Inventory management and projects

Know what you have and where the jobs are at.

Inventory management and project tracking built for your products, your suppliers and your workflow, rather than a warehouse you do not have.

Get your free plan Three sizes

The standard size takes: Four weeks
You own: The system and all the stock data, in your accounts
Runs monthly: Only if you choose to pay monthly

No figure appears on this page. Your free plan comes back with the price of every size, and with what the whole job costs together.

What it is

Inventory management and project tracking built for your products, your suppliers and your workflow, rather than a warehouse you do not have.

Stock you cannot see is money you cannot use. Overordering, stockouts and lost jobs are all the same problem wearing different clothes: nobody trusts the numbers. One source of truth, updated as stock moves, is what makes every downstream decision easier.

This is not warehouse software with features you will never open. It is built around your products, your suppliers and your workflow, with jobs and projects tracked beside the stock that feeds them, and it connects to the accounting and sales systems you already run.

This is for you if

The stock spreadsheet breaks when two people edit it
You find out about stockouts from a customer
Money sits in stock nobody can see
Jobs and the materials that feed them live in different places

One of these is usually enough. If none of them is true, this is not the first thing I would build for you, and the plan will say so.

Why it comes where it does

Stock you cannot see is money you cannot use. Overordering, stockouts and lost jobs are all the same problem: nobody trusts the numbers.

Nothing has to be built before this one, so it can be the first thing you do. Your free plan still puts it in order against everything else you are considering.

Three sizes, by scope

The sizes differ by how much is in them, not by how well it is done. Start at the size that matches the business today; moving up later is normal.

The Essentials

One source of truth for stock.

Stock levels and movements in real time
Purchase orders and supplier records
Low-stock alerts before you run out
Your current stock data imported and cleaned

Two weeks

The usual choice

The Standard

Stock and jobs together. Most businesses choose this.

Everything in the size before, plus:

Job and project tracking beside the stock that feeds them
Integrations with your accounting and sales systems
Reporting on what moves and what sits
Team accounts with roles

Four weeks

The Works

Operations, end to end.

Everything in the size before, plus:

Multi-location stock with transfers
Barcode or QR-based stocktakes
Forecasting from sales history
Priority change queue for the first year

Eight weeks

The figure for each of the three sizes is not published here, because it depends on what else you are building at the same time. Build your free plan and the figure for each size comes back with it, along with what the whole job costs together.

How it is built

01
I walk your stock: what you hold, where it sits, and how it moves through the business.
02
Your current stock data imported and cleaned, with the discrepancies named rather than buried.
03
The build: stock levels, movements, suppliers and purchase orders in one place.
04
Jobs and projects tracked beside the stock that feeds them.
05
Connections to the accounting and sales systems you already run.
06
Written documentation, team accounts and training for the people who touch stock.

Before you decide

Three things people get wrong.

They sayOur stocktake once a year is enough.

It tells you what you had in March. Every decision between stocktakes is made on a number nobody trusts, which is why the overordering and the stockouts happen in the same month.

They sayCounting stock as it moves will slow the team down.

It replaces the counting, not adds to it. A scan or a tap at the moment stock moves takes less time than the reconstruction everyone currently does at month end.

They sayWe should just buy stock software off the shelf.

Sometimes you should, and I will say so if it fits. What off-the-shelf software rarely handles is the part that makes your business yours: the made-to-order lines, the customer-specific pricing, the jobs stock is allocated to.

Your options

The alternatives, side by side.

Doing it yourself and hiring it out are both real answers. Here is how the three compare on the things that actually decide it.

Slide the table sideways to read every column.

Option	What it costs	What you own	Time	Outcome
Keep it on a spreadsheet	Free until two people edit it, then the errors	A file, and the version somebody last saved	Now	Numbers nobody quite believes
Hire a stock controller, or subscribe to warehouse software	A salary plus leave, or a monthly fee per user or per line	A person who can leave, or a tool you rent and fit into	Weeks to hire, or months to fit your process to the software	Better numbers, at a cost that grows with the catalogue
This build	One build, or a monthly fee	The system and all the stock data, in your accounts	Four weeks	One source of truth, built around your products and suppliers

In practice

Past the spreadsheet

The spreadsheet version of this breaks the day two people edit it at once. The build replaces it with one source of truth the whole team can use.

Straight answers

Questions I get asked about this.

01We manage this on a spreadsheet.

Most businesses do, right up until two people edit it at once. The build replaces it with one source of truth the whole team can use at the same time.

02Is this warehouse software?

No. It is built for your products, your suppliers and your workflow, not a warehouse you do not have. That is the point of building instead of subscribing.

03What happens to our current stock numbers?

They are imported and cleaned, and where the count and the record disagree I show you rather than quietly pick one. Starting from a number you believe is the whole point.

04Can it handle stock in more than one place?

Yes, in the works tier: multiple locations with transfers between them, including a van or a container if that is where your stock actually lives.

Also in stock and orders

What sits next to this.

Wholesale trade portal

Trade orders without the phone tag.

Order management

Every order, from every channel, in one queue.

Stock forecasting and reordering

Reorder points that know your lead times.

See all of stock and orders

The next move

Inventory management and projects, priced in context.

The free plan asks a few questions about the business, then comes back with this service at the size that fits, anything that has to come first, and the figure for each part and for the whole job. Nothing is charged and nothing is booked at the end of it.

Get your free plan stuart@sevenlens.co

Get your free plan