without real insight, leading to reactive processes that drain cash. In my blog, I share practical inventory management strategies and financial insights to help business owners turn their operations into profit-driving systems.https://marinergrp.net/kevin-lacey-bio/
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