The easiest time to introduce an inventory management system is when a shop is first opening.
However, when starting a business, many owners have little time for record keeping. Everything seems clear enough, while organisational and management tasks, travel, and a lack of time take priority.
A successful business often grows into a retail chain. Problems and tasks multiply, leaving less and less time:
- employees need to be trained and supervised,
- relationships need to be built with suppliers,
- the product range grows, while valuable knowledge about it exists only in the business owner's head.
Is Торгсофт suitable for automating a retail chain?
Yes.
What do you need to automate a chain of shops?
Software and retail equipment
- A Торгсофт terminal server licence, which includes three client connections for employees to work with the software.
- Торгсофт client licences for remote server access to increase the number of workstations.
- Retail equipment: barcode scanners and receipt printers for each checkout, and a label printer for the warehouse where goods are received and labelled.
- Consumables: labels, receipt paper rolls, and printer ribbons. We recommend keeping a reserve of consumables so they are always available.
Technical requirements
- A server running Windows: your own computer or a rented server.
- A static IP address.
Recommended additional Торгсофт options
- «Мобильное приложение» (Mobile App) for remotely monitoring retail chain sales performance, making sales, and carrying out inventory counts using a smartphone.
- «Безопасность данных: архив в облаке» (Data Security: Cloud Backup). Set up regular automatic backups from the outset so that information is saved in Google Drive if something unexpected happens.
- «Программный РРО» (Software-Based Fiscal Cash Register) for selling goods that require fiscal receipts.
- «Подключение банковского терминала» (Bank Payment Terminal Connection) for automatically sending the sale amount to the terminal and including terminal information on the fiscal receipt.
Where should you start with automation?
- Download Торгсофт and activate the free 30-day version. The Торгсофт demo lets you start keeping complete records straight away.
- Consult our specialists about your record-keeping needs and implementing the software in your shop.
- If you have questions, watch the video tutorials, read the user manual, or ask technical support.
Implementing an inventory management system in a retail chain
Торгсофт - automation in 1 day
This positioning means that the software takes 10 minutes to install and you can start keeping records immediately.
Торгсофт-Терминал inventory management software is installed on a server: a powerful computer located in your office or hosted remotely. This lets all employees work with one database and up-to-date information.
Ordinary Windows laptops or computers are suitable for employees. You do not need to install Торгсофт on their computers: they connect using Remote Desktop in Windows, Remmina on Linux, or Microsoft Remote Desktop on macOS. If you do not have a system administrator, Торгсофт technical support can help configure the server, software, and employees' remote connections.
Where should you start when automating a retail chain?
It all starts with receiving goods.
In our experience, adding goods to the database takes 1 day for 2000-3000 unique items.
When receiving goods, it is useful to have a label printer connected so you can label them immediately. Торгсофт automatically generates new barcodes if the manufacturer's barcode is missing from the packaging.
If you already keep records, you can transfer your product catalogue from another inventory management system or from a supplier's price list into Торгсофт. Setting up the import is something technical support can help with, daily from 9:00 to 18:00 Kyiv time.
A key part of automation is appointing a person responsible for it: the owner, shop manager, or warehouse keeper. A methodical approach and the responsible person's involvement at every stage are essential.
If the owner is not directly involved, they should at least understand the record-keeping system's structure and sequence of actions.
After goods are received, you can sell, return, transfer, reprice, and count them as needed.
Торгсофт supports retail business workflows: if you are unsure what to do next, the available functions help guide you to the next step.
Inventory management features for retail chains
Managing inventory accounting centres. Торгсофт lets you create as many shops and warehouses, or inventory accounting centres, as you need. Each centre has an assigned employee, cash registers, its own warehouse, and its own synchronisation centre for online shops and marketplaces.
Multi-currency records. Торгсофт lets you manage goods in several currencies: receive goods in dollars or euros, automatically convert amounts to the national currency, apply a markup, and print a price tag in a foreign currency if needed.
Checking goods receipt documents by their amounts and preventing inventory documents from being edited.
Recording and monitoring purchase prices and markups so sales staff do not accidentally sell goods below cost.
Working with regular customers: selling on credit, monitoring goods handover, tracking settlements, and sending customers SMS reminders about outstanding debts.
Discount systems: setting promotion and loyalty rules and monitoring discounts and bonus points. Protecting customers and the owner against sales staff misusing discounts or loyalty systems.
Transferring goods between shops. Goods in transit: monitoring internal transfer documents and goods.
Goods distribution algorithm for shops: automatic calculation and printing internal transfer documents.
Assortment management centre for managing collections, tracking goods between shops and warehouses, and distributing goods quickly.
Defective goods control: writing off goods under the business owner's supervision.
Managing complex services: selling goods, goods combined with services, creating kits, and breaking kits down into separate items.
Working with fiscal cash registers (RRO). Managing fiscal and non-fiscal goods and monitoring their sale.
Bulk product price changes allow you to apply markups to many goods at once, rounding to 1, 10, or 100 UAH.
Goods movements: the history of actions involving goods, from receipt to transfer or write-off.
Warehouse storage locations help you find goods quickly in large warehouses.
Monitoring minimum and maximum stock levels: prohibiting purchases of certain product types and notifying you when stock is running low. Delegating supplier orders to employees.
E-commerce and order handover: synchronising one inventory accounting centre or the whole retail chain with an online shop or marketplaces, automatically exporting stock levels and prices, and importing orders and customer information. An online order handover mode.
Bank account statements: importing customer payments received on a card or bank account into Торгсофт. This lets you delegate payment checks to employees without granting access to online banking and avoids repeated calls asking whether a payment has arrived.
Collecting and preparing data for tax invoices and exporting them to M.E.Doc or АртЗвіт.
Monitoring settlements with suppliers: recording stock, all deliveries, and supplier settlements in foreign and national currencies, with summary settlement statements.
Creating supplier orders: you do not have to explain what you need by phone or Viber. When goods are running out, you can add them to an order and send it to the supplier electronically.
Staff monitoring: attendance, sales by each salesperson, individual payroll calculations, and work schedules.
Restricting employee access to data: detailed role settings let you grant or deny access to individual buttons or columns.
Reports and analyses for retail chains: inventory reports by accounting entity, a full price list across all centres, excisable goods sales reports, sales revenue analysis by supplier, stock analysis, slow-moving goods analysis, and business value analysis.
Торгсофт lets you analyse sales performance for one shop or the entire retail chain.
This is only a small selection of the many Торгсофт features that business owners use after automating their retail chain.
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