Stock management software, plainly

The key facts

• The job: live quantities per location, reorder points that trigger purchasing, and counts that keep the record honest.
• Stock vs inventory management: stock management is the quantity record; inventory management usually adds orders, purchasing, invoicing and control on the same record.
• The test: does a sale, a receipt or a count change the number immediately — or does the number wait for someone to type?
• BSimple runs the full record — stock, purchasing, orders, invoicing — from $180/month (AUD), free to trial.

What stock management software actually does

• Keeps live quantities. Per item, per location — updated by movements as they happen, not corrected at month end.
• Drives reordering. Par and reorder levels per item; what falls short is grouped by supplier and raised as purchase orders. What a stock management system is covers the mechanics.
• Runs counts. Full stocktakes and rolling cycle counts, with variances adjusted deliberately and an audit trail behind every change.
• Warns honestly. Overselling guards, negative-stock signals, and shortages that surface before a customer finds them.

Software earns its cost at the first two: quantities that are true, and reordering that happens because the record said so — not because someone remembered on the way home.

Stock management vs inventory management vs spreadsheets

The terms overlap in practice, and the honest distinction is scope. Stock management is the quantity discipline — what is held, what moves, what to buy. Inventory management, as most businesses use the phrase, adds the commercial layer: orders, fulfilment, invoicing and the accounting handoff on the same record. A spreadsheet is the free version of the first and a fragile substitute for the second: it holds a list, and the list is only as current as the last typing.

The practical consequence: if your problem is purely "the quantities are wrong", stock tooling may be enough. If the quantities are wrong and orders depend on them, the fix is the shared record — because stock truth and order truth are the same truth kept in two places until you keep them in one.

How BSimple runs it

We build BSimple, so weigh that. Stock management sits on the same record as everything it touches: receipts update quantities from purchase orders, orders and picking consume them, counts correct them with an audit trail, and reorder levels raise purchasing from demand — including scanning at the movements from any phone browser, and stocktakes with scanners when volumes justify it. Invoicing and the Xero/MYOB handoff sit behind the same record, so the shelf and the books never drift.

Plans start at $180/month (AUD) with every feature in the core plans. The inventory management guide is the full picture of the record, and the trial is the honest test: receive, pick and count on your own stock in an afternoon.