What are other contractors tracking in inventory

[Monica_Parkys]

Hello, we are starting the process of setting up inventory and curious to what extent are other contractors tracking. Is common practice to include everything from pex rings to equipment or is there a $ value of an item that is used to determine if it's worth tracking. I have pros and cons for both and want to hear from other contractor before I make final decision. Thanks for any feedback.

[d1nonly10]

We began in a few pieces of equipment to work through the workflow and are still adopting the process.

For materials - if we order it, it is added into inventory. This we hope, will be the fastest way to get to a valuation of stock when the time comes. Scan item barcode - enter the count. Let the software do the rest. Yes - we are putting everything in our price book against a barcode. Either the manufacture, or we are creating our own back end codes. UPC-A or Code 128 seems to work well for printing on generic printers, label printer and scans with a phone and tablet.

For items such as Furnace filters - where there are too many variations to give a permanent home / physical location and barcode the shelf - we created a placard out of sheet metal and affixed the bar codes - hung the placard on the shelf post.

Still working on BIN locations and Nested items, e.g. individual parts in a "on Call box."

[MirandaMel]

Items that typically aren't tracked are ones with a very low dollar value (ex: single screws) or items that are not easily measured (or more accurately, not worth the added time to measure...) such as tin tape, some tubing, etc...  Those type of items could be considered as shop supplies and treated as such from an accounting perspective.

[Monica_Parkys]

Thank you, this is what we are thinking as well.

[jyoung53D1]

We track everything above a specific $ amount.  It becomes a very rigorous process to track screws and fittings and its not typically worth it.  Consume those small $ amount things when transferred to the trucks, but also take a look at what you have to track as a truck.  If you need a location for every truck, so you know what they have at all times, then create trucks per technician.  If you have multiple locations and technicians changing trucks regularly, you may want a truck per job types or a truck per location.  That way your office staff or techs find it easy to know what is in the warehouse verse out and in transit.  The new mobile inventory app helps, but doesn't allow you to create the transactions.  I want our warehouse movements to be made mobile, I am not sure why you would not be able to create the transactions on the move.

Hopefully that helps answer your questions.

[Monica_Parkys]

Thank you, some good points to think about.

[Kevin_JPS]

We track all of our equipment, which is pretty easy to do.

The materials becomes a challenge. We've started using the consume on transfer option to our trucks, paired with the inventory template to track when we hit low on certain supplies in our shop. Instead of counting each screw in a box, we count just that box. If it's open, it's been consumed. 

We track it in order to have service titan do most of the heavy lifting for us as far as reordering, so that we don't have to manually count and keep track of all the little materials. 

[Monica_Parkys]

Thanks, that gives me a bit more to think about.

[mattlanh]

We have not set up Inventory yet, but i would "second" the request for anyone to share their procedures for Inventory.  Thanks!