How do you manage the inventory for your HVAC business? Do you keep track of your stocks manually?
Manually managing inventories is time and effort-consuming while still being prone to errors. Imagine your HVAC service technician is repairing an air conditioning system at a customer’s place and he needs a compressor or any other spare part. He does not have immediate access to the inventory but commutes to the office only to find that the item is out of stock.
The customer’s equipment cannot be left unrepaired nor can the technician make them wait for a day or two. Hence he buys a compressor from a nearby store at a higher price than the bulk purchase order. This not only wastes technicians’ time but also incurs more costs for the HVAC service company. Further, it also portrays the unprofessional nature of your business to the customer.
These challenges demand the need for powerful HVAC inventory management software to keep track of inventory in real-time and replenish the inventory before the stocks get over.
What are the challenges in HVAC inventory management?
Inventory management is essential for every heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) company. But it can be difficult to keep track of everything to do.
Inventory management in HVAC field service businesses is challenging because the customers need quick equipment maintenance and repair. Customers expect quick response times, and if something goes wrong, they may not wait around for days or weeks to get it fixed. To keep up with these demands, HVAC service technicians need to manage their inventories efficiently.
HVAC service businesses face many challenges when managing their inventory. One challenge is that they may not always have access to the equipment they need to complete jobs.
Another challenge is that they may have to manage multiple locations, which increases the complexity of keeping track of everything. HVAC technicians lack the proper tools to accurately track different kinds of equipment, such as air compressors, heaters, fans, and more.
HVAC employees sometimes forget to take inventory measurements, leading to inaccurate data. These problems can lead to lost sales and unhappy customers.
Fortunately, there are solutions available to help HVAC service businesses improve their inventory management systems. HVAC service providers must deploy software solutions with features like mobile apps, barcode scanning, and GPS tracking.
What is HVAC inventory management software?
Field inventory management software helps HVAC businesses manage inventory efficiently. You can use it to automate processes like ordering parts, tracking shipments, and managing stock levels. Inventory management systems help you save money and time while increasing productivity. They allow you to make better decisions about what to buy and how much to spend.
HVAC inventory management software makes managing your inventory easy. With just one login, you can access your entire inventory history, including sales, purchases, invoices, payments, returns and even customer feedback. Plus, you can easily create purchase orders, assign items to those orders and track them in real-time.
How can HVAC Inventory Management Software help your HVAC Business Grow?
i) Quick View of all the Available Inventory on the Dashboard
The real-time system allows you to see everything that happens in the warehouse. You can monitor inventory levels, track shipments, and even check whether there are any issues with the products. This ensures that your operations run smoothly and efficiently.
With manual systems, HVAC service providers manually update spreadsheets with the inventory status. These spreadsheets are not centralized storage systems and provide limited real-time visibility as they cannot be accurately updated from the field.
Consider the spreadsheet showing there are only 2 compressors available in the warehouse. Seeing this low number, the HVAC service manager quickly places an order for replenishing the compressor stock.
Later, he finds that the service truck or the service technician fleets had a box full of compressors taken from the warehouse but remaining unused. Thus there is an excess of unnecessary stock.
Instead, you can use the capital spent to improve the other areas of service or grow the business.
Thus the existing process of visually reviewing and manually updating spreadsheets to determine replenishment needs is time-consuming and ineffective. However, an HVAC inventory management software keeps track of every inventory in real-time and all the data gets stored in centralized locations or HVAC CRM accessible to everyone in the organization.
Anyone can quickly view what is in stock and how much is in stock by viewing the holistic inventory dashboard. This also helps the dispatcher schedule jobs effectively.
ii) Better Visibility into Inventory Movement – Never Run Out of Stock or Lose Sales
Every time someone uses an inventory, he/she makes an entry for the same on the HVAC inventory management app. This keeps everyone in the organization informed about when, where and by whom the inventory gets used.
The HVAC service provider can track every single product movement within the organization, manage multiple warehouses, ship products directly to customers, and many more.
You can also leverage automation in your field inventory management software. The HVAC service manager can set automated alerts to notify when the inventory levels go below a certain quantity and needs a refill. This ensures your HVAC service business never runs out of inventory and no service delays result because of it.
When you have enough inventory in stock, technicians can quickly complete the jobs and enhance customer satisfaction without losing customers.
iii) Optimize the Work Orders
With the help of HVAC scheduling and dispatch software, the HVAC service manager optimizes scheduling by assigning the relevant tech for every job. Integrating HVAC inventory management software into the scheduling tool helps the HVAC dispatcher to assign relevant inventory to every job.
This gives access to HVAC technicians the right parts they need for the job before they begin the job. With the right tools and parts in hand, technicians finish the job quickly and on the first visit. This further helps them complete more jobs as no time gets wasted commuting to the office before every job to fetch the inventory. Instead, they can visit the office once a day or two and fetch necessary inventories as per the work orders assigned.
iv) Have Detailed Reports of Every Piece of Inventory
In field service businesses like HVAC, there are several small and big spare parts stored in warehouses. Manually tracking every part leaves room for malpractices like stealing or misusing the inventory.
You cannot even blame anyone without any proof and as a result, HVAC companies face losses due to missing inventories. Sometimes, it also happens that field technicians install only one spare part in a customer’s equipment but report to the back office that more than one part got used, tricking the organisation. Such practices get eliminated by adopting field service inventory management software.
Every incoming and outgoing spare part requires an entry into the software to track every part’s movement. This system integrates with the invoice and payment management systems to avoid discrepancies in inventories used, invoices prepared and payment collected.
v) Enhance Your Business Sales – Predict Future Purchase Needs
Inventory management software helps in predicting future demand for items based on historical data. This allows businesses to plan ahead and avoid stockouts. Sales forecasting also helps in planning and scheduling production processes.
With powerful inventory management software, you can easily track your sales and profits. You can see exactly how each product performs and whether there are opportunities to grow your business.
You can make predictions by identifying the trends and patterns and stock up on the necessary inventories in advance to avoid last-minute chaos.
vi) Go Digital and Simplify Remote Inventory Management
Imagine a technician needs a spare part from the warehouse for an ongoing service job. With manual systems, he has to first visit the office, get the HVAC dispatcher or HVAC service manager’s approval with a signed inventory access card and then show it to the inventory manager who gives him the parts needed.
Again after completing the job, the technician must visit the office and submit the inventory usage report to the back-office team who make the relevant entries in their system.
All these procedures consume too much time that could instead be utilized to complete more jobs. With the HVAC inventory management tool, all the procedure is paperless and the technician can order inventories right from the field and submit reports on the app at the click of a button, saving time, fuel and paper costs and effort.
Conclusion – Choose the Best Field Service app integrated with Inventory management software
Unoservice is a cloud-based HVAC field service software solution integrated with HVAC inventory management software that allows HVAC service companies to track their inventory from anywhere. This includes being able to see what products are coming in and out of stock, where it is stored, how much they cost, and when they need a refill.
You can access your data from anywhere, whether you’re at home, at work, or travelling. And since everything happens online, there’s no need to send paper forms or wait days for the information to come in via email.
Try Unoservice HVAC service software for free and explore its functionality to manage your entire HVAC service business from one platform.
Frequently Asked Questions about HVAC Inventory Management Software
What is the importance of inventory management in the service business?
Inventory management is important for any field service business. If you don’t know how much stock you need to keep in your warehouse, then you won’t be able to meet customer demand. The best way to ensure you always have enough products is to track sales and forecast future needs. This allows you to order extra inventory at the right time, which helps you avoid shortages and keeps customers satisfied.
What is the goal of inventory management?
The goal of inventory management is to keep customer satisfaction high while minimizing costs. It includes ensuring that all items ordered are available when they are needed and that the customers receive what they order while service technicians deliver what they promise.
What are the benefits of using a computerized inventory system?
Computerized inventory systems are great for businesses that sell items that require frequent replenishment. A computerized inventory system can track inventory levels in real-time, monitor sales trends, and alert managers when supplies run low. It can also help reduce errors by automatically updating stock levels and reordering items when needed.