Inventory Tracking Software?

[Splinter]

Anyone know of any decent freeware/open source stuff?

Its getting to the point where I have so many parts that I dont know what I have anymore... and Im starting to lose stuff.

Most of the stuff Ive found is meant for small businesses and is a few hundred bucks or more

[BAC5.2]

There are a few free-ware PALM programs out there that work alright. But they rely on barcodes to keep track. The one I tried for when I ran the bike shop didn't really work very well. Plus, you need a palm pilot.

You can always try to catalog it yourself using Excel. It's handy if you have somesort of palm pilot or something, you can keep track of things while your in there instead of writing things down and then transferring.

Do you have partnumbers on things, or do you just have parts?

At Andrewtech, I memorized a lot of the inventory when I was working there full time. It was just easier that way for me, but I understand not everyone is capable of doing that. Our management software had inventory tracking, which was kind of helpful, and it did an "alright" job of keeping track of things. That software did a LOT more than you will need though, and it's not affordable for an individual.

I'd either setup an Excel spreadsheet and use Excel to handle it, or I would just have a handwritten list you keep in your parts room. When you take something out, or put something in, find it on the list and edit it.

[Tleg93]

Try this link: http://www.contextures.com/excelfiles.html#UserForm

It's one of a couple I found. It contains macros. I scanned it, it turned up no virus but I'd check it with your own antivirus to be safe. I'm using a Mac though so it might not even complain when you open it.

[Splinter]

Heres a small sample... I have a lot of stuff to keep track of... lol. The only things with part numbers are the things that have it stamped from the factory unfortunately

[Tleg93]

Did you check out the spreadsheet? It looked pretty good. Just check the file first. The only other thing I can think of to do would be to set up an Access database. There's plenty of wizards in Access. A lot of people seem put off by Access but it really isn't that hard to use.

[n2x4]

+1 for Access. You can even set up a web interface, and if you know any HTML you could build a really nice front end for it and make it network enable. I built one for a police department to keep track of bike licenses once, it was easy to do. Maybe I can come up with one for parts if I get some free time.

[Splinter]

access = $$$

[BAC5.2]

Excel. All you need.

[Tleg93]

What? You don't know someone with a copy of MSOffice??? It's only a hundred bucks at the store but everyone and their cousin usually has a copy they can let you 'borrow'.

[n2x4]

I started building an Access DB. If you can get a hold of a copy, I'll finish it.

Nothing complex, just has a HTML front end you can run in internet explorer.

One table, three fields or three tables, with one field.

PARTN - Part Number
PDESC - Part Description
QTY - Quantity

Would you want anything else?

[Splinter]

Condition... Used, Modified or New

That'd be awesome

[Matt Monson]

You are joking, right? You just need more memory in your head. You've got maybe, and I say maybe 25% of what I've got in my garage. One thing I do with those office storage boxes is write the contents with PN's on the outside of the box. I also put specification (RS, WRX, Legacy, etc.) on it if it's specific to a car. Then I include condition. If I need something, I just walk to the shelf and look at the box.

I am looking for something for my business. I have been told to look into Autologue.

[Splinter]

I dont have much memory in my head unfortunately... I had a traumatic brain injury a few years back and it severely restricted my ability to remember things

[jamal]

We use a program called mapics that keeps track of a lot more than our warehouse. I have no idea how it works and I'm sure it's really expensive though.

One thing you should do is label those shelves so you have a way to keep track of the location of things, even if some stuff just says "floor somewhere"

[Splinter]

Wow, this might help

http://www.northursalia.com/parts/parts.html

[n2x4]

Alright, just finished the first version of the database. It's ugly, and needs more links, but it works. Just copy that folder to the root of your C: drive. It must be C because of the paths that I set. You could change this if I knew what driveletter you wanted it on. So the path will be

C:\PARTDB

Just run the index.html and run with the links from that page. Anybody is more than welcome to give it a try. I'm not sure if Access is required, since all my PC's have it installed already, but if someone wants to try, be my guest!

If you don't like the little front end, just open the database in access and use any of my queries. Let me know how it works!

Oh, the file:
http://rapidshare.com/files/36785693/PARTDB.zip.html

[Splinter]

Ill try and snag a copy of office..

[n2x4]

Just tested this on a PC without access. It works.

In that zip file the search by description doesn't work since I messed up the data source, but you can use the other two features. There's like 5 test items in the database as examples. You can delete them if you'd like.

I figured out how to let it run in any folder as long as all files are in the same folder, so I'll fix that and the description search when I get to work tomorrow.

Give it a shot, just make sure you have the folder in C:\PARTDB because when you unzip it it will try and put it in C:\PARTDB\PARTDB.

These Access pages are sweet, and now I know you don't even need access to run it. Anyone willing to host this zip so I don't have to dump it on rapidshare? It's only like 50kb.

[Splinter]

It says its missing office 10 components