Multi-location inventory management software with transfers checked at both ends.

Multi-location inventory management software keeps a separate, live stock balance for every location and a record of everything moving between them. In Bollard, each site has its own balances and reorder points, and the central store sends stock to sites through transfers confirmed at both ends.

For an organisation with a central store and many sites, the hard part is the stock in between. Goods that have left the central store but not reached the site are easy to lose track of, and one site can run short while another holds plenty. Live balances per site make both visible.

A transfer is dispatched by the sending store and received by the destination site, and each end records its half.

Two-step transfers matter because goods can go missing or arrive short on the way. If a transfer counted as arrived the moment it was sent, the site would show stock it never received. Confirming at the receiving end ties the site's balance to what was physically checked in.

In the configuration Safock offers for specialty retail, reorder points are set per branch and transfers between branches even out stock. It is aimed at a familiar problem in branch networks: branches running out while the distribution centre has stock.

A reorder point is the stock level at which an item should be replenished. When a site's balance reaches it, Bollard raises an alert, so the shortfall is dealt with before the shelf is empty.

Setting the point is a trade-off between holding stock and running out. It usually reflects how fast the item is used and how long new supply takes to arrive. Because balances update the moment goods are accepted, the alert works from current stock.

The multi-unit dining configuration uses par levels by unit, with shortfalls flagged. Staff can also ask the assistant in plain language what is below reorder level at a site, and it answers from live data within what their role may see.

Inventory records drift when updates depend on someone remembering to make them. Research across 37 stores of one retailer found 65% of inventory records were wrong (DeHoratius and Raman, Management Science, 2008).

Common causes include deliveries counted but never entered, damaged goods left in stock and transfers recorded at one end only. Bollard deals with each at the point it happens: accepted quantities update stock at receiving, rejected stock never enters it, and a transfer is confirmed by the site that receives it.

Inventory runs alongside the request-to-payment loop and is fed by it.

The step before is receiving. Stock rises when goods are accepted at the dock against a purchase order, and rejected goods never count.

The step after is the next request or transfer. A reorder alert is the prompt to raise a requisition or send stock from the central store. In the education configuration, the central store also pools faculty orders into bulk purchases, so one order to a supplier can cover several departments.

A shared stock sheet works on day one, but it has no controls: anyone can overwrite a cell, and sharing the file shares every site's figures.

A typical ERP handles multi-site stock in the vendor's vocabulary, after months of implementation. Bollard uses your own terms for sites and stores, such as campus and central store, unit and central commissary, or jobsite and equipment yard, and the first site is live in about two weeks. Each site sees only its own records, enforced by row-level security in the database.