Inventory Management Software for Marine Businesses

There's no question the marine business is more complex than it used to be.  For this reason, managing a marine parts inventory can be an overwhelming task without the proper tools.

Back 20 years ago, when dealers serviced just one brand with only a few models, everything was simpler. Today's marine businesses represent multiple manufacturers, each having a multitude of different models.  In addition, offering a good assortment of accessories and add on products to your customers, means dealing with quite a few aftermarket suppliers as well.  Inventory control is more important than ever in today's marine business.

Your customers expect you to have the parts they need in stock.  If you don't have what they want, they expect you to get it for them in short order.  These demands require a profitable marine dealer to manage their inventory with an efficient service and parts inventory management system.

With hundreds of thousands of part numbers available from OEM's and aftermarket vendors, how should you decide which items you can profitably stock?  When and how much of each should you re-order?  You'll want to order just enough so you don't run out, but not TOO much so you become overstocked and tie up valuable cash.

Our Commander software for inventory management provides lots of options: It can zero in on your fast-movers and quickly create purchase orders to get these parts back in stock.  Use minimum stocking levels by part number to automate the ordering process, or use the 1-1 buyback technique to reorder just what you've sold.  There are even seasonal ordering options that create orders based on sales in a specific date range. An example would be, "Let's order 120% of the Mercury items we sold last summer."

What about special ordering?  With so many engine models and aftermarket items, there's no way to profitably stock everything.  You're going to have a significant number of special orders.  Commander inventory software will organize and control this special order process.  Special Order reports show you when your customer's order has arrived.  Our barcode inventory software will even automatically generate mailing labels and barcode identification for that part, complete with the customer's name.

Many dealers we talk to have tried to use a generic accounting system like QuickBooks to perform these tasks.  While QuickBooks has some inventory control capabilities, it wasn't designed specifically for marine dealers.  These types of generic inventory management systems can't store hundreds of thousands of part numbers.  QuickBooks Pro tops out at 14,000 items, total - then it's full.

Even if 14,000 inventory items were enough, parts pricing changes are frequent.  Many marine parts vendors update their pricing quarterly (and some update monthly!).  Mercury's 192,000 part numbers are re-priced continually throughout the course of the year.  How can you keep up with these price changes and ensure that you are not selling at old prices and losing money?  With Commander inventory control software you receive the automatic parts price updates you need to run your business profitably.

Commander inventory management software integrates to Mercury's Midas electronic parts catalog and other marine electronic microfiche software.  By connecting the Commander Software to online marine microfiche you are able to tag parts on electronic microfiche images  and automatically drop them down to a parts invoice or work order.  Accurate, simple and efficient! 

While running a marine business today can be more complicated than it was 20 years ago, using Commander Software can level the playing field and put you back in control.  Customers tell us that using our marine sales software is like having another employee in their Parts Department, but at a fraction of the cost!  Below are some features of the parts inventory portion of the Commander product:

• Complete parts price databases stored on your computer.  All part numbers available from your suppliers are actually loaded - right on your computer!  This represents big time savings, especially if you're doing any volume of special ordering.  We have pricing available for over 400 vendors.
• Parts prices are automatically updated as prices change, keeping prices current and increasing profits!
• Bin Locations can be entered for every inventory item making it faster to fill orders and locate parts.
• Quickly search for parts by either part number, description or many other customizable categories.
• Create your own unique, custom fields and attach them to inventory items.
• Get present inventory totals by vendor or by category.
• Create your own unique part numbers and categories. Print barcode labels with your business name, part number, description and price!
• Associate a picture or any jpeg or gif file directly to a part or customer record.
• Store parts sales history on every item for any number of years.
• Create profitability reports as well as variable reports.
• Create your own custom pricing levels for customers.  For example, wholesale customers could receive Cost + 15% on Yamaha and Mercury parts.
• Set up your own parts cross-reference then view it from a parts invoice or repair order.
• Choose Min/Max ordering levels, 1-1 buyback, or even seasonal ordering to re-order parts.
• Display information on part numbers that have been replaced or changed.
• Connect many alternate part numbers or UPC codes to any part record. Then sell parts by scanning the pre-printed UPC code placed on the part by your supplier.