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Inventory Tracking & Purchasing

Posted by ryuzaki0 on

nimr0d writes "I work for a company is subcontracted entirely to the county government. We write the software in-house. We have approximately 100 different locations we service, and don't expect that to change much, for better or for worse. Currently, we have an archaic, DOS-based, ICOBOL inventory system which tracks every piece of digital equipment we have, by a individually unique serial number, which is further tracked by a 'SystemID', which is a container for each individual workstation. We then have another container for the location where the equipment resides. We currently track around 30,000 individual parts. Problem is, our system is very bug-ridden and is constantly prone to 'losing' equipment. We desperately need a new system for PO's, RA's, and inventory/cost/depreciation tracking desperately. Does anyone have any advice?" "We need to be able to ship an exact copy of the system we originally sold them, in the event of a failure. Some stations serve different functions, so the ability to classify system's and parts by type is also very helpful. We also currently have flags for leased or purchased equipment, and whether that part is covered under warranty or not.

We have looked into several companies that write custom software, but they are looking for upward of $35,000 for a SQL or Access application, which is insane for a company of our size (approximately 25 people) to buy into. There has to be something out there reasonably priced that can do what we need it to, we can't be the only ones."

5 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Re:you may not believe this by abigor · · Score: 2, Informative

    How will such a system manage depreciation? Amortization of assets? Automatically deal with purchase orders? These things are mentioned in the requirements. And you simply can't have someone sitting there manually editing the inventory amount every time something gets sold. And what about integration with POS?

    Your "solution" MIGHT work for a mom-and-pop shop, but even then, it would be an error-prone, tricky-to-use, work-intensive hassle.

  2. Asset Tracker / Request Tracker by Pedersen · · Score: 2, Informative

    Asset Tracker, a system which integrates wonderfully with Request Tracker is worth looking at, definitely. It has something of a learning and configuration curve, to be sure. Once you're over that, though, it works like a charm. Oh, and the price is right, too: Free.

    --

    GPL made simple: What was my stuff is now our stuff. If you improve our stuff, please keep it our stuff.
  3. What the...? by vga_init · · Score: 2, Informative

    Don't take me for a troll, but I'd like to politely say that this seems like a rather inane question to make the front page of Slashdot. After all, anyone who has taken a programming class has been made to write software like this as a gentle, easy introduction to programming. Naturally, this is a real-world problem that is a bit larger and more complex than simple practice problems (ie larger data set, possible need for network code), but the fundamental idea is very similar.

    The fact that the original system was written in COBOL and ran on DOS is a little telling. Back when my father used to work for Radioshack, he coded an inventory transaction system in BASIC in his spare time, and it was used by quite a few of their shops. His programming experience is quite modest, and he's always been more of a user than a coder.

    My point being this: You can produce this software in-house a lot more effectively than by seeking an outside solution. Other people may have written programs (or systems of programs) that do what you want, but they aren't tailored specifically for your company. Also, I imagine that it would be a lot cheaper (sure, there is freeware, but somebody still has to work on it to make it fit).

  4. Sage FAS Fixed Asset Management by sgent · · Score: 2, Informative
    FAS is the market leader in the SMB area for this type of stand alone application. Options including modules for Government & Non-profit accounting (Fund accounting), as well as integration to your GL, depreciation, etc. I have never used it in a live system, but have as a demo. If I remember correctly, pricing is about $3k + implementation. I would definately take a look at it (and other, competing solutions).

    FAS Website

  5. ERP by Rayder · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you were thinking in spend $35.000 to get an specific app, you will be happier if you need to spend a lot less ... :)

    Take a look at http://tinyerp.com/ if does everything you want and a lot more, maybe you will find it interesting. Yes it is an almost full featured ERP+CRM but the stock modules are pretty complete. They have the multiwarehouse you need, the backtrack and some aditional niceties.

    You can use too http://compiere.org/, but from my experience with both packages, Compiere is heavier, harder to configure and uses Oracle, TinyErp uses postgresql is writen in python and is very easy to get a test bed working.

    Hope it helps you