From Chaos to Clarity: How InventoryIQ Revolutionizes Ecommerce Inventory Management

We didn’t plan on building an inventory management solution. Yet today we proudly announce the release of what we’ve already heard from beta users is a game-changer: InventoryIQ.

Let me tell you why.

You see, when it comes to managing inventory, almost all multichannel consumer brands fall into the same painful pit: between expensive, full-blown ERPs, which are a total overkill, and standalone solutions that do not seamlessly speak to the actual financials, there is no solution out there that provides brand operators with the best of both worlds;

An inventory management technology that provides real-time visibility into inventory and COGS, is natively integrated with your books and actual financial transactions, and that works for the size of your business.

As a result, which you probably know all too well, you are forced to deal with COGS that are, at best, reasonable estimates, at worst completely disconnected from reality.

At Finaloop, we’ve always had one North Star: Providing full financial visibility for ecommerce brands. Through Working with thousands of DTC and B2B brands like you, listening to your pains, and deep diving into your current inventory processes, we realized two things:

1. The existing inventory solutions on the market don’t give you the financial visibility and control you need to better manage your business.
2. We are in a perfect position to fix it. Because, after all, inventory is an accounting problem in its essence.

All we needed to do was to build a DTC-dedicated inventory management solution right into our already market-leading ecommerce accounting software - ensuring full consistency with your actual financial transactions and what is really happening in your business.

Which is why today we proudly announce the release of InventoryIQ - the first automated inventory solution built right into your accounting software, completely dedicated to DTC and multichannel brands. You create your PO as you’ve always done, and the data flows natively to track real-time COGS and inventory numbers, automatically updated in your P&L and balance sheet.

Below we’ll be covering:

1. Inventory Management Problems: A Dime a Dozen: Where we touch on the prevalency of inventory management problems.

2. The Pains of Inventory Management: Where we explain the origins of common inventory management pains.

3. Introducing InventoryIQ by Finaloop: Where we present our new module.

4. Key Features of InventoryIQ: Where we break down the groundbreaking capabilities of the solution by three groups: PO management, Vendor and Bill Management, and COGS & Inventory Tracking.

5. How InventoryIQ Relieves Pains and Solves Problems: Where we dive into how all these features actually make your life easier.

Let’s jump in.

Inventory Management Problems: A Dime a Dozen

You know the drill: You’re juggling purchase orders, tracking fluctuating COGS, and trying to make sense of your inventory by warehouse and SKU. Dealing with fragmented systems, inaccurate data, and outdated tools wreaks havoc on your business. It’s the worst.

When you take into account balancing inventory levels, limited resources, data and forecasting difficulties, and scalability issues, one thing’s clear: there’s no stockout when it comes to inventory headaches.

This leads to a myriad of human errors and inaccuracies that can cost you money - and in the small-margin reality of the DTC space, most literally can’t afford it. Every delay hampers your growth, hurts your pocket directly, and the constant uncertainty takes a toll on your mental health.

The Pains of Inventory Management

Nowadays, many DTC companies still rely on manual processes, such as spreadsheets, to manage their inventory, which increases the risk of errors, delays, and inefficiencies.

Some brands have attempted to address their inventory issues by paying for standalone inventory systems that integrate with operations and accounting tools. But tackling what is, in essence, an accounting problem without natively acknowledging it only further complicates matters, resulting in an operational tool that doesn’t speak to the actual reality of the business.

Others have turned to more advanced tools such as ERP solutions, but these are often a complete overkill for growing brands. They come with high implementation and maintenance costs and usually fail to provide dynamic, fast results for effective decision-making.

The result is a stack of tools and methods that don’t support the dynamic and/or growing business needs of the ecommerce space, failing to account for all costs, leading to inaccurate profitability data and poor inventory visibility across multiple channels.

The way we see it, inventory management should not rely on mere integrations with accounting. It should be inherently linked to your financial ledger, the primary source of financial truth. Recognizing this, we understood we were uniquely positioned to provide a solution. And the potential impact on our clients was too significant to overlook.

Introducing: InventoryIQ by Finaloop

Our brand new and powerful InventoryIQ module is an ecommerce-first solution that simplifies and streamlines your inventory management with centralized PO and vendor management, real-time COGS tracking, and unparalleled visibility into your inventory by warehouse and SKU.

Imagine having all your inventory data at your fingertips, updated in real-time, and fully integrated into (better yet: built-into!) your real-time accounting system.

That’s InventoryIQ, which allows you to track each unit uniquely based on its always-updated landed costs, providing brand operators with automated real-time COGS calculations and the ability to manage bill of materials and assemblies effortlessly. It’s precise, powerful, and tailored specifically for ecommerce businesses.

And all you need to do to achieve it is to input your Purchase Orders. Sit back. And watch the magic.

Key Features of InventoryIQ

Purchase Order Management

• Create & send new POs
• Track direct costs for ordered items
• Allocate indirect costs and discounts automatically or manually
• Track landed costs per unit for each PO
• Split PO into multiple shipments and track status
• View status of each PO on one dashboard
• Track purchases per SKU and per warehouse, including costs and units purchased

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Vendor and Bill Management

• Track rolling balances & bills with vendors
• Review POs, payments, and bills for each vendor in one place
• Direct syncing with all your payment/bill transactions, ensuring they are all reconciled to your vendor balance, including:some text
  • Bills from Bill.com, Settle, or manually added bills
  • Purchase transactions from banks and credit cards

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COGS & Inventory Tracking

• Track COGS per channel/ SKU/ warehouse
• Manage inventory levels across warehouse/SKU
• Track stock in-transit/on-hand
• Merge products if multiple products have the same costs and are taken from the same stock
• Direct syncing of sales quantities from Shopify and Amazon for real-time COGS for these channels
• COGS calculation based on FIFO method
• Record product giveaways, product donations, and dead inventory per SKU
• Manage inventory recipes (bill of materials) and assemblies

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How InventoryIQ Relieves Pains and Solves Problems

InventoryIQ improves accuracy with automated real-time COGS and inventory tracking, reducing costly errors and providing unparalleled visibility and control. Its centralized PO management and vendor management capabilities streamline operations, scaling with your business by minimizing the need for spreadsheets and manual reconciliation - while enabling you with the 100% accurate and real-time insights you need for better decision-making.

The fact that it is built right into an ecommerce-dedicated accounting system ensures all financial and inventory data are aligned, enhancing inventory visibility and control across all sales channels and warehouses.

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How InventoryIQ Streamlines Ecommerce Inventory

Purchase Order Creation

Enter your details such as SKUs, quantities, costs, and indirect expenses into the system. We automatically allocate indirect costs, calculate landed costs per SKU, and update inventory data accordingly per SKU and per warehouse.

Real-Time Data Syncing

Natively built into our accounting software, it ensures sales data is updated in real-time from your ecommerce and DTC sales channels.

Automated COGS Calculations:

InventoryIQ uses the real-time landed costs of each unit to automatically calculate your COGS on a FIFO basis, syncing this data with your P&L. Financial and inventory data are automatically reconciled, providing an accurate financial picture of your real margins.

Inventory Tracking and Management

The system tracks inventory levels by SKU and warehouse, providing detailed breakdowns on your current stock levels and inventory value.

Vendor Management

Manage your vendor balances, bills, and track payments seamlessly, giving you a centralized view of all the fluctuations to your vendor balances.

Reporting and Analytics

Real-time dashboards and financial reports give users a comprehensive, full-picture view of inventory and their business’s financial health. Such clarity helps with forecasting demand, optimizing inventory levels, and making informed business decisions (such as adjusting inventory levels or planning promotions).

Your Path to Unparalleled InventoryIQ

Using its groundbreaking unit based method to track COGS on a unit-by-unit basis, InventoryIQ offers a 100% accurate and cost-effective solution natively integrated into your accounting platform, making it the best inventory management solution for ecommerce brands that want to stay on top of their business’s health and financials. In other words, for brands like yours.

Eager to check it out for yourself? Our lines are open.

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