Microsoft Excel is an electronic spreadsheet programme that is used for storing, organising, and manipulating data. It was originally created to replace paper spreadsheets for accounting purposes, but its functionality has expanded throughout the years to cater to many different needs.
An Excel inventory management template is a pre-designed spreadsheet that you can use to track your inventory levels and other important data. Many of them come with built-in formulas and functions to automatically calculate total inventory value, reorder points, and other important metrics.
Inventory management is an essential part of keeping your operations running smoothly. Keeping track of your inventory can be a daunting task, but with the help of an Excel inventory management template, it doesn’t have to be. As such, we have created a free inventory management template for your business needs.
Our inventory management template is a pre-designed spreadsheet that you can use to track your inventory levels, prices, and other important data. Our template includes columns for:
- Item description
- Item code
- Unit of measure
- Location (refers to labelled shelf locations)
- Price per unit
- Balance 1 (opening balance from the previous month)
- Stock-in (new incoming stock)
- Departments (outgoing stock based on requests from units and departments)
- Total taken (outgoing stock)
- Balance 2 (closing balance to be carried forward to the following month)
- Reordering threshold (minimum number of corporate items in stock before reordering)
Excel Inventory Management Template: Things You Should Know Before You Begin
Before you begin keying in your data based on your inventory of corporate gifts, we highly recommend you read up on our previous article on the 8 Tips For Effective Corporate Item Inventory Management In Malaysia which covers the following areas:
- Conducting a thorough analysis of your corporate item inventory system
- Centralising your corporate item inventory system
- Conducting regular audits of your corporate gift inventory
- Using Excel inventory management templates
- Setting up a clear inventory management policy
- Implementing a tracking system for high-value items
- Forecasting requests for corporate gifts
- Developing a training plan
This article goes into detail on the required processes to improve your corporate gift inventory management system, delving into the issues faced by Malaysian managers in the fields of corporate communication, human resources, marketing, events etc., and provides a step-by-step solution on how to solve them. With this, let’s dive straight into the instructions on how to utilise our Excel inventory management template.
Excel Inventory Management Template: Understanding Our Template
To integrate our template into your inventory management system, you will need to first customise it based on the corporate gifts or marketing collaterals within your inventory. This encompasses the units or departments that frequently request items from your inventory.
Step 1
List down and identify the corporate items in your inventory. Ensure that naming schemes are standardised across the board, and make sure it’s communicated with everyone within your organisation. Naming schemes are an important aspect of inventory systems to avoid confusion among staff members. E.g. clearly define the difference between a diary or notepad, and roller ball and ballpoint pens.
Step 2
Identify the unit of measure for all your corporate gifts, and ensure that everyone within your department is on the same page when referring to an item. E.g., pieces of non-woven bags, and rolls of ribbons. This is much more important than you may think, as different interpretations of units of measure will lead to confusion, especially for workplaces practising hybrid working arrangements.
Step 3
For this step, you will need to do some actual physical labelling work. Our example involves simple labelling in alphanumerical orders from A1 to Z1. But for your own convenience, you are free to utilise your own creativity to ease your workflow. E.g. more sophisticated labelling schemes for larger inventories like A1.13.02.
Step 4
Step 4 involves integrating the most recent purchase price per item into your inventory system. This involves keying in historical data for the latest purchase prices for your corporate gifts to ensure that all staff members are kept up to date. This step is crucial for preventing overcharging by vendors for replenishments, avoiding a disparity between your purchase prices which may end up with an audit issue. Remember to account for inflation rates between 3-4% every year, as prices for corporate gifts won’t remain the same due to increased production costs.
Step 5
The “Average” tab, labelled “Avg” in our template accounts for the average number of items taken from your inventory throughout the year. Data presented here are meant to ease reporting for your year-end expenditure reports, providing easier justification in your business case for corporate gift purchases for the following year. Try not to alter figures within these columns as they are fetched from reference points from other tabs (Jan – Dec). Overwriting them will require you to key in the formulas again. If this happens, you can refer to the other rows for the correct formula.
Excel Inventory Management Template: Chronological Tabs
If you’ve noticed, tabs have been created for every month of the year (Jan to Dec) which can be accessed from the tabs below. They represent current corporate gift request data taken every single week of the year. Data keyed in here will ultimately be reflected within the “Avg” tab, presenting you with the average number of corporate gifts taken annually.
Step 1
For our Excel inventory management template, ensure that item descriptions for column B are tallied with all the monthly chronological tabs from January to December to accurately synchronise data.
Step 2
The numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 below the department columns represent the number of weeks within a month. Each department is represented by its own weekly columns for more accurate data collection on when the items were requested. Also, for our Excel inventory management template, remember to update the department names located on row 3 to reflect department names within your organisation.
Step 3
You’re now ready to begin recording data for all corporate item requests from your departments! Just key in the requested number of items within section 1 of the above illustration, and the figures should update themselves in sections 2 and 3 for our Excel inventory management template. Take note of the correct week the items were requested for a record of when the items have been taken from your inventory.
Step 4
At this point, data from section 3 of the table should be carried forward to section 4 of the following month. You should not have to edit any information within the Balance 1, Total Taken, and Balance 2 columns. Also, remember to key in the Reordering Threshold column as a reference point for your team to begin the procurement process for replenishments. This should be based on the velocity of item requests from your inventory. High-demand items will naturally have a higher reordering threshold.
Step 5
That’s it! Our Excel inventory management template will begin compiling all request figures from your chronological tabs and give you a rough report on corporate gift requests throughout the year.
Conclusion
It’s important to note that while Excel inventory management templates provide a solid foundation, they may not be suitable for all businesses or complex inventory management needs. Larger enterprises or those with intricate supply chains may require more sophisticated inventory management software solutions. Nevertheless, Excel templates serve as a cost-effective starting point for businesses looking to enhance their inventory management practices or for small-scale inventory tracking.
In conclusion, the effectiveness of our Excel inventory management template is highly dependent on your discipline to keep the records updated. A rigid SOP combined with guidelines and a sound training plan is compulsory if you’re hoping to see any results. To elaborate further, we’ve previously written an article on improving your inventory management system which can be accessed here.
