Guide / free and scanning
Free inventory software with a barcode scanner
There is one genuinely free way to scan — a wedge scanner into a spreadsheet — and several ways that are free until they are not. Here is the honest ladder, trial included.
The short answer
- Genuinely free scanning: a USB keyboard-wedge scanner typing into a spreadsheet cell — it works, with structural limits.
- Phone-camera scanning needs software: the browser reads the camera, so "free app scanning" is usually a tier or a trial.
- What scanning without a live record cannot do: allocation, conflicts, and history — the scan is only as good as where it lands.
- BSimple is not free — from $180/month (AUD) — but scanning is included in every plan and the trial tests it with your stock.
- 01The short answer
- 02The genuinely free way: wedge scanner into Excel
- 03The not-really-free ways, and the honest ladder
The genuinely free way: wedge scanner into Excel
A keyboard-wedge scanner is a keyboard: it types the code and presses enter. Point it at any cell in a spreadsheet column and it enters barcodes faster than any typing — that is the entire free stack, and it is real. Structured well (one column per scan event, a quantity column, a disciplined sheet per stocktake), it produces a usable count and a searchable list.
Its limits are the spreadsheet's limits wearing a scanner: no allocation (the sheet cannot stop two picks promising one unit), no conflict handling (two people, two sheets, two truths), and no history (yesterday's sheet is overwritten by today's). The scan improves the input; it cannot give the record the properties a spreadsheet lacks. The Excel-plus-scanner guide builds this stack properly, and the free stock management guide prices what the limits cost.
The not-really-free ways, and the honest ladder
Free apps and free tiers offer phone-camera scanning, which is the same capability paid software uses — the camera is free, the record it writes to is the product. Free tiers cap records, users or scans; the trial period is honest; the perpetual "free plan" is usually a funnel. Inspect what happens to your data at the cap.
The ladder that works, then: spreadsheet-plus-wedge while volumes are small; a trial of real software when allocation and history start mattering; a paid plan when the trial proves the fit. BSimple sits at the top rung: scanning through any phone browser or wedge scanner, writing to one live record shared by stock, orders, purchasing and invoicing — receiving against purchase orders, picking against orders, counting stocktakes, tracing batches. From $180/month (AUD), with the free trial as the honest test run.
For the surrounding choices, the how-to guide walks the scanning moments, and barcode inventory management covers the practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there free inventory software that includes scanning?
The spreadsheet-plus-wedge combo is the honest free stack — a cheap scanner and software you already own. Phone scanning requires an app or browser system, and free versions of those are tiers or trials with caps. What does not exist is a free system where scanning writes to a live, shared, allocation-aware record; that is the paid product everywhere.
Can we scan straight into Excel?
Yes, with a keyboard-wedge scanner — it types into the focused cell and presses enter. Phone scanning into Excel needs an intermediary step and is more friction than it is worth. The structure that works, and the failure modes to expect, are in the Excel scanning guide.
When does the free setup stop being enough?
At the first allocation problem — two orders promising the same stock — or the first two-person conflict, or the moment you need to know what happened to a unit last month. Those are record properties, not input properties; more scanners will not fix them, but a live record will.
What does BSimple include for scanning?
Scanning is in the core plans, not an add-on: phone-browser camera scanning and keyboard-wedge support, writing to live stock — receive against purchase orders, pick against orders, stocktakes and cycle counts, batch and lot trace search with use-by dates. The trial runs it on your own shelves before anything is paid.
BSimple