Guide / BSimple
Free inventory management software in Australia — the honest version
The signs you have outgrown free: two or more people touching stock at once, customers ordering while you are on the road, ingredient or batch traceability questions, or an end-of-year count that shuts the business fo…
The short answer
- BSimple is not free software — it is Australian inventory management software with a free trial. The complete system, no credit card to start, nothing feature-locked behind the trial.
- After the trial, plans start at $180/month (AUD, ex-GST) — Xero integration, recipes and batches, stocktakes and the customer ordering portal all included, no add-on modules.
- Truly free tools exist — spreadsheets, freemium apps, free tiers. For a wholesale or manufacturing operation they usually cost more than they save: the price is paid in re-keying, stockouts and a painful end-of-year count, not in dollars.
- The honest test: start the free trial and load your real products. If it does not visibly save you hours in the first week, walk away — nothing is locked in.
- 01The short answer
- 02What the free trial includes
- 03When free is actually enough
- 04The catch with free inventory software
What the free trial includes
The trial is the whole system, not a demo: stock control with par levels and low-stock alerts, purchase orders raised from demand, recipes and production batches with use-by dates, stocktakes with variance review, a customer ordering portal for your wholesale accounts, the Xero connection, and reporting across the lot. See the inventory management overview for how the pieces fit.
Australian operations get the details that matter locally: ex-GST pricing handled properly on supplier invoices, EOFY stocktake tooling for the June count, and Xero as the accounting end of the pipe. Nothing in the trial is time-limited per feature — when it ends, you decide.
When free is actually enough
Being straight in both directions: free is enough when stock is small and one person controls it. A cafe with twenty dry-goods lines, a market stall, a workshop with a shelf of parts — a well-kept spreadsheet or a free tier covers that, and paying $180 a month for it would be overkill. If that is you, keep the spreadsheet tidy, count monthly, and spend the money elsewhere.
The signs you have outgrown free: two or more people touching stock at once, customers ordering while you are on the road, ingredient or batch traceability questions, or an end-of-year count that shuts the business for days. That is the point where the hours saved pass the subscription — usually somewhere between 200 and 500 active SKUs with weekly purchasing.
The catch with free inventory software
Free tiers are product demos wearing a pricing label. The usual trade: user caps that block your warehouse staff, no Xero sync (so every invoice is re-keyed), no batch or recipe tracking, no ordering portal, and exports that trap your data when you outgrow it. None of that shows up in the first week — which is exactly when free feels free.
The measurable cost is admin time. If the system costs one person an hour a day in re-keying and reconciliation, a $180/month system that removes it pays for itself in the first fortnight. That comparison — hours versus subscription — is the whole decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is BSimple's inventory management software really free?
No — and we would rather say so up front. BSimple is paid software from $180/month (AUD, ex-GST) with a free trial that needs no credit card. This page exists because "free inventory management software" is what Australians search when they want a stock problem solved without a big spend; the trial is the honest version of that answer.
What can I do in the free trial?
Everything: the complete system — stock, purchasing, recipes and batches, stocktakes, the customer ordering portal and the Xero connection. No feature gates inside the trial, and no card details to start one.
When does paying beat free?
When more than one person touches stock, when customers order directly, or when re-keying into spreadsheets and Xero eats an hour a day. Below that, stay free and keep the spreadsheet honest.
What does BSimple cost after the trial?
Plans start at $180/month (AUD, ex-GST) across three tiers — full comparison on the pricing page. Onboarding help is an optional extra, not a gate, and the trial converts only if you decide to.
Is my data safe if I try and walk away?
You can export your stock and order records at any time — a trial is only honest if leaving is easy.
If the trial shows you the hours, the next reads are the inventory management software overview and stocktake software — the June count is where most Australian businesses first feel the difference between a spreadsheet and a live record.
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