Adding Automated Email Reports to Your Account
Maintaining an accurate inventory level in your store or warehouse requires a lot of time and attention to detail. Even then, manual tracking often results in miscalculations that damage your profits and make it challenging to build customer loyalty. Fortunately, there’s a solution — inventory management automation. When you automate your processes, the hard work is done for you, so you can get more accurate inventory information in less time. Automated email reports let you send important summaries — including, but not limited to, in-stock and out-of-stock inventory records — to yourself or multiple recipients.
If you’re new to the benefits of automated inventory management or are already a member of the Finale Inventory family and aren’t sure how to set up new inventory automated emails, we’re here to help. Learn more about the advantages of inventory automation and read our step-by-step guide for adding reports to your Finale Inventory account.
Automated Email Reports Example
For a visual example of how to generate your own automated reports through your Finale Inventory account, we created a helpful video tutorial. View it below for a step-by-step walkthrough of the process. You can also contact us through your account, by filling out an online contact form, through email, or via telephone. A Finale Inventory representative will be happy to talk you through the process even more in-depth and answer any questions you may have.
5 Reasons You Need Automated Email Reporting for Inventory Management
Manual inventory management is challenging for businesses of all sizes. Human error and miscalculations can lead to:
- Overstocking: Overstocking cuts into your budget and creates a chain of inaccurate product counts that may affect future orders. It may also result in a lack of space or movable inventory for small businesses, which equals inconvenience and less sales revenue.
- Understocking: When a customer visits your shop with a particular product in mind, they may become frustrated if it’s unavailable. Understocking might push customers away, leading them to your competitor, and makes it harder to establish the sense of customer loyalty you need for a successful long-term business.
Manual inventory reports are also time-consuming. Instead of real-time inventory levels, you have to make important ordering information based on partial calculations before final counts are available. This is not an ideal use of employee talent, and it may lead to additional inventory concerns.
When you pair an inventory management software and automate inventory report emails, you save time, reduce error, and instantly get the information you need to make smarter ordering decisions. Here are five ways automated email reporting for inventory management can transform your operations.
1. It’s More Efficient
Automated inventory tracking reports are a more efficient way to do business and manage your product. The information is secure, up-to-date, and accessible, so you can more easily calculate the value of your inventory. This ease-of-use is ideal for creating budgets, measuring profits, and compiling reports for investors or accountants. You can use the information to create a more streamlined inventory process based on algorithms, analytics, and automation. This includes:
- A reduced chance for human error: Manual inventory leaves plenty of room for human error, including miscalculations, illegible handwriting, typos, and missed products. Inventory management software eliminates these risks by automatically generating reports that you have delivered to yourself and additional recipients at regular intervals and on-demand.
- A completely scalable system: As your business or warehouse changes, so do your inventory management needs. If you’re expanding operations, increasing inventory, or opening additional warehouses or stores, you need a system that can grow with you. Manual processes can only go so far before they become more than impractical — they become impossible. Automated inventory request emails adapt to your changing needs with ease, so you can transition easily and continue seeking growth.
2. It Saves Time
Manual inventory reports take time away from you, staff, and management. Automated reports include instant and automatic alerts, scheduled restocks, and order management, so they can replace repetitive tasks and allow you to reallocate that time to other channels, like stocking, marketing, organization, or administrative tasks. You can even pull reports from several different channels or locations for a broader overview or dig into each report for more details. Because there is less room for error, any sales staff or customer service team will spend less time disputing and managing understocking issues and more time aiding customers.
3. It’s Secure
Having your inventory reports accessible via email means there is always a back-up copy should something happen to your computer or filing system. Finale Inventory software is cloud-based, so you don’t have to worry about costly set-backs, theft, loss, or accidents. This includes other parts of your inventory tracking, like applications, audits, and order management.
4. It’s Always Accessible
Accessible inventory reports free you up to travel for business and get insights on your inventory levels, even when you’re not at the warehouse or store. Accessible automated reports mean you get instant information when, where, and how you need it:
- When you need it: You can set specific intervals for your automated reports to receive them every few hours, every week, or at a pre-established time each day. The freedom to view and organize your inventory and product information outside of business hours — with real-time access to fluctuating inventory levels — lets you make adjustments on your own schedule. In some cases, this might mean making last-minute orders to accommodate a sale the next business day or halting an order on a product that isn’t moving as fast as you’d anticipated.
- Where you need it: Sometimes, you need to view inventory updates when you’re not on-site, like from your home, on a business trip, or when at a different location. Automated email reports let you access the information you need on any device that lets you view email, including smartphones, tablets, and computers.
- How you need it: Finale Inventory’s inventory management software lets you automate emails to export as either a PDF, JSON, CSV, or Excel file, so you can view the information in the format that is most convenient to you. You can also generate different emails for the same report to be delivered in multiple file types, depending on recipient preference.
5. You Get Real-Time Information
Whether you operate a small retail store or multiple high-velocity warehouses, there is nothing more valuable than the ability to see your inventory levels in real-time. Automated email tracking reports let you see the information you need, which leads to:
- Better stock management: Real-time updates let you make better ordering decisions to avoid overstocking and understocking products. You can compile additional reports about back ordered items and delays, which is not always possible with manual tracking. This eliminates the gap between when counts are done manually and when the report is in your hands. During this gap, inventory can shift quickly, resulting in an inaccurate count.
- High customer satisfaction: Better inventory management means customers can find the items they need when they need them. If an item is out-of-stock, you can use your inventory management software to get more information about the product, including when you expect it to arrive on-site. All of this will help you build a stronger relationship with your customers or other businesses you work with.
- Organization across locations: With better inventory visibility, you can establish an organized, streamlined inventory management plan across multiple departments or locations. If you’re operating under a tight budget, time constraints, or small margin of inventory error, this level of organization and visibility can make all the difference.
Get Started With Finale Inventory Today
Automatic inventory reports are most useful when they are one part of an entire inventory management software. Inventory management software from Finale Inventory lets you automate reports, but that’s not all. Our system works on intelligent algorithms to help you understand the inventory information you’re viewing, helping you calculate what you need to reorder and what your ideal level of safety stock should be. It will even help you generate a purchase order, so you don’t miss any crucial steps.
With automatic in-stock inventory level updates, you can cross-reference the information with manual barcode counting for the most precise count possible. These stock alerts update each time you order more inventory, receive deliveries, or move products throughout the day.
Why Testing Is Important
Before finalizing your scheduled report, you need to test that everything works correctly by selecting the “Preview” button after entering your email address and text. Once the preview has generated, check each box — including the sender and recipient lines — and be sure there are no syntax errors or typos. If not, you’re ready to save. If you do receive an error, retype your information slowly and double-check that you’ve included quotation marks on each side. Remember to preview again after each adjustment.
Quality assurance is an integral part of the Finale Inventory platform. We know that even small oversights can waste your company’s valuable time and resources. Previewing before you automate email reports is the best way to ensure everything will work as planned and your email will reach the intended recipient at the scheduled time.
Deleting and Adding a Scheduled Email Report
If you’ve already scheduled your new inventory automated email and want to make a change — like alter the delivery date or change the file type — don’t worry! Deleting, editing, and adding reports is simple:
- Navigate to the home screen.
- At the top of the screen, or in your quick links section, select “Connections.”
- Here, you should see the tasks you’ve recently added and their corresponding names. This section will also display the current task mode, which indicates when it is scheduled to run.
- Hover and select the “Actions” drop-down menu near the task. Click “Edit Task Configuration.”
- Once you’re in editing mode, you can change the mode, alter existing parameters, modify the file output type, and make other changes.
- You can add new tasks and delete existing ones from the “Add or Delete Task Reports” section — the same place you added your first task.
How to Write an Email for an Inventory Report
As you’ve learned, you have the option to add a subject line and body text when scheduling your automated inventory email. If you’re unsure what information to include, consider using an inventory email template for both your stock availability emails and your out-of-stock inventory emails. Templates help you identify which information the recipient may need to view at a glance and help you spend less time composing messages.
Finale’s Ease of Use and Customer Support
Finale Inventory is the best email inventory software and management program for those seeking a straightforward platform backed by professional customer service. When you consider partnering with us, we provide complete video training before you enroll in a payment plan, so you can familiarize yourself with the Finale Inventory system and learn how to adapt it to your specific needs before any commitment. We offer training to help you master advanced features, and our customer support team is always standing by to answer time-sensitive questions.
Request a Demo From Finale Inventory Today
With scheduled report emails from Finale Inventory, it’s never been easier to manage stock and automate your inventory management process. Learn more about our cloud-based platform, including additional automation tools and pricing plans, and request a demo for your business today!