Inventory management software in Nepal: what to look for

Most shops in Nepal start with a copy and a pen. Then the shop grows, a second person starts selling, an online order arrives, and the notebook stops matching the shelf. That is the moment people start looking for inventory software.

The trouble is that most software demos look the same. Everybody shows a clean table of products. The real differences are in a few small things that decide whether the numbers stay true after six months. Here is what to check before you pay for anything.

Does a sale take stock off by itself?

This is the whole point. If someone has to sell an item and then separately type the new count, the count will be wrong within a week. The busy hour at the counter always wins against the extra step.

Ask a simple question: when I bill a customer, does the stock go down in the same moment? Try it with a real product during the trial. Bill one, then look at the count.

Is the website on the same shelf?

Many shops sell at the counter and also through Facebook, Instagram or a website. If online orders live in a different notebook, the same shirt gets sold twice. Look for software where the counter and the online shop draw from one stock number.

Also check what a customer sees when you run out. A good online shop says "only 2 left" or "out of stock" instead of taking an order you cannot fill.

Can it handle sizes and colours?

A kurta in three sizes and two colours is not one product. It is six things with six counts. If the software only has one number per product, you will be counting sizes in your head again.

Look for variants: each size and colour with its own stock, and its own barcode if you use one. Test it with your most awkward product, not your simplest.

Does it warn you before you run out?

A list of stock is only a record. What saves money is a warning. Look for a reorder level for each product: the count at which you should order more. When the stock reaches it, the software should tell you, not wait for you to open a report.

Ask also how often it warns. A message every time a product is sold is noise, and people switch noise off.

How do you get your existing products in?

Nobody wants to type four hundred products again. Ask whether you can import from Excel or a CSV file, and whether you see a preview before anything is saved. Phone numbers, codes like 03-11 and SKUs are easy for a computer to misread, so the preview matters.

Then check the way out as well. You should be able to download your own products and sales as a file whenever you want. Your stock list belongs to you.

Will the counter staff actually use it?

Software that only the owner understands will fail. The person at the till needs to search a product by name or SKU, or scan a barcode, and bill it in a few seconds. If a barcode scanner types the code and presses Enter, the product should simply be added.

Give the staff member the trial for a day. If they get stuck, so will customers waiting in the queue.

What does it cost, and in what currency?

Many tools are priced in dollars or paid a year in advance. For a small shop, monthly pricing in rupees is easier to plan around. Check the free plan, if there is one, and what its limits are. Check what happens to your data if you stop paying.

The last test. Pick your ten most awkward products, your busiest staff member and one online order. Run all three through any software you are considering. If the stock is right at the end of the day, that tool is worth paying for. If not, no feature list will fix it.

What BaseBlock does here

BaseBlock keeps your products in one table, and the till and the website both work from it.

• One stock count. Sales at the till and orders from your website take items off the same stock. Each product can carry its own reorder level. When stock reaches it, the product appears on a low-stock list on your dashboard and at the till, and you are told by text and email if you have connected them, once a week per product.
• Receiving goods. When new stock arrives you enter how many came in, the stock goes up and the warning clears.
• Variants. A product can have options such as Red/M and Red/L, each with its own stock and barcode.
• Out of stock at checkout. The website checks stock when an order is placed and tells the customer if an item is out of stock or only a few are left.
• The counter. You can search by name or SKU, or scan a barcode, to bill an item.
• Batches. If you track stock in batches, a sale takes from the oldest batch first.
• Import and export. You can import a CSV file and review the columns before anything is saved, and download your tables as CSV.

BaseBlock also covers billing, orders, customers and a website builder, so stock is not a separate system to keep in sync. The plan limits, including how many products each plan holds, are on the pricing page.

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