Inventory software for small businesses: cloud or desktop

The choice starts with your own process

Small businesses usually look for inventory software at a particular moment: the Excel list gets out of hand, the invoicing tool knows nothing about stock, or the online shop needs a link to the warehouse. It is tempting to go straight for the most comprehensive system. It is better to first write down how an order moves through the business today, from the incoming order to the invoice, and where most of the time is lost.

A wholesaler with many customers needs customer prices, packaging units, partial deliveries and credit limits above all. A business with its own production needs bills of materials and a link from the sales order to the production order. A workshop that also sells on marketplaces needs those channels connected. The clearer this list, the faster systems that don’t fit drop out.

Cloud or desktop

In German-speaking countries desktop inventory systems are still widespread. They run on Windows on your own computer or server, often with a database in house. Their advantage: the data stays with you, and many programs have been tailored for years to German requirements such as DATEV and e-invoicing. The downside shows with updates, backups and remote access, which you organise yourself.

Cloud systems run in the browser, and the provider takes care of updates and backups. Look at where the data centre is, how you can export your data and what happens to it if you cancel. Many desktop programs are now licensed as subscriptions too, so the price difference is smaller than it used to be.

Read the pricing model carefully

Prices of inventory systems are hard to compare because they are calculated on different measures. Some providers charge per user and month, others by feature set, others by the number of orders per year. For a wholesaler with many small orders, an order limit can cost more than per-user pricing. Features such as batches, production or multiple warehouses are often add-on modules. So calculate with your own numbers, not with the entry price.

What no inventory system takes off your hands

Even the right inventory system only creates an order once it arrives in structured form. Orders by e-mail, as a PDF or as a photo are still typed in by someone. This is where Onshop comes in: it reads the order mailbox, turns every order into a draft with customer and lines from your catalogue, marks anything unclear and prepares questions for the customer. Your team reviews and confirms.

Onshop is quick to set up and free to try. You load products and customers by CSV and export confirmed orders as CSV into your inventory system. A direct integration is planned. If you still work with Excel today, read Manage orders instead of an Excel order list.