Use case · workshop and repair
Workshop: many parts, small quantities, one missing screw
A workshop's inventory is wide and shallow: hundreds of lines, a handful of each, and a job that stops because one of them is missing. The count is not about value; it is about knowing what you can take on tomorrow.
What is different about parts
Parts arrive in supplier boxes with supplier barcodes, not your own. The same screw may come from three suppliers under three codes. Quantities are small — five of something, not five hundred — so a single miscount matters. And the person using the part is often not the person who orders it.
The practical answer is a SKU of your own on every line, a barcode where the supplier provides a usable one, and a ledger that records use as it happens rather than a yearly reconciliation.
Receive a supplier box in one pass
Open the box at the bench, scan each line, enter the quantity, receive. The movement records the time, the device and the person. If the workshop has no signal, the receipts queue and sync when it does. A box that arrived short is received as it is; the supplier's error should not become your stock error.
Supplier barcodes can be scanned directly. If a code belongs to a different manufacturer's packaging, add it to the item's barcode field so the next scan opens the right item instead of a new form. One item can carry one barcode in the app today; if the same part arrives under several codes, use your own Code128 label on the bin and keep the supplier code in the item name or a tag.
Record use against the bench, not the job
The fastest honest habit is an adjustment when a part is taken: remove, with a reason such as "used in service" or "fitted to job 214". It takes seconds and it keeps the shelf number true between counts. If you try to reconstruct usage at the end of the week, you are guessing, and the count will keep finding the difference.
A workshop does not need job costing in this product. It needs to know that the box of 10 connectors is now 6, so the next job does not promise a repair it cannot finish.
Count the lines that stop work
Rank parts by consequence, not by value: the fuse, the connector, the gasket that means a machine stays open. Count those weekly, blind, and count the rest monthly. A blind count hides the expected number, so the person counting does not confirm what the book says; a line left empty keeps its current stock rather than becoming zero.
Small quantities are where a unit error hides: a bag of ten counted as one, a box counted as a single part. Write the unit on the label and read the variance in the review before submitting.
Reorder for availability, not for price
The minimum for a part is the quantity below which you cannot finish the week's work, not the quantity that minimises cash. Set it high enough to cover the supplier's lead time plus the jobs already booked. The reorder list suggests twice the minimum minus what is on hand, groups by supplier, and can become a draft purchase order on Pro.
For parts with a long or unreliable lead time, thereorder-point calculator gives a more deliberate number than a guess.
Workshop labels
Label the bin, not the part. A Code128 label on the drawer or the box is durable, scannable and survives the supplier changing its packaging. Print a sheet from the phone app, 50 copies at a time, and stick it where the hand goes first. The label generator on this site can make a single code for a drawer you are setting up without the app.
What this product does not do
No serial-number tracking, no lot or batch tracking, no bill of materials, no job costing, no supplier catalogue import beyond CSV/Excel, and no automatic reordering. If you repair serialised equipment and need a history per unit, this is not that system. It is a stock ledger for the parts that keep the bench running.
A first fortnight
- Import the parts list from your spreadsheet, with a SKU on every line.
- Label the twenty bins you reach for most.
- Receive the next supplier box at the bench, line by line.
- Record use as an adjustment when a part leaves the bin.
- Count the ten parts that stop work, blind, at the end of the week.
- Set minimums and let the reorder list build the next order.