Managing a Full Purchasing, Manufacturing and Selling Workflow with Serial Numbers

The serial number feature, essential for full traceability, allows Megaventory users to track the movements of individual items in their inventory right from the moment of purchase to the moment the goods are sold, and all throughout the manufacturing process. This is how you can monitor and manage serialized products in Megaventory.

Enabling serials numbers

First and foremost, start off by Enabling Serial Number Tracking by clicking on Account Setup under Settings. You can enable them when shipping (ie when selling and receiving Finished Goods) or when shipping and receiving (ie also when consuming Raw Materials and shipping goods as well).  

As shown below, you can also choose if you want the serial number to be unique per product or for it to be unique across all products. 

Once this is set, and before heading to the manufacturing process, you might face two different situations: you might want to add serial numbers to products you already have in stock, or you can just add serial numbers to incoming goods. In any case, you need to assign serial numbers to the stock before it can be used in a manufacturing process that tracks serial numbers.

How To Personalize The Language And Terms In Megaventory

In Megaventory, we understand that switching to new software or changing the inventory management system might be challenging at times. This is why we don’t want the language to become a barrier. 

Megaventory can be used in English, Spanish, Greek, French, German, Arabic, Portuguese, and Romanian. And not only that. To make its use even more seamless, it also offers the chance for different users to use the software in different languages, and even to localize/translate terms in order to customize the interface. 

This can be very useful when first starting to use Megaventory, as it allows you to use your language of choice, create your own text strings, and maintain the company’s terminology. It is also great when: 

• Using Megaventory in an international company, with users in different countries
• Having international teams with different mother tongues
• The client/partner is also granted access to Megaventory and uses different terminology

The possibilities and uses are countless, and you just have to follow these simple steps:

ORDER AND INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE IN YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE

Are your company’s operations based in Germany and all your employees most comfortable when using German? Or are all your products and terminology also in German? Megaventory allows you to set the entire account in the language of your choice!

You just have to choose one of our available language packs, following this simple path: 

Head to the menu and click on Settings. Then, click on Account Setup and choose one of the language packs we offer. You will be able to see the changes just by clicking refresh!

Another way to do this is by clicking on Settings > Localize > Update Account Language, and to pick the language of your choice. 

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Manage your sales, purchases and production with Megaventory now!
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Dealing With Inventory: A Few Costs To Keep In Mind

Running and managing the finances of a business is a tricky ordeal that requires you to monitor, track, and organize a company’s transactions, expenditures, and purchases. Among all the different performance measures, monitoring the way a company is performing in regard to sales, inventory levels, advertising or marketing, and profitability are a few of the important metrics that companies need to keep an eye on. 

This is especially important for those companies that are handling physical goods and inventory levels, and managing concepts like lead time, COGS or shipping expenditures, since these have become a whole new element to their financial and operational management, and make up a set of costs that companies need to be aware of. 

Transforming the Raw Material or Goods

The process of turning the raw materials or goods into a finished product, more often than not, requires time, energy, resources, and personnel to help along the way. These elements, minding the fact that the cost of these finished products has to factor in all these different costs incurred during the transformation, affect the financial statements such as balance sheet, income statement, or statement of cash flow. 

The factoring and allocation of all these costs itself, on the other hand, also plays a role in the financial success of the company. One last thing to keep a close eye on is the speed at which costs rise, and the speed at which products are selling, which will allow to keep the company in check financially and maintain the type of growth they are experiencing.

Managing Inventory Levels

Fulfilling the orders which have been made requires the necessary inventory on hand, so the number of orders or demand for a product play an important role when it comes to managing the level of inventory. 

While it is difficult to forecast the exact number of orders a company might have, over the course of running the business and its operations, the company can have a sense of the level of inventory they need to have on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. And not only that, but they also need to be aware of the storage costs and opportunity cost related to keeping said inventory level, in order to find the optimum. 

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to managing inventory levels is the lead time or the time involved to obtain or produce new inventory. The lead times associated with a product or with a company are often one of the barriers it faces to fulfilling orders and ramping up production, since sometimes there is only so much a plant, a factory, or a system can produce, and it takes time for a new order, a new batch, or a new shipment to be processed. This lead time has an indirect but important effect in costs, and especially in liquidity, since it extends the period of time from when the order is placed to when the payment is received. 

Shipping or Freight Costs

The shipment of a good or the transportation of it comes with a financial component or a financial cost as well. There are different factors that partake into this role: the weight and dimensions of the product, the speed at which the good needs to be transported or shipped, or even whether the buyer or the seller is paying for the shipping. 

Fixed Costs

The machinery, equipment, and real estate a business needs are capital outlays that can sometimes be major and very significant in regard to the business, its operations, and its allocation of costs. Whether it is by buying or leasing, each company needs to be aware of the fixed costs it needs to incur in order to continue its operations. 

Employees and Payroll

On the flip side of human capital, is the payroll component. And with employees, there’s also the cost of hiring people, the onboarding process, and even the cost associated with firing people or having employees leave. All these costs have to be taken into consideration to maintain the financial wealth of the company.

            

 

Managing the finances behind a business that deals with physical products is an interesting and complex dynamic. Whether you’re looking at the prices of current inventory, the types of sales, orders, or demand that’s in the near future, or the expenses the business or company incurs during its operations, they all factor into the financial aspect of the business.

Howie Bick is the founder of The Analyst Handbook. The Analyst Handbook is a collection of 16 guides created to help current and aspiring Analysts advance their careers. Prior to founding The Analyst Handbook, Howie was a financial analyst.

Megaventory in the top 15 Gartner Category Leaders

This year we're once more happy and proud to have Megaventory included by Gartner's GetApp among the top 15 Inventory Management Category Leaders!

This is a result based on user reviews placed 100% by our customers in the Gartner sites such as getapp.com, capterra.com, and softwareadvice.com

We've found these tools to be invaluable to our customers that are in the process of shortlisting solutions for their company because they host authentic reviews from users who have been using our inventory management software specifically in their business (and not just people who create an account just to place a review as other sites do).

Furthermore, the filtering available allows prospective customers to see the reviews of existing users in the same situation (industry and company size) as them and make an informed decision about considering Megaventory.

At the same time, it's easy to get a quick overview of the application with the star rating and pros and cons section and know what to evaluate further by means of a trial account. Finally, their feature-by feature-comparison of an application with its direct competitors allows prospective users to get started on the right path to procure the best inventory management option available.

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Are you ready to optimize how you manage your inventory?
Manage your sales and purchases with Megaventory now
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The Category Leaders badge is a trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. GetApp Category Leaders constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, GetApp or its affiliates.

5 Cyber Security Threats You Might Not Be Aware Of

This is a guest post by Lynne Jeffery, the Head of Public Safety Solutions at NEC New Zealand. Lynne has over 20 years’ experience in the global technology sector with a specific expertise in biometrics and cyber security solutions.

Cyber security continues to be a hot topic in 2020. Despite advancements in Cyber Security solutions, 2019 has already seen 4 billion records breached, according to Norton. These vary from mega-breaches that grab the headlines and tend to hit large global organisations to the hundreds, possibly thousands of less familiar data hacks that often go unreported in the media.

Over the past months, organisations such as Capital One, Georgia Tech and even the UK Police have been hit with data breaches. Norton reported that there was a 54% increase in the reported number of breaches in the first half of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018 – a sign that cyber security remains a very real threat for businesses large and small.

Whilst cyber security threats like phishing attacks and Internet of Things (IoT)-related threats are widely reported and combated, it’s often the less well-known cyber security threats that cause the most damage for businesses.

5 lesser-known cyber security threats

There are many reasons why organisations leave themselves open to cyber security threats. Having a robust cyber security policy and investing in cyber security software can help to mitigate against the majority of threats, however it’s sometimes the lesser-known cyber security threats that can fall under the radar of both policies and software solutions.

Here are five of the lesser-known cyber security threats that have caused problems for organisations large and small.

1.      Supply chain

Whilst your own cyber security measures and policy may be extremely robust, other organisations within the supply chain might not have the same level of security and this can lead to issues for you and your business.

With the increase of information sharing and the ways and means we have of sharing data, so too the opportunities for exploitation increase. The best way to mitigate against cyber security threats within the supply chain is to work closely with suppliers or partners in the chain to ensure your cyber security policies and security measures are aligned.

Software is one way of mitigating against cyber security threats, however education plays just as important a role and the opportunity to pull suppliers and partners together can also help to reduce the cost to all businesses in the supply chain when it comes to cyber security education.

2.      Backing up to the cloud

The cloud presents many opportunities for businesses and employees to work remotely and to ensure information is backed up. With the increase in flexibility and functionality, however, comes a variety of threats to cyber security that need to be controlled and managed.

One of the big issues comes when people back up corporate information (such as contacts) to their personal iCloud/Google account. If employees use personal devices to access their work files through the cloud, it becomes more difficult to manage the apps that they are downloading and the permissions they are granting to those apps. Quite innocently, employees can grant third party apps access to your secure data via the cloud and a breach becomes possible.

It’s important for organisations to control any applications that have access to their network through a strict vetting process. Education is also a key part of ensuring that in this day and age of BYOD, employees are aware of the threats of third-party apps and the vetting process you have in place.

3.      Untrusted browser extensions

Browser extensions can be brilliant. They can help us to go about our day to day jobs more efficiently and provide us insights directly in our browser that we may previously have had to work a lot harder to find.

A process that often gets overlooked in cyber security policies is the vetting of these browser extensions. These should be vetted like any other piece of software. At the end of the day, they potentially have the opportunity to see and track everything you are doing online presenting a serious threat to cyber security.

Whether you are vetting them personally or your IT department keeps a closer eye on them for you, all extensions should be vetted like an app or piece of software. Check for the permissions they ask for, check the background of the developers and any other apps/extensions they have developed and look at the reviews left by other users. Keep browser extensions to a minimum – the ones that are essential to your day to day work.

4.      Weak passwords

This might not fall in the lesser-known bracket, however for a lot of people, it falls into the ‘never changed it or haven’t changed it for a long time’ bracket.

In an age where businesses large and small are relying more on more on cloud-based services that require password access, one of the big problems face by organisations is employees selecting passwords that are too weak and easily guessed. Another issue is using the same password for multiple accounts.

There are a number of software solutions out there to help businesses manage more tightly controlled password security including third party sites such as One Password or LastPass. Google also provides its own password management service through the Chrome browser which will help to auto-generate highly secured passwords and store them for you.

Multi-factor authentication is perhaps the most secure way to go. This means that employees will need more than just a password to gain access to business accounts. Steps can include verification texts sent to a mobile device or using authentication applications.

5.      Dodgy USB sticks

The innocent USB stick can be a cause of major cyber security issues if they are not managed correctly. Some of this is done with malicious intent – viruses are pre-loaded to USBs before the even hit the stores and unwittingly, people transfer a virus to their computer thinking they are using a brand new, clean USB.

As with most of the items on this list, education is important. Ensuring all your employees know where the USBs have come from that they are plugging in to their computers is the first step in preventing a cyber security incident.

Company-wide, it’s important to keep operating systems up-to-date and make sure you have effective anti-virus software installed. If you are unsure about a USB device, run a virus scan on it before you open any files.

Summary

Moving more and more into 2020, cyber security is more important than ever. With the number of breaches increasing in 2019 compared to the previous year, cyber criminals are finding more sophisticated ways of breaching cyber security measures. That’s why it’s crucial to ensure your cyber security policy is robust and that you have a comprehensive educational program in place to ensure your employees are aware of all the latest threats as well as some of the lesser-known cyber security threats mentioned above.

Image credits: Daniel Frese from Pexels, energepic.com from Pexels, Kaboompics .com from Pexels