Accurate inventory management is crucial for the success of any product-based business. A recent study found that 43% of small businesses in Vietnam do not track inventory or use manual methods, leading to severe overstocking or stockouts, directly impacting revenue and profits.
For e-commerce sellers who use Excel or Google Sheets to manage their inventory, you've probably experienced these dreaded situations: discovering a data entry error that throws off your entire inventory report, or finding tens of products missing during a month-end stocktake with no idea where the error occurred. Each such mistake not only wastes time on investigation but can also lead to financial losses of millions of dong.
The challenge becomes many times more complex when a business expands to multiple warehouses: a main warehouse, branch warehouses, consignment warehouses. Each warehouse with its own separate Excel file, lacking real-time synchronization, makes it nearly impossible to grasp the overall inventory situation.
How can you accurately manage inventory across multiple warehouses in real-time, without relying on error-prone manual tools like Excel?
Serious Problems with Managing Warehouses Using Excel
Although Excel is a popular and accessible tool, using it to manage inventory in a dynamic business environment carries significant risks and limitations.
Data Not Updated in Real-Time
This is the biggest issue with the Excel inventory management method. When employee A ships an item for packing an order but forgets to update the Excel file, or the computer crashes while updating, employee B, looking at the Excel file, thinks there's enough stock to accept new orders. The result is overselling, causing losses for both customers and the shop's reputation.
In multi-channel selling, this problem is even more severe. A product sold on Shopee but the inventory on Lazada and TikTok Shop is not updated immediately, leading to multiple orders for the same product being placed simultaneously on different platforms while only one item is left in stock.
Unavoidable Errors Due to Manual Data Entry
Humans are not machines; errors are inevitable. Mistyping quantities from 150 to 1500, incorrect formulas in a cell causing an entire column of data to be wrong, or accidentally deleting an important row are common errors when working with Excel. The worst part is that these errors are often not discovered immediately but only revealed during periodic stocktakes, by which time it's too late to rectify.
Multi-Warehouse Management Becomes a Nightmare
When a business expands to multiple locations, managing with Excel becomes extremely complex. Each warehouse has its own Excel file, and each file is managed by a different person with different recording methods. Consolidating data from all warehouses to get an overall inventory picture requires manual collection, copy-pasting, and calculation, consuming a lot of time and being prone to errors.
Transferring goods between warehouses is also a major challenge. When transferring 50 products from warehouse A to warehouse B, you must remember to update both Excel files: decrease inventory in A and increase inventory in B. Forgetting either of these operations will make the data completely inaccurate.
Inaccurate Cost Tracking
Many sellers purchase goods in multiple batches at different prices. When shipping, they don't know exactly which batch they are shipping from and at what cost. This leads to inaccurate profit calculations and incorrect financial reports. The FIFO (First In, First Out) cost accounting method, while standard, is extremely complex to perform manually in Excel.
No Automatic Low Stock Alerts
With Excel, you have to actively remember to check inventory daily to know which products are running low. Forgetting to check for a day can lead to sudden stockouts, inability to fulfill received orders, causing losses in revenue and reputation. Setting up automatic alerts in Excel is possible but requires knowledge of macros and VBA, which most sellers do not have.
GTG CRM - Professional Inventory Management System for All Scales
Fully aware of the challenges businesses face with manual inventory management methods, GTG CRM has developed an integrated, automated, and extremely user-friendly inventory management system, suitable for all scales from individual sellers to large distribution businesses.
The system is not just a place to record inventory data, but a comprehensive solution that automates the entire process from receiving, shipping, transferring, to reporting and alerting. All operations are recorded with full audit trails, ensuring transparency and traceability when needed.
Inventory Management Features
1. Multiple Warehouses — Manage from 1 Dashboard
Create and manage multiple warehouses simultaneously:
- Main warehouse (central warehouse)
- Branch warehouses (by location)
- Consignment warehouses (for partners)
Each warehouse has its own inventory, but all are displayed on 1 dashboard. You immediately know which warehouse has stock and which needs replenishing.
2. Warehouse Receiving/Shipping with Documentation
All warehouse transactions have clear documentation:
- Goods Received Note: Received from supplier, specifying quantity and unit price
- Goods Issue Note: Shipped for orders or manual shipping
- Transfer Note: Transferring goods between warehouses — with full tracking
3. Automatic Cost Calculation (FIFO)
The system automatically calculates the cost of goods using the FIFO method (First In, First Out):
- Batch 1 received: 100 units × 50,000đ
- Batch 2 received: 200 units × 55,000đ
- 150 units shipped → system automatically calculates: 100 × 50K + 50 × 55K = accurate cost of goods
No need to calculate manually in Excel — financial reports are always accurate.
4. Synchronization with Orders
When an order is confirmed → inventory is automatically reduced:
- Order from Shopee → deduct from inventory
- Order from website → deduct from inventory
- Order from Lazada → deduct from inventory
- All synchronized in real-time — never oversell
5. Low Stock Alerts
Set safety stock thresholds for each product:
- Product A: minimum stock = 50
- When stock drops below 50 → system alerts immediately
- Never experience sudden stockouts
6. Real-time Inventory Reports
- Inventory by warehouse, by product, by date
- Detailed receiving/shipping history
- Cost of goods, profit/loss reports by product
Comparison: Excel vs GTG CRM
| Criterion | Excel | GTG CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time | ❌ Manual updates | ✅ Automatic upon transaction |
| Multiple Warehouses | ❌ Many files, difficult to manage | ✅ 1 dashboard, all warehouses |
| FIFO Costing | ❌ Manual calculation with formulas | ✅ Automatic calculation |
| Low Stock Alerts | ❌ Must remember to check manually | ✅ Automatic alerts |
| Order Synchronization | ❌ Copy-paste | ✅ Automatic stock deduction |
| Receiving/Shipping Documents | ❌ None | ✅ Full forms |
| Errors | High | Almost 0 |
Who Should Use It?
- E-commerce Sellers selling on multiple platforms, needing inventory synchronization
- Retail Stores with multiple branches
- Distributors managing central warehouses + agent warehouses
- Manufacturing Businesses needing to track raw materials + finished goods
Conclusion — Transition from Excel to a Professional Inventory Management System
In this era of rapid technological advancement, clinging to Excel for inventory management not only wastes time but also poses significant risks to businesses. Companies that have transitioned to professional inventory management systems report a 95% reduction in errors, save 60% of the time processing warehouse-related operations, and most importantly, never have to face overselling or sudden stockouts.
GTG CRM offers you an easy and painless transition opportunity. You can start by importing your existing Excel data into the system in just a few minutes. Immediately thereafter, all warehouse receiving and shipping operations will be automated and synchronized in real-time with orders from e-commerce platforms, completely eliminating manual data entry work.
Most importantly, GTG CRM's inventory management system is not independent but deeply integrated with other modules such as order management, electronic invoices, and financial reporting. When an order is confirmed, inventory is automatically reduced. When an invoice is issued, the cost of goods is automatically calculated. All data flows seamlessly between modules, ensuring consistency and absolute accuracy.
With 36,888 free credits upon registration, you have enough resources to manage thousands of inventory transactions, enough to fully experience and evaluate the system's effectiveness. Take 10 minutes to set it up, and you'll never have to go back to Excel again.
Register for GTG CRM for free and start professional inventory management at gtgcrm.com
