Inventory Management/Distribution Solutions
Ideal for manufacturers, distributors or wholesalers, SouthWare produces a comprehensive line of modules for your inventory-related operations, including:
• Assembly Work Orders
• Inventory Control
• Item Group Matrix
• Order Entry Processing
• Point of Sale
• Purchasing
• Rental Management
• Return Authorizations
• Warehouse Tracking
» Assembly Work Orders
Inventory management and work order control is a real challenge when you have assemblies and components. Not only do you have to keep track of the items that come in and out of your business, but you have to keep track of them as they flow in and out of assemblies. SouthWare's Assembly Work Orders module integrates with SouthWare's Inventory/Sales Series to give you a complete Sales and Inventory Management System. With Assembly Work Orders you can be confident that you are keeping good records of the flow of inventory within your business.
- Create, track, post, and analyze work orders that document all your assembly activity.
- Take an order from a customer via Order Entry and interactively create a work order to produce his customized shipment. You can select optional components that increase the selling price. When it is ready to ship you can then optionally print the details of the customer's assembly bill of materials on the picking ticket and invoice.
- Check the availability of each component on an assembly and then reserve stock or substitute, backorder, purchase, or sub-assemble needed items.
- Put component parts back into inventory when you break down an item.
- Generate work orders for make-to-stock items.
- Make sure the costs of your assemblies reflect the actual cost of the components, including variable and fixed costs.
- Post work orders as they are finished or even partially post made-to-date quantities.
- Pre-define all your standard bills of material for faster and more accurate processing.
» Inventory Control
When you have a large inventory you must manage it well if you want a successful business. Inventory Control gives you up-to-the-minute detailed information on each item in your inventory. You will know exactly how much inventory comes in, how much is on-hand now, and where it goes.
- Get the up-to-the-minute quantity status for any item in your inventory at the touch of a key
- Know the value of your current inventory
- Know the details of each time you have received inventory
- Keep separate records for each inventory location you use
- Easily verify your spot check counts against your inventory records
- Produce shelf labels for your stock items
- Access a perpetual ledger of all quantities in and out for each stock item
- Track selected stock items by serial number, lot number, size, color, or other tracking breakdown
- Adjust your inventory records for breakage, spoilage, or other defective quantities
- Move quantities between inventory locations as needed
- Keep extensive supporting information about each inventory item
View/Download Inventory Control Product Brief [PDF]
» Item Group Matrix Adapter
Do items you sell belong to groups or styles that can be presented via a row/column matrix such as color/size? Do you want to be able to enter and review quantities for items via a row/column matrix? With SouthWare's Item Group Matrix Adapter, an add-on module for SouthWare's Inventory/Sales Series, you may use a matrix-oriented entry interface to efficiently buy, sell, and receive items within a matrix group. For example, you could set up colors as matrix group rows and sizes as columns and then easily buy, receive, and sell items within the group. You can quickly enter multiple quantities for items within a group and the system will generate the necessary related transactions.
- Utilize different matrix types of row/column combinations such as clothing color/size, show color/size, variety/size, product/user count, pants waist/inseam, lumber dimensions, plant size/variety, etc.
- Identify all the row/column attributes that apply to a matrix type.
- Specify which attributes apply to each group matrix.
- Use the same group definition in multiple locations.
- Automatically generate stock records needed fro group row/column combinations OR use existing stock numbers.
- Indicate that certain row/column combinations are not applicable within a group.
- Inquire stock item information for items in a matrix group.
- Easily view and edit quantities for group matrix items via a grid or tree in the following entry programs: Sales Order Entry, Purchase Order Entry, Purchasing Work File Entry, Service Order Entry, and Receivings Entry.
View/Download Item Group Matrix Product Brief [PDF]
» Fully Integrated Order Entry Processing
When your customers call in with an order, you want to be able to record the order accurately and then deliver it correctly the first time. This means your people need a system that helps them be efficient, accurate, knowledgeable, and timely. SouthWare's Order Entry integrates with SouthWare's Inventory/Sales Series to give you a complete Order Processing and Inventory Management System. With Order Entry you will be confident that you are getting orders recorded accurately, shipping them correctly, and getting them invoiced promptly.
- Get your customers' orders recorded in less time
- Immediately answer your customers' questions about pricing, availability, order status, etc.
- Instantly access past sales orders for a customer and even duplicate one
- Keep accurate records of returns, billing adjustments, no charge shipments, and other special situations
- Sell what the customer needs even if you have to special order it or ship it from another location
- Know exactly how and where the customer wants an order shipped, and even have an order drop-shipped from your vendor
- Make sure a customer's credit status gets checked before and after you record an order
- Automatically handle complex situations involving special pricing, special commission structures, or special sales tax rates
- Produce picking tickets and shipping labels to help you get the right items shipped to the right address at the requested time
- Provide order acknowledgement forms to your customers to make sure the order is right before you ship it
- Create sales quotations and then turn them into orders when the customer agrees to buy
View/Download Order Entry Processing Product Brief [PDF]
» Customizable and Integrated Point of Sale
For simple sales situations, you want to process the sale fast so the customer can be on his way. If the customer has questions you want instant access to the answers. For more complex sales situations you want to handle returns, discounts, delivery, split payments, and other needs quickly and accurately.
SouthWare's Point of Sale integrates with the Inventory/Sales Series to give you a complete inventory sales and management system. With Point of Sale you get the power of an Order Entry system with the speed and convenience you need in a Point of Sale station; and you can customize the entry features and integrate hardware options to create the system that is right for you.
- Quickly process your customers' purchases
- Customize the keystrokes required to record a sale
- Combine returns and new sales on the same invoice
- Capture as much, or as little, information about each customer as you wish
- Make your people more efficient with hardware options such as electronic cash drawers and bar code readers
- Easily handle special situations such as layaways, requests for delivery, and special orders
- Instantly know the availability and location of any stock item
- Remind your operators to suggest related add on items
- Monitor your sales throughout the day
- Tightly control receipts by tracking your cash, check, and credit card payments and reconciling them per operator
View/Download Integrated Point of Sale Product Brief [PDF]
» Purchasing
The key to excellent purchasing is to provide great inventory service and get the most value for the money you invest in inventory. Your customers and employees want inventory to be available when they need it. But if you are not careful you can eat up all your profit in inventory carrying costs.
SouthWare's Purchasing integrates with SouthWare's Inventory/Sales Series to help you achieve your inventory goals. You get the help you need to set and maintain target stock levels, to analyze usage trends, and to check vendor performance. Whether you are maintaining a well-stocked inventory or ordering for just-in-time delivery, Purchasing has the tools to help you.
- Have all the work of creating suggested Purchase Orders done for you
- Use your judgment more efficiently by focusing only on any needed adjustments to suggested purchases
- Trust that your purchasing decisions are based on assumptions that are continually updated for recent trends
- Create just-in-time POs from your sales orders
- Make special adjustments to the purchasing controls for any stock item
- Identify seasonal sales items and adjust suggested purchases for seasonal needs
- Recognize normal and abnormal usage patterns for your inventory
- Order the most profitable quantity levels based on EOQ or other quantity discount calculations
- Take into account line buying and other special vendor requirements
- Know which vendors are giving you the best performance on each item
» Rental Management Software
Process the pricing, renting, tracking, and management of your rental contracts and inventory with SouthWare's Rental Department Management Software. Designed as an add-on module to SouthWare's Inventory Control, Rental Department makes it an ideal solution for the business that both rents and sells items.
You can sell Resale Items and rent Rental Items in the same bill. Your invoices for rental contracts flow into the Normal Invoicing Process history and reporting options available for other SouthWare invoicing products. If you service your equipment, SouthWare's Service Management modules integrate to give you a complete sales/rental/service solution.
- Quickly create a rental contract from any normal SouthWare billing entry program.
- Add inventory items, services, or other types of line items handled by the billing entry program to a rental transaction
- Track availability and scheduling conflicts for each rental item.
- Identify items which are past due for return.
- Handle various rental pricing structures with the system automatically figuring out which rental unit (hours, days, weeks, etc.) to use for each rental transaction.
- Track Rental Items by specific Tracking Number or by quantity only.
- Easily rent and analyze kits or combinations of items via Inventory/Control Standard Bills and Kit Codes.
- Handle special commission and taxing override situations.
- Transfer rental inventory between locations with the option to treat these as sub rentals for additional control.
- Report on scheduled deliveries and pickups of rental items from customer sites.
- Analyze customer and rental ID rental performance.
View/Download Rental Management Product Brief [PDF]
» Return Authorizations
Confidently manage both the process of customer returns to you and the process of your returns to vendors with SouthWare's Return Authorizations. Designed as an add-on module to SouthWare's Inventory Control, Return Authorizations lets you manage your inventory in conjunction with items being returned from customers and items being returned to vendors.
Other processes such as receivings and sales returns integrate seamlessly with Return Authorizations so your return information is always as current as the last related information entered anywhere in the system. And if you sell/service equipment, Return Authorizations integrates the information from the Service Management Equipment Tracking module and Service Orders module for situations such as exchanges.
- Easily record each item you return to a vendor
- Handle complex situations such as exchanges, warranties, and advance swaps
- Track the status of returned items to identify situations that need follow up attention
- Know whether you're expecting a vendor repair, replacement, credit, or refund
- Automatically close your vendor returns from other modules
- Track the items you've authorized your customers to return
- Know what you're supposed to do when you receive a particular customer return
- Keep track of labor reimbursement amounts owed to you by a vendor
- Automatically create the appropriate inventory and general ledger adjustments as you process returns
- Inquire and report on the status and handling of customer/vendor returns
- Be confident that your return situations are under control
View/Download Return Authorizations Product Brief [PDF]
» Warehouse Tracking
Want better management of your warehouse without more work? Need a warehouse tracking system that gives you the information you need without too much complexity? Would you like to process warehouse activity more efficiently without a lot of retraining of your operators? SouthWare's Warehouse Tracking module adds multi-bin tracking and warehouse transactions to the capabilities of SouthWare's Inventory/Sales Series.
With Warehouse Tracking you get supporting warehouse details for the information in Inventory/Sales while keeping your warehouse records separate from your stock and order information. Your Inventory/Sales operators do not need to enter warehouse information, and your warehouse operators work only with warehouse information. This gives you the benefits of an integrated system for Purchasing, Receiving, Put Away, Stocking, Selling, Picking, Staging, Shipping, etc., without requiring complicated data entry functions.
- Identify each storage ID or bin
- Use both fixed (bins, slots) and moveable (pallets, license plates) storage IDs
- Organize the storage IDs into zones/areas for easy review
- Know which items are in a storage ID
- Store a stock item in multiple storage IDs
- Know the current storage ID(s) for an item
- For Put Away, use pre-assigned or "floating" assignments
- Keep track of items in moveable storage IDs (such as pallets and trailers)
- Do directed putaway with option to receive directly into bin
- Option for separate Putaway transactions
- Do directed picking with option for combined picking (wave) or zone picking
- Option for separate Packing/Shipping transactions
- Suggest picking locations based on oldest received, locator preferences, or largest quantity
- Plan and track the movement of items between storage IDs
- Assign and reassign warehouse work to different stations
- Optionally specify preferred sequence of storage ID assignment for each station
- Optionally match attributes of storage IDs with required attributes of stock items (such as refrigerated, hazardous, secured, etc.)
- Build custom rules (via SouthWare's WorkFlow) for the assignment of transactions to storage IDs
- Optionally keep warehouse details of tracking/serial number
View/Download Warehouse Tracking Product Brief [PDF]
