OnHandIMS vs spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are the most common inventory system in the trade and the reason is not ignorance: they are free, instant, and they do exactly what you tell them. What they cannot do is be two things at once — the record and the process.
| OnHandIMS | spreadsheets | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | $149–$749/mo |
| Two people editing at once | Sort of, and you will lose something | Yes |
| An audit trail of who changed what | No | Yes — every field, before and after |
| Prices that resolve by customer | A lookup you maintain by hand | Yes |
| Stock that updates when you ship | If someone remembers | Yes, automatically |
| Backorders tracked per line | In a comment, usually | Yes |
| Customer self-service | No | Yes |
| Printed documents | Mail merge | Yes — orders, POs, packing lists, invoices, labels |
| Works offline | Yes | No |
| Nightly backups you can restore from | Whatever your drive does | Yes |
Compiled from public documentation and pricing pages, and from moving customers off spreadsheets. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Where spreadsheets is the better answer
Spreadsheets if you have one location, under a few hundred SKUs, one person who does the ordering, and nobody phoning to ask about status. That is a real business and software would slow it down. Come back when the second person needs the file at the same time as you.
Where we are
The point where the spreadsheet has become three spreadsheets, and one of them is called FINAL-v3-USE-THIS. Our importer reads them as they are — you do not have to tidy them up first.
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