Cin7 vs Finale: Inventory Management System Review and Comparison

If you’re investing in an inventory management system, congratulations. It’s a sign that your business is achieving new levels of success – and experiencing the growing pains that come with it (overselling, over- or understocking, incorrect shipments, etc.). With sales most likely originating in a variety of online and offline channels, with multiple stock locations and fulfillment options potentially being layered in, this often results in operational and logistical challenges for growing businesses that go beyond Excel capabilities. 

You’re now in need of a tool that can streamline processes and maximize visibility on what’s working and what’s not, as goods arrive to, and then later get shipped out from, your warehouse. Cin7 and Finale Inventory are popular software options for growing small-to-medium-sized businesses; both provide professional-grade capabilities for inventory and warehouse management. But with so many similarities, you may be wondering: which is right for your business? This feature-by-feature comparison can help guide your decision.

Cin7 vs Finale Inventory – Product Comparison Pros/Cons

Cost & Pricing

It’s worth investing in a robust inventory management tool as it should provide ROI off with optimized performance and improved efficiency – but that doesn’t mean you should have to pay an arm and a leg to get started. 

Who wins?

As of 2024 when this blog was written, both Cin7 and Finale offer flat-rate subscription tiers as well as premium and custom pricing for larger businesses. But Finale’s offering has a lower starting price point and includes more in each tier, providing better value. 

For larger businesses, Cin7’s offering tops out at eight users and five integrations, whereas Finale offers unlimited integrations and can create a custom pricing plan including up to 300 users. In addition, if your catalog accumulates 100,000 products or you’ve rung up 400,000 orders, Cin7 will charge additional web server hosting fees that add significantly to the cost of your solution. Finale doesn’t charge for web hosting. 

Core Commerce Integrations

The strength of your operations is dependent on the efficiency of your IMS platform, which, in turn, is largely dependent on the depth and reliability of its integrations. In order to automate processes and provide reportable data, systems need to be flawlessly synchronized. 

Core to the success of your business and the performance of an IMS is the need for seamless product syndication capabilities across your webstore and/or third-party marketplaces, where your brand can earn added visibility. Accurate product availability information and swift fulfillment are key to earning the high seller ratings that maximize your chances of third-party seller success.

As an aside, it’s important to look beyond Amazon to niche platforms where your target audiences shop and where your brand has a better chance of standing out. 

Who wins?
Both Finale and Cin7 integrate with the biggest players. But Finale has the edge, with significantly more direct, built-in integrations overall (vs. via the lighter-weight API connection). 

Point of Sale Integrations

If you have physical stores, that inventory should be included within the business’ larger, comprehensive counts and reporting, alongside totals from warehouses, online sales channels, and distribution centers. Consumers browsing the ecommerce site should be able to see up-to-date information about item availability at store locations. 

Who wins?
If your business is evolving and growing to need an inventory management solution, chances are high that you already have a point-of-sale solution in place (whether as a true brick-and-mortar store or for local pop-up events). Both Finale and Cin7 integrate with major providers like Shopify and Square. Cin7 offers a native point-of-sale system for an add-on fee if you don’t have one already.

FBA and Virtual Warehouse Integrations

As you diversify sales channels on the front end, you may grow to need an expanded network of solutions on the back end. Options include services such as Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and other “virtual warehouses” where you may need to save dedicated inventory for transfers, on-site events, etc. 

These warehouses maximize opportunities to commit inventory to off-store sales channels and streamline order fulfillment. Having separately dedicated virtual warehouses means a reduction in being out-of-stock on inventory and cleaner sales channel reporting.

Who wins?

Both Finale and Cin7 provide inventory updates for FBA sellers, as well as the ability to view and edit orders. But Finale offers a deeper integration with Amazon FBA through its ability to pull in and fulfill exact inbound shipment details from Seller Central in real-time, vs. Cin7 who can only send orders to FBA on a daily basis.

Centralized Inventory Management

At the core of an inventory management system is the ability to intake orders from all sales channels, while monitoring stock in all locations, and simultaneously updating stock back to sales channels based on committed inventory, incoming shipments, and outbound products (think FBA shipments), providing a comprehensive overview of the movement of goods throughout your operation.

Who wins?
Both Finale and Cin7 provide visibility across sales transactions and orders, and provide support for whichever order picking system you use. But Finale provides multi-warehouse management capabilities with every subscription plan, enabling your business to grow beyond a single stock location without incurring extra costs.

Barcode Scanning

Using a barcode scanning system boosts efficiency and reduces errors throughout your warehouse operation. As items move from receiving to your warehouse storage sub-location and then to picking and packing, barcode scanning provides real-time updates to your inventory management system. You can even use scanner data to create labels for shipment or store price tags. 

Who wins?
Cin7 and Finale both provide mobile scanning capabilities, and Cin7 has an iOs as well as an Android app, providing support for more smartphones. But Finale’s barcode scanning app has richer features, with the ability to call up more item information in-app and with support for a wider range of printing options. With Finale, you can use barcodes not just to track individual goods, but for warehouse management – speeding location of items and enabling tracking of product batches.

Kits and Bundles

Bundling items to create gift packs or pair products and accessories can help boost your overage order value and keep inventory moving. With a robust inventory management system you can track items both separately and as components. You also have the option to assign a single SKU to the entire kit, or make a virtual bundle assembled from multiple SKUs and track the items as part of your routine cycle count and stock take processes.

Who wins? 

Cin7 and Finale offer comparable kitting and bundling capabilities – but Finale supports picking for kitting as part of all its standard flat-rate plans, whereas Cin7 charges extra.

Procurement 

Impeccably-timed reordering prevents stockouts and surpluses, both of which can be damaging to the bottom line. When items are listed as out-of-stock on your ecommerce site or unavailable via online marketplaces, more than four in 10 online shoppers will leave for another retailer, according to data from the Capgemini Research Institute, resulting in a lost sale. On the other end of the spectrum, excess inventory takes up costly warehouse space and squeezes cash flow; plus, if products are perishable or seasonal, you risk having to slash prices on unsold merchandise – or send it to the landfill.

Inventory management systems can avoid these problems by monitoring product quantities and issuing alerts or even generating purchase orders when stock drops to preset thresholds. These automated triggers streamline purchasing and enable adding more products without needing additional resources to manually process and monitor stock.

Who wins?

Both Cin7 and Finale offer automated low-stock alerts and generate purchase orders to prompt reordering, and Cin7 tracks purchasing approvals. If you order or sell internationally, Cin7 also offers currency conversion for purchase orders.

Accounting

The potential efficiencies of an inventory management system can extend well beyond your warehouse and fulfillment operation. Sharing inventory data with financial systems streamlines reporting and enables accurate sales and demand forecasting. With access to historical inventory data, you can analyze cyclical demand and create budgets that reflect reality.

Who wins?

Cin7 and Finale both offer built-in accounting tools. Cin7 offers more inventory accounting methods to choose from, but Finale automates more functionality. Finale also syncs to QuickBooks Online with detailed general ledger capabilities (sales by source, consolidated transactions, etc.) in near real-time to ensure financial data is current. Finale users can also leverage scheduling capabilities to send reports to Google Suite tools.  

Reporting and Analytics

In addition to feeding financial systems, your inventory management system should provide metrics for evaluating performance of your ecommerce warehousing and fulfillment operations. Logging product, sales, order, and channel data over time gives you insights you can use to hone the overall efficiency of your business and make sound strategic decisions.

Who wins?

Finale and Cin7 both provide an analytics dashboard, but Cin7’s reporting relies on pre-set configurations, whereas Finale reports can be customize to suit your business priorities.

Support and Implementation

If you’re implementing an inventory management system for the first time, having expertise and technical support easily accessible is a must. And if your business already has inventory tools that no longer fit your needs, tapping technical know-how can smooth the migration process.  Response times should be speedy and availability of support staff should adapt to your schedule to ensure that pre-launch tasks are completed quickly.

Who wins?

Finale offers superior support, with live onboarding training available for most subscription tiers and extensive assistance throughout the pre-launch process. Time to launch with Finale averages two weeks, half the timeframe for Cin7 customers.

The Big Picture: Which Implementation Will Help You Succeed?

While point-by-point comparisons can tell you about functionality and integrations on a granular level, it’s also helpful to take a step back and view the big picture. When you consider Finale and Cin7 on a holistic level, the differences add up and present a clear choice. Three top factors:

• Transparency – When it comes to pricing, at first glance Finale has just a slight edge, one that may seem too minor to quibble over. But Cin7 adds fees for implementation, training, and support, as well as for critical functionality such as 3PL integrations. Server hosting fees can kick in if your business grows quickly. By contrast, with Finale there are no surprises; you’ll know what you’re paying for up front. 

• Cohesiveness – Finale provides a unified experience when it comes to software functionality, with stability and consistency as your needs grow more complex. Celebrating its tenth year, Finale has been a trusted partner in the ecommerce space, and has been a bootstrapped, profitable business since its founding.
  
  Cin7 is integrating features from DEAR and Orderhive, both acquired in 2021, making for a patchy back-end experience. “Core” and “Omni” within Cin7 are functionally two separate platforms; some features supported in Core can no longer be accessed if you switch to the pricier Omni solution.

• Partnership – With a reputation for providing swift onboarding, responsive support and strategic guidance, Finale is a true business partner that helps retailers succeed. Recent reviews for Cin7 report lags in response to support tickets and months-long implementation timelines. 

The Winner | 2024 Comparison : Finale Provides Value, Service, and Flexibility

While Cin7 covers the bases, Finale simply does more. More features and options are included as part of the core product, more flexibility is available for inventory routines and analytics, and more onboarding help and ongoing best practices guidance are available. 

With superior support backing up a streamlined technology platform, it’s clear to see why Finale is the choice of thousands of retailers. 

Trusted review sites, like Capterra (shown below) and G2, reflect the same stance, after analyzing input from hundreds of users across both platforms and reflect a higher average rating of 4.7 for Finale against Cin7’s 4.3 (see image above).

“I tried TradeGecko, Cin7 Core, and Fishbowl – Finale was different, it’s so much more user-friendly. I’m very grateful for the support Finale has given me during our journey. Cin7 and Fishbowl did not give this kind of support when I was testing them out. Finale allowed me to come in, make it what I wanted it to be, so that I could grow the vision of the company.”
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CanDee Baker, President @ Crafty Granny

The Finale Team can help walk through more of how Finale works: hop on a call with them today.