2018 Review of Zoho Inventory Management

Zoho Inventory Management, part of Zoho’s suite of applications designed for small to mid-sized businesses including online merchants. Along with inventory management, Zoho also offers financial and CRM capability. The inventory module offers complete inventory tracking and management, purchase order and sales order management, integrated shipping, and multiple warehouse management capability. The product is designed for global use, with U.S., UK, Canadian, Australian, Indian, and Global editions available.

Zoho also offers a variety of mobile apps, but the mobile apps are only compatible with iOS smartphones and tablets, with users able to download the apps directly from the Apple Store.

The latest edition of Zoho Inventory offers a variety of system enhancements including the ability to process partial drop shipments, track landed cost, and track stock transfers in real time.

Zoho offers users a customizable, intuitive dashboard that provides product details, current inventory levels, and sales activity, including number of orders to be packed, shipped, delivered and invoiced. Users can import inventory lists from other applications directly into Zoho, creating product groups for easy inventory tracking. Composites can be created for items that are created using multiple products, with users able to assign a product code to the completed product as well. Zoho Inventory supports multiple warehouses, though users will need to enable the multiple warehouse feature in order to utilize it, with the ability to create each additional warehouse equally, or establish one warehouse as the primary location. Both drop-shipments and backorders are easily managed in Zoho, and users can choose to utilize the optional serial number tracking that is included in the application to track products by serial number, though products can also be tracked by product number or code if desired.

Zoho supports barcode scanning capability, but there is no option to create or print custom barcodes for internal inventory use. The product offers kitting ability; building simple kits and selling the items as a bundle. Users can also create simple product assemblies, which would be tracked as a composite item upon completion.

Zoho Inventory supports one selling price for each item, though users can get around this by creating pricing lists, allowing users to add special pricing for different situations by simply choosing the appropriate price from the created list. Pricing lists can include special pricing options such as Buy One – Get One Free and can be set up by percentage or by creating a special flat rate that can be applied to specific sales. Pricing lists can also be attached to specific customers or specific products as desired. Volume pricing is not available, though users can apply special pricing using the pricing lists mentioned earlier. FIFO is the default inventory valuation method used in Zoho Inventory.

Zoho Inventory offers a good selection of inventory and related reports including an Inventory Details report, Inventory Valuation Summary, a Product Purchase report, and a Product Sales report. Customer Sales reports are available as well. Limited report customization is available in Zoho, though users can export reports as a CSV file for additional customization if desired. Reports can also be exported as a XLS file or saved as a PDF.  

Zoho Inventory integrates with both Zoho Books and Zoho CRM. The product also integrates with numerous shipping, online shopping carts, and e-commerce applications such as BigCommerce, Magento, Amazon.com, Etsy, eBay, Shopify, FedEx, DHL, UPS, and various other global shipping applications. Payment processing integration options include PayPal, Stripe, WePay, and WorldPay, with numerous other integrations available.

Zoho Inventory offers users good help and support resources including an in-depth user guide that details all product features, customization options, and system implementation. FAQs are also available on the Resources page, and users can access the weekly blog from this area as well. Users can sign into their account on the resource page to access additional resources including product downloads as well as access to system support.

Zoho inventory is well suited for growing businesses and those with a thriving online selling component. Zoho Inventory offers a free version of the application that works best as an intro to the product for very small retail operations. The Basic edition, which runs $29 per organization per month, supports up to two warehouse locations and up to 10 system users. The Standard edition is $79 per month and supports up to five warehouse locations, and up to 15 users. There is also a Professional edition that is $249 per month and supports up to 10 warehouses and unlimited system users. A 14-day trial is available for those interested in learning more about the product.

2018 Rating – 4.5 Stars