Inventory management software in Tanzania: what to look for

Inventory software is easy to demo and hard to judge. Every product can show a stock list. What matters is whether it copes with the way stock moves in your business: where it’s kept, how it’s bought and sold, how long it lasts and whether you make anything from it.

Before you look at products, write down every place you keep stock, the units you buy and sell in, which goods carry batch numbers or expiry dates, and whether you assemble or manufacture. Take that list to each demo and ask to see your own cases, not the sample company.

Look for software that tracks stock by location: each warehouse, shop or branch store, and ideally the racks or bins inside them. A hierarchy helps, so you can read one store or a whole region. If you hold goods for others or send stock out on consignment, check that stock held by third parties can be recorded too.

Units are where simple systems break. You may buy by the carton and sell by the piece, or buy by weight and sell by the bag. Ask whether the software handles buying in one unit and selling in another, and whether an item can carry an alternate unit alongside its main one.

Pharmacies, food distributors and anyone selling goods with a shelf life need batches with manufacturing and expiry dates, and a view of how many days each batch has left. Without that, expired stock is found on the shelf rather than in a report.

Reorder and minimum order levels turn the software into a buying tool: it should list what’s running short. Ask, too, which valuation methods it supports and whether you can set them item by item. FIFO, average cost and standard cost give different stock values and margins, so agree the method with your accountant before entering opening stock.

Manufacturers need a bill of materials (BoM): the components and quantities that go into each finished product. Check that production can be recorded against it, so raw materials leave stock and finished goods arrive, and that by-products and scrap can be recorded as well.

If you make the same product in more than one way, look for more than one BoM per item. If you send materials out to be processed, or process them for others, ask about job work.

Separate stock and accounting systems mean two sets of numbers that rarely agree. In better software, the stock value in your balance sheet and profit and loss comes from the same entries your stores team records, so nobody reconciles two systems at month-end.

Check pricing and reports as well: price lists for wholesale and retail customers, quantity discounts, and reports such as stock summary, ageing analysis and item-wise profitability. If you have branches, ask how stock and transactions move between them; our guide to stock across branches covers that side in TallyPrime.

TallyPrime covers each point above: godowns in a hierarchy, third-party stock, buying in one unit and selling in another, alternate units, batches with manufacturing and expiry dates, reorder and minimum order levels, valuation set per item (including FIFO, LIFO, last purchase cost, standard cost and monthly average cost), bills of materials with by-products and scrap, and job work. Its Integrate Accounts with Inventory setting is switched off only when you want to enter closing stock by hand instead of taking it from your stock records. You can create any number of price levels, set quantity discounts in price lists and choose a price list in each customer’s ledger.

Powercomputers sets this up around your stock, adds Powerpack controls such as blocking entries that take stock below zero and controlling sales below cost price, builds customized inventory and warehouse reports, and trains your team. Book a free demo and bring your stock list.