Our feedback from customers are that a stocktake scanner can save up between 60%- 90% in time and labour costs as well as eradicate errors.

The reason is that with the traditional paper and pen method, you have groups of two people. Once to count and one to record and write down. Then you have one person to hopefully decipher the recorders writing and do data entry into the system. With a scanner, its 1 x person who scans and same person that records by counting and entering via keyboard on stocktake scanner. As for data entry, there is none. Its all uploaded in seconds via the stocktake scanner without keyboard errors.

The stocktake scanner can be programmed to collect multiple fields of data or information. Such as barcode item #, location ID #, User ID #, Qty and even date/time. They can even be programmed to store a lookup table on the stocktake scanner. A lookup table is information of the product such as description, weight, packaging, unit #, qty in system etc etc. Some customers like this as it helps them identify the item when they scan it.

If you need the data scanned from the stocktake scanner, to go directly into your software, you will have to have a program written to do this. This option could cost several thousand dollars plus. If you are renting stocktake scanners and you are only doing stocktakes once or twice a year, then this is not practical to purchase.

Purchasing stocktake scanners make sense where you have several rolling stocktakes each year and where you can also use the stocktake scanners for other inventory control applications such as picking orders, receipting and dispatching. If this is you…..then you may want to look and make sure the stocktake scanner has a bridge or PDA application software that gives you the ability to upload scanned data straight into your software’s database.

We find in most cases however that most customers are happy to settle for dumping the data into excel or down as a simple text file into their P.C. There are some great free tools we use that can save thousands for the customer and allow you to program the scanner without having to be a software developer.

Once the stocktake information is collected, the stocktake scanner is brought back to a charging communication cradle where the information is uploaded back into the P.C.

Check out some of our other blogs relating to Application software for Stocktake scanners – AKA known as PDA Barcode Scanners. Also, another great link to read is our Definitive guide to PDA Barcode Scanners.

We hope these blogs help you in your journey.