10 inventory features any food and beverage SMB would benefit from

While all small businesses face challenges, those in the food and beverage industry face pressures. Short shelf life, compliance standards, and thousands of SKUs moving around call for high operational efficiency, coordination, and resilience. This level of inventory control is unattainable without food and beverage inventory management software in place. Let’s zoom in on what makes running an F&B business such an overwhelming job and how technology is meant to make this amount of work digestible.

Key high-risk factors in food & beverage inventory management

‍1. Perishability

The short-shelf-life nature of products requires faster inventory movement and better decision-making. Any miscalculated restocking or failure to sell products on time may start a chain reaction - products go bad, consumers complain of unsatisfactory quality, the company has to pay non-compliance fees, and subsequently suffer damage to brand reputation. In a word, if you lose sight of things, your business quickly loses profitability. 

‍2. Diverse product range

F&B businesses handle a wide range of stock-keeping units (SKUs), from raw ingredients to finished products, each requiring specific storage conditions. This is an added pressure on the warehouse personnel who have to navigate the product range and update data on time while keeping the products’ freshness in check. 

‍3. Fluctuating demand

A heavy dependency on seasonality, weather, trends, events, holidays, etc. makes your income inconsistent. A lot of forethought and prep work should be put into getting your business ready for things ahead, from figuring out the optimal inventory levels to tweaking the pricing strategies.

‍4. Operating in multiple units of measure

Purchasing in one unit of measure (UoM), storing in another, and selling in a third UoM is how most F&B businesses operate daily. If these conversions aren’t automated and fail-proof enough, it’s bound to cause you a lot of grief in terms of time spent reconciling numbers that don’t add up.

‍5. The pressures of storage requirements

Ensuring the right temperature, humidity, product segregation, and cleanliness requires a great amount of attention. So do the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) practices that guarantee stock rotation - failure to follow this approach may result in older inventory expiring before it’s sold.

‍6. Quality compliance

Perishable products are subject to strict regulations concerning food safety, labeling, and traceability, adding administrative and operational burdens. Sloppiness or inconsistency in this area can lead to fines, recalls, or even business closures.

‍7. Labor-intensive processes

Handling freshness requirements, diverse SKUs, seasonal trends, storage complications, and frequent audits take a lot of workforce. The less automated these processes are, the more human intervention is required, which brings on the increased operational costs.

10 ways Food & Beverage businesses use HandiFox Online

Food and beverage inventory systems like HandiFox Online allow the wholesalers and distributors of perishable goods to get past all the aforementioned challenges. Here are some of the most common use scenarios:

‍1. End-to-end product traceability

With inventory management software like HandiFox, you can track food products by lots and expiration dates to ensure the highest quality and industry compliance. There are multiple tracking methods to choose from:

• Lot number
• Lot number and expiration date
• Expiration date
• Serial number
• Serial number and expiration date

All lots and serials get their barcodes for quick search and entry. The system offers FIFO and FEFO pick-and-pack methods for efficient inventory rotation and order fulfillment.

‍2. Managing multiple storage locations, including trucks

The ability to track, review, and adjust stock quantities per location in real time dramatically improves your understanding of the company’s inventory situation. Whether it’s carried on trucks or sits on your warehouse shelves, HandiFox Online gives you a live look at available inventory across all storage sites.

HandiFox allows assigning mobile devices to every location, making any data exchange seamless in real time. This quickens decision-making that would otherwise be stalled by siloed data.

‍3. Streamlined purchasing

One way to optimize replenishment is by rightsizing on-hand inventory with the ‘reorder points’ and ‘desired quantity’ levels. The HandiFox Online software allows setting up individual replenishment triggers for SKUs at one or multiple inventory sites at once. Once the system has learned what you consider ‘safe inventory levels’, it can generate replenishment orders automatically or make restocking suggestions based on the sales data for a set period. It can also work out how many weeks the current stock will last.

Another handy tool is the ability to link multiple vendors (default and alternate) to one item. This lets you swap vendors and compare prices while generating a new PO.

‍4. Verification of outgoing orders

To make sure the right items get delivered to the customer, F&B inventory software introduces a barcode-enabled, two-step picking and packing process. First, items are scanned for picking, and then scanned a second time (packing), completing the shipment verification procedure. The order of picking is determined by the user who can choose either a FIFO or FEFO fulfillment method.

‍5. Automating pricing

For F&B wholesalers and distributors, it’s critical to diversify the pricing structure. HandiFox Online allows setting up product- or customer-specific, time-based price rules, which spares everyone involved in the sales process all the pen-and-paper or Excel record keeping.

6. Barcoded inventory

Barcoding is ubiquitous throughout food & beverage inventory control systems. It expedites inventory intake, counting, picking and packing, and selling, leaving no inventory item unidentified.  

7. Multiple Units of Measure

The ability to operate in multiple Units of Measure (UoM) is one of the key requirements for food & beverage companies. HandiFox offers the flexibility of purchasing, storing, and selling products in the units of measure that are right for each of those cases. You can also convert from one UoM to another while populating a transaction.‍

8. Invoicing

With HandiFox’s invoicing tool, you can generate a new invoice from scratch or let the system populate one based on a picked and packed order. Mobile invoicing is invaluable for food trucks, catering businesses, or pop-up shops that operate in multiple locations. You can send it by email, get it signed on the spot, or print it out right at your customer’s doorstep.‍

9. Mobile app

Small F&B companies need the ability to think and act on their feet. Mobile access to inventory, purchasing, and sales data is not only warranted but also essential to efficient inventory control. With HandiFox Online, you can look up, replenish, receive, count, sell, and prepare your food and beverage inventory for shipment from your Android or iOS device. 

10. QuickBooks integration

A situation where the warehouse is cut off from the office and the accounting system shouldn’t even exist these days. HandiFox pushes and pulls data to and from QuickBooks in real time, removing the need for double entry.

The fast-paced environment of the food & beverage industry hardly leaves hardly any time to savor managing your small business. Get inventory management off your plate by automating with HandiFox.