Should Backdating Documents Happen?

In Megaventory, we take keeping track of every movement of the inventory very seriously. We believe that without this, an inventory and supply chain management system would lack value. However, we know that there are situations in which the original document is not valid or the dates are off. This is when backdating comes in handy, a feature that gives you flexibility while not losing track of the processes and documents. 

You may be asking yourself, but what is backdating? It is just dating a document with an earlier date than its actual date of execution. This might not be allowed, or not even be legal, especially when it comes to legal documents such as contracts. However, in day-to-day business scenarios, there are many cases when backdating is necessary.

These are some common situations in which you might find it helpful:

• When among all documents required when recording sales, purchases, inventories, etc. an invoice ends up not being issued without any dishonesty intended. 

• When for instance, a vendor supplies a product under a contract and later discovers that the customer didn’t sign it. In this case, a contract with the date of the supply is more valid than inserting the actual date of execution.

• When the original document has been lost or destroyed and a replacement of the missing one is required. In this case, both parties might agree on the backdating of the document.

• When you are first starting to use Megaventory, and you want to record some bills and invoices on their real date.

What Megaventory offers is a backdating feature that allows for any document that is being created to have its date set in the past (at a maximum of 180 days or 6 months). Furthermore, an already issued document can be canceled and a new one put into its place, on a date prior to the issue date of the latter. For tracking purposes, both the canceled document and the newly issued one get a document number.  

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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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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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.