Software for keeping a kardex

Software for keeping a kardex

Every business that buys and sells goods needs to answer three questions at any moment: how many units it has of each product, what those units cost and which movements brought them there. The organized answer to those questions is the kardex: a chronological record of entries and exits that includes balances and costs. Keeping it by hand in a notebook or in a spreadsheet works while the business is small, but as products, customers and documents grow, that way of working falls short. That is why so many small and medium companies decide to use software for keeping a kardex, and choosing that program well makes the difference between real control and a wasted expense.

In this article we explain what keeping a kardex means, what an inventory program does for that task, which features the right software for a small business should have, what questions to ask the seller before buying, what mistakes to avoid during implementation and, honestly, we will introduce the program that we develop ourselves.

What keeping a kardex means and why it matters

Keeping a kardex means maintaining, for every product in your warehouse, an ordered history of all the movements that affect its stock. Each entry or exit is recorded in chronological order with its essential data: the document that caused it (a purchase, a sale, a transfer, a write-off), the third party involved, such as a supplier, a customer or an employee, the number of units that came in or went out, the balance that remained after the movement and the unit value at which the operation was recorded.

It helps to understand the difference between inventory and kardex. Inventory is a photo: it tells you how much you have today. The kardex is the movie: it shows how you reached that amount, when each batch arrived, to whom each unit was sold and at what value. Without that movie, when something does not add up you only know that goods are missing, but not at which moment, with which document or because of whom. With the kardex up to date, the warehouse becomes transparent and decisions are made with data instead of guesswork. A good record lets you answer questions like these:

• When did this product arrive and at what cost?, so you can decide when it is convenient to buy again and from which supplier.
• To whom was this unit sold and on which date?, so you can handle claims, warranties and returns backed by a document.
• Why does the physical count not match the system?, so you can detect losses, theft, expirations or entry errors in time.
• How much is the merchandise in my warehouse worth?, so you know the value of your inventory without doing manual math at the end of the month.

What software does for the kardex of your business

An inventory program does not take away the work of recording your purchases and your sales, but it does take away the work of copying that data into the kardex, which is exactly where most mistakes happen. In a well-designed system, each document is typed only once and the kardex updates itself: when you receive a purchase order, merchandise comes in; when you invoice a sale, it goes out; and a transfer between warehouses deducts from one and adds to the other. The stock of every product stays current and the history is recorded with its date, its concept and its value, without anyone having to retype anything.

That automation has three very valuable practical consequences for a small company:

• Fewer typing errors: the classic mistake of copying a wrong figure from the document into the record disappears, because there is no double entry.
• A reliable history: in a good program the kardex is read only; it cannot be deleted or edited directly. An error in a sale or a purchase is corrected with the reverse document, such as a return or a credit note, never by erasing the past.
• Up-to-date information for decisions: stock, balances and values are consulted in seconds, and reports come from the same record, not from a spreadsheet that someone updated two weeks ago.

In addition, the software lets several people work at the same time, something impossible with a single notebook that travels from desk to desk, and it leaves a trace of who recorded each movement when permissions are properly configured.

Features a kardex software should have for a small business

Not all inventory programs work equally well for a small company. When comparing options, these are the features we consider essential:

• Product card with costs: each product must store its code, name, unit of measure, purchase cost and sale price, so that every document is recorded with clean and complete data.
• Automatic movements from purchases and sales: when you receive a purchase, merchandise enters the kardex, and when you invoice a sale it goes out, with no intermediate steps or extra typing.
• Stock and cost calculation: the program must keep the unit balance and the inventory value applying a costing method consistently, such as weighted average, FIFO or another one that the system supports and that you understand and accept.
• Physical count adjustments: there must be a controlled way to record surpluses and shortages when a physical inventory is done, ideally with restricted permissions so that anyone cannot alter stock.
• Multiple users with permissions: the administrator decides what each person can do; not everyone should be able to adjust stock, view costs or delete documents.
• Valuation and stock reports: being able to see how much the total inventory is worth or by product group, which items are below the minimum stock and which ones move slowly.

The following table summarizes, feature by feature, which problem each tool avoids and who cares most about it inside the company:

How to choose the software: criteria and questions for the seller

When comparing programs, do not stay with the list of nice features shown in the brochure. Ask about what happens in the day to day, because that is where systems truly differ. For each criterion in the following table we give you the key question; if the seller cannot answer it clearly, take it as a warning sign and keep looking.

Besides asking, ask for a trial with your own products. Load ten real items, make a purchase, a sale and a count adjustment, and watch whether the kardex stays coherent from start to finish. That half hour of testing tells you more than any brochure or promotional video.

Common mistakes when implementing a kardex software

A good program does not perform miracles if the implementation is done badly. These are the mistakes we see most often in small companies and how to avoid them:

1. Not loading real opening balances. If the starting inventory is typed with approximate quantities or without counting the warehouse first, the system is born out of balance and nobody trusts its reports again.
2. Starting without training the staff. Handing over the program without explaining the document flow makes people use it wrongly or abandon it and go back to the usual spreadsheet.
3. Not doing periodic physical counts. The kardex is only useful if from time to time it is compared with the reality of the warehouse; without counts, errors accumulate in silence.
4. Giving adjustment permissions to everyone. If any employee can add or remove stock by hand, the history loses all its value as a control.
5. Never reviewing the reports. Loading the system and not looking at the valuation or the minimum stock is like having a dashboard in your car and never looking at it.
6. Keeping parallel spreadsheets. Running the program and at the same time a spreadsheet with the same information guarantees that neither of them is up to date.

The golden rule is simple: on day one you load a real physical count and, from then on, every movement of merchandise goes through the system, with no exceptions and no shortcuts.

An honest closing: our inventory software

If what you are looking for is an inventory program with an integrated kardex for small businesses, we want to introduce the software that we ourselves develop and maintain: Kardex Tauro. Its warehouse module includes a Kardex window that shows the complete history of each product, with the date of every movement, the third party involved, the concept, the quantities coming in and going out, the resulting balance and the recorded value. And the most important part: those movements are not typed twice; they are generated by themselves when you operate the program documents.

When you receive a purchase order, the merchandise enters the kardex automatically; when you invoice a sale, the exit is recorded by itself, and transfers, write-offs and other movements are also reflected immediately in the corresponding warehouse. The record is read only, so the history cannot be deleted or edited on the fly: if there was an error, it is corrected with the reverse document, as it should be. For the start-up and for physical counts, the program offers manual entries and exits protected by user permissions, so that only the administrator or the warehouse chief can adjust stock. Kardex Tauro is the inventory program with an integrated kardex that we use so small businesses stop chasing notebooks and spreadsheets and start trusting their numbers.

If you are interested, ask for a demonstration and try Kardex Tauro with your own products: load your inventory, make a purchase and a sale, and check for yourself that the kardex stays up to date without anyone feeding it by hand.