Overview on NetSuite Advanced Inventory management software

NetSuite’s robust platform features a variety of business automation features, including the Advanced Inventory module, which allows businesses to manage their real-time inventory visibility of data intelligently, inventory cost reductions, and meeting the needs of their customers. Monitor inventory record stock levels, excess inventory, inventory loss, reducing entry errors, sell through, and transfer inventory between locations to ensure inventory availability and reduce obsolete inventory.  Using NetSuite Inventory Management systems, sorts inventory by category based on volume and value of item.  Maintaining inventory accuracy is made easier by auto assigning tasks to floor staff.

With NetSuite, inventory adjustments are possible individually or in bulk with the inventory worksheet.

NetSuite helps businesses track actual inventory across multiple locations efficiently by automating inventory management in one centralized platform.

By implementing NetSuite’s advanced inventory module, procurement, warehousing, shipping, and fulfillment costs can be drastically reduced, and the entire inventory lifecycle can be streamlined. This module prevents stock outs by knowing inventory levels and replenishing them automatically when they fall below thresholds. The tool helps to monitor performance in real-time with central inventory dashboard and analytics.

Here, we’ll discuss 4 features of NetSuite Advanced Inventory that could make it the perfect choice for your company based on its features.

The Benefits of NetSuite Advanced Inventory Module

The NetSuite Advanced Inventory module allows you to manage your entire inventory lifecycle across multiple sites and use real-time analytics to boost performance.

Result? A reduction in procurement, warehouse, and shipping costs as well as a streamlined shipping process by integrating major carriers.

NetSuite’s advanced inventory module has a number of benefits. The following are outlined.

• With multiple locations, you will be able to keep full control over inventory lifecycle.

• It will be cheaper to procure, warehouse, and ship items.

• Integrating major shipping carriers will streamline shipping processes.

•  The real-time analytics will allow for performance enhancement.

•  Eliminating stock-outs and improving delivery will increase customer satisfaction, which will enhance customer loyalty.

Video clip- NetSuite Advanced Inventory Management

4 Stand-Out Key Features Available in NetSuite Advanced Inventory

Image- Advanced inventory features

1.  Demand-based inventory replenishment

Image- Stock replenishment

With this module, users can keep the correct amount of stocks on hand to meet demand fluctuations, track deliveries via the integration with major courier services, and reduce order processing times. In addition to determining sales demand, the average lead-time, and the amount of time before your stocks run out, you can set preferred stock levels and receive real-time alerts when your stocks fall below those levels.

To handle typical circumstances, these calculations can always be overridden or disabled for individual items or single items. When you use NetSuite, you set up the rules, and NetSuite runs the numbers. The result is a dynamic ordering queue, allowing you to order all of your inventory items with one click, and get it when you need it.

• By utilizing this module, inventory levels can be kept in check, as well as eliminating overage storage of excess items.
• Inventory levels can be set according to the average lead time, the number of days stocked, and seasonal sales fluctuations.
• Restocking is streamlined.
• Users are notified when stock levels drop below a threshold, preventing stock-outs.
• An intelligent planning engine adapts to changes in business needs based on preferred stock levels.
• The frequency of inventory counts allows for the accurate estimation of item quantities in different warehouses and the matching of products with customers helps optimize distribution and shipping.
• An overview of the order fulfillment date.

2. Multiple Units of Measure

Image- Units of measure

It is possible to price multiple items profitably with NetSuite Advanced Inventory, which offers the ability to buy, sell, and cost items in multiple units seamlessly.

In addition, you can see which units are in stock and which units have been sold. Also reduces inventory errors.

This will allow you to offer volume pricing flexibility, and you will have more control over your restock levels.

• Take advantage of multiple units of measurement when buying, selling, and costing
• Analyze the number of units purchased across your website, retail stores, and partner channels
• Make invoicing more accurate by using and validating the correct unit measurement
• Verify delivery costs by comparing them with vendor requirements.

3. Inventory Control

Image- Inventory control

An organization’s ability to secure the stock necessary to fill orders without delay while minimizing its inventory carrying costs is called inventory control.

With NetSuite’s ability to track and control inventory, across multiple locations, every stage of the lifecycle can be managed and costs can be controlled. Perishable inventory can be easily managed with this module. NetSuite Advanced Inventory provides the following features:

a.  Lot management

Inventories that have lot numbers use a “specific” costing method to track sales and purchase costs. The lot number records include information about the quantity and expiration date of each lot, as well as notes about the lot. If an item you’re fulfilling is about to expire, you can set up a warning.

Whenever an item is built or received into inventory, as well as when it is ordered, lot numbers must be entered.

When you use NetSuite’s transaction search, you can view the entire inventory history of a lot as it moves through your system and is delivered to your customers. This auditing function can be helpful in a recall situation.

b. Bin Management

By using NetSuite, you can manage your warehouse so that you can track the exact location of items in stock, which will improve the efficiency of shipping orders to customers. Picking and fulfilling orders will be faster when employees know where to find the items they need. One bin can contain a variety of items, or a bin can contain a variety of items. By generating a put-away list for goods that have been received but are still in the loading area, restocking will also be simplified. Bins can be used to organize a single warehouse or several warehouses when using the Multi Location Inventory feature.

• Organize warehouse bins to track the exact location of inventory items
• Streamline order execution, fulfilment, and stock replenishment
• Put items in different bins or combine items into one bin
• Automate restocking and generate put-away lists for received goods
•  Manage multiple warehouse locations with multi-location inventory features.

c. Serialized Inventory

Using NetSuite Advanced Inventory, you can manage your inventory at every stage, from production to sales, from shipping to service.

Serial number tracking allow you to track where items originated, where they are now, and where they are headed.

Using NetSuite, you can also track and optimize inventory by tracking the specific cost associated with each serial number.

• Analyze end-to-end product history, from origin to destination
• Improve cost and profitability management with serial- and lot-specific costing
• Provide serial number and lot data to your customer service agents to enhance their service
• Time-sensitive items can be handled more efficiently by tracking expiration dates.

d. Matrix Items

With NetSuite’s matrix item management solution, you can sell items in varying colors, prices, and styles without keeping track of line items for every possible combination. Various attributes can be expressed as sub-items under a matrix item, for example, pricing or inventory status.

When entering a sales order, sales representatives can simply choose the item and matrix options rather than browsing endless item listings.

A simple drop-down list displaying multiple combinations of these characteristics is shown to sales representatives and clients in the form of matrices.

By allowing your customers to select from drop-down lists, you improve their shopping experience.

• Manage various items with different attributes (e.g., color or size) in one matrix
• Simplify the process of managing matrix items’ pricing, inventory status, and descriptions.
• Provide customers and sales representatives with an easy way to identify item combinations
• Enhance the user experience when selecting and buying matrix items in NetSuite.

e. Landed cost

Using landed costs allows you to consider shipping and duties in the pricing of your products.

You can use this feature to modify profitability forecasts, allocating expenses to inventory receipts, and adjusting prices based on customer, channel, or location.

Wholesalers and distributors need to maximize their profit margins in order to succeed. In order to calculate landed costs more accurately, especially for importers, shipping and duty costs must be added to material costs. The use of NetSuite assisted companies in reducing inventory carrying costs by 15-30 percent. 

• Improve profitability and cost management by calculating landed costs automatically
• Calculate expenses based on weight, value, and quantity of inventory receipts
• Analyze landed cost, not just material cost, when forecasting profitability
• Depending on the customer, the channel or the location, you can assign different pricing
• For foreign customers, automatically calculate correct currency, rates, and pricing.

4. Inventory Process Management

Using NetSuite, core processes are automated and complex tasks are simplified by requiring less effort and time.  Advanced Inventory provides the following benefits to operations:

a. Pick, Pack and Ship

The order fulfillment process in NetSuite occurs in three phases: Picking, packing, and shipping. Especially useful in high-volume order processing environments where these tasks are performed by different employees at different times. The action queue displays orders that are waiting to be picked, packed or shipped. Manage, pack, and ship with spot-on visibility and know the status of your customer orders at all times.

b. Integrated UPS, FedEx and USPS with Tracking

NetSuite lets you manage UPS, FedEx, and USPS shipping right within the system. With NetSuite, you can print shipping labels, generate tracking numbers, validate destination addresses, and check real-time rates without switching between different systems. These tracking numbers keep track of the status of your shipments automatically, so you or your customers can track them anytime.

c. Bar Coding

Barcodes with transaction numbers may be printed on sales orders, packing slips, and invoices in NetSuite. When a barcode scanner is used as an input device, processing orders becomes significantly faster. Furthermore, you can add product barcodes to transactions, and scan transactions numbers when printing packing slips or shipping labels, and when fulfilling sales orders.

• Fixes inaccurate inventory counts with barcoding.

• Barcodes are supported for item and order fulfillment.
• Bar-coding of items
• Printing labels for items
• Bar-coding of transactions
• Scannable barcodes are supported.
• Eliminates manually-entered or barcoded inventory counts- Integration with inventory barcodes

Optimize your inventory management and cut costs with
the Advanced Inventory Management Solutions

In addition to providing businesses with tools to align their inventory systems with business goals, NetSuite Advanced Inventory provides companies with easy access to customer service. A number of wholesale distributors and manufacturers will benefit from the integrated solution because it will help them control their inventory more efficiently and effectively.

NetSuite Advanced Inventory is a very good choice for those who wish to streamline their inventory systems from the point of origin to the delivery point.

Taking advantage of Aarialife’s, NetSuite implementation expertise, you can have a future-oriented system that can help you accelerate your business.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding NetSuite.