If you run a small, goods-based business, you’ll know that managing inventory well is critical to your success. But as the number and complexity of ecommerce channels continue to increase, and customer preferences continue to evolve, it can be overwhelming to manage inventory across multiple online and bricks and mortar stores.
You may manage your inventory using Excel, but this can be manual, time consuming and prone to errors. And while there are a number of inventory solutions on the market, many aren’t suitable for small, goods-based businesses. This can make it hard to understand the true cost and demand of your products, potentially impacting your revenue and cash flow.
That’s why we’re acquiring LOCATE Inventory (LOCATE), a cloud-based inventory management provider based in the US. The LOCATE team will be joining Xero to help us enhance our existing inventory solution in Xero, so you can better manage your inventory and improve your financial performance.
It’s still early days, but our vision is to provide an inventory management solution that will help you:
- save time on manual and repetitive data entry, so you have more time to focus on tasks that help your business thrive
- manage the balance of supply and demand in your business, so you don’t over-purchase stock and can better manage your cash flow
- make smart decisions about how you price your products, so you can improve the profitability of your business
- grow your business sales, by making it easier to sell on new sales channels and reach a wider audience
In the meantime, our product teams will be getting our platform ready by updating our existing inventory solution in Xero. In the months ahead, you’ll notice some pages will have a fresh new look. These will include the product details page (including history and notes), as well as the workflows to edit an item, make an adjustment to stock, import an item and import an opening balance.
This is all part of our work to upgrade the technology that underpins our platform, so we’re prepared to benefit from LOCATE’s inventory capability and expertise. As always, we’ll continue to listen to your feedback about what you’d like to see in Xero, so we can develop an inventory solution that gives you a complete picture of your profit margins by product and channel – all in the one place.
Please could you consider the following enhancement request when updating this area:
Allow negative quantities for tracked inventory items.
Justification: We allow customers to back-order items that aren’t in stock, but these orders then fail to load into Xero as it would make the quantity of an item negative. This is incredibly frustrating as we then have to remember to resend the order to Xero once we have ordered the items from our supplier.
Hi Charles – thank you so much for sharing your suggestion with us, which has been passed on to the team.
Yes I second that!
Thanks Els – we appreciate you sharing your feedback with us.
Please negative stock is need for our company urgently.
We also really need this. It is a normal buisness practice – see “just in time”. Workarounds are painful and wasteful.
Please sort out the user profile so that a warehouse manager can access inventory without having to have access to bank information. He cannot even access the stock levels and carry out checks without getting somebody to run the report for him! He cant find out which supplier a specific product comes from or check on the price. doesnt really make any sense!
Hi Tess, thanks so much for your comment. We will make sure it is shared with the team.
omg yes!!! Would also love if warehouse staff can enter stock amounts without having to enter COGS. We don’t always need staff knowing our COGS. So if we somehow have a current COGS for an item and a warehouse staff and increase an inventory item at any time, without having to enter a COGS that would be fabulous!!
Hi Donna – thank you so much for your feedback, which has been shared with our product team.
Please add facility to allow to make up inventory item from parts already in the inventory list
Hi Saab – thanks so much for your suggestion, which has been passed on to our product team.
Please add the ability to do variations of a product and manufacturing or building a product from parts brought in as inventory as for ecommerce businesses this is a crucial part.
Hi Amy – thanks for sharing your suggestion with us, which has been passed on to our product team.
Hello. Creating a feature in products with a “Bill of Materials” BOM will be the difference between sticking with what we currently use to moving to Xero.
When are the new inventory abilities offered by the Locate acquisition likely to be implemented and is it going to have similar functionality to Locate with barcode scanning etc etc?
Hi Nigel, thanks for your comment and interest in inventory. It’s still early days, but our vision is to provide a inventory management solution that will help you: save time on manual and repetitive data entry; manage the balance of supply and demand in your business; make smart decisions about how you price your products and grow your business sales. The new solution will be initially offered to US customers before being made available in other markets. We’ll update our customers as we get closer to launch.
Please add warehouse and transfer between warehouses because this is the most important one when it comes to inventory management.
Thanks for your suggestion, which has been shared with our product team.
I can certainly appreciate the new look and feel and the preparation going on for the integration of the new acquisition.
Don’t get me wrong the new look is great whilst some of the previous features for the end user worked better,
Examples
1. using more than the whole of screen view is overkill in terms of field spacing – in the edit item view as it requires the end user to scroll to the bottom to see all of the fields and make changes not to mention the save button, Could you reducing the padding around the fields and get it to fit on the page without scrolling as you have to zoom out to 75% in order to see all fields and maybe reduce the large font sizes.
2. the load time for opening the item view page is quite protracted and you have to be on the tab for it to finish loading which is frustrating when you need to edit multiple products
Hi team, today I have been reverted to the old look. Could you advise why is this, as I am noticing better functions of the new inventory and I would like to use it instead of the old?
Hi Slavina, thanks for getting in touch. Can you please raise a case with our support team so we can give you a hand? Thanks so much.
Can you provide a timescale as to the release of the first version, Q1 (Jan/ March), Q2 , Q3 or Q4 2022.
Hi John – thanks for your comment. As you can imagine, integrations take time and Xero is working with LOCATE on an experience that will be deeply embedded into our product. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide an estimated timeline at this time because there are many dependencies as we get into testing that will impact how quickly we can roll out. However, stay tuned – we will share more about the integration when we can.
First, I think this move to develop a comprehensive inventory management platform in Xero is long overdue. So congrats for the acquisition!
We currently use Tradegecko inventory management platform but this is being phased out in Australia by 10 June 2022.
We are keen to know when the more comprehensive Xero/Locate inventory management platform will be launched? Is this likely to be by June 10?
We are also trying to assess whether the upgraded Locate/Xero integrated management solution will have the capability of inventory management platforms such as Tradegecko/Unleashed/Cin7 etc or whether it will be inventory management lite?
And also, I’m assuming there will be an additional cost for the inventory management solution?
Many thanks in advance
Hi Susan, we’re glad you are excited for the new inventory offering. Integrations take time and Xero is working with LOCATE on an experience that will be deeply embedded into our product. We will be launching the product to US customers before making it available in other markets. With that in mind, we wouldn’t have an offering available in Australia by the end of your contract. Please do keep an eye out on how we progress and we’ll be sure to communicate when it’s available in Australia.
Hi Anna, thank you for sharing your suggestion with us, Inventory management software, allows you to track your entire inventory. It allows you to keep up with the demand of your business and will calculate how many items you require for a successful sale. If a certain item is out of stock, the software is set to inform the customer when it will be replenished from the manufacturer, or if there are any other similar models that might appeal to them.
How does this help in adding custom price lists for different customers in Xero? It’s been close to 10 years and this acquisition was touted as the fix for it, but, from what I can gather from this article, it would not help at all…
Hi, thanks for your comment. We understand that more advanced inventory management in Xero, and supporting functionality like multiple pricing tiers, is of interest to our users. Though this announcement doesn’t mean any immediate change for the idea of tiered pricing lists, as we work through how Xero and LOCATE will connect we’ll be able to share more and keep you in the know. Your feedback has been passed on to the Product team.
Is there a timeline for US launch? We’re desperately in need of a WIP tracking solution, and this looks as though its going to be the answer! Happy to take part in a beta…
Hi Erik, we’re glad you are excited for the new inventory offering. Integrations take time and Xero is working with LOCATE on an experience that will be deeply embedded into our product. We can confirm that we will be launching first in the US and there will be beta testing opportunities for customers later this year. We aren’t able to provide an estimated timeline as there are many dependencies as we get into testing that will impact how quickly we can roll out. Stay tuned and we’ll be sharing more!
I would like to see a landed cost functionality as the lack of this feature has been an issue for some years.
The ability to allocate multi-currency costs by unit quantity, price, volume or weight would be an attactive selling point. This functionality could be made available as a premium feature
Hi Trevor, thanks for your feedback – you suggestion has been shared with the Product team.
We currently have an increasing number of product codes that cover a range of part codes. In addition we have to add currency variations. As we grow we don’t to keep having to add the product list with fixed prices. We need the ability to add a single product code that may be used across different customers who use different currencies or pricing. We then apply the right pricing for that customer based on their agreement. I don’t understand why it is taking so long to provide a solution that has been asked for over a number of years. If we change our prices by 10% we have to manually change all prices on each individual product …. what a waste of time! Any thoughts yet?
Hi Graeme, we are sorry to hear your frustrations. We have shared your comment with our product team and have asked whether there is any update that we can share at this time. Thanks for your patience.
I certainly appreciate that “integrations take time and Xero is working with LOCATE”. However LOCATE has said that the product will be SHUTDOWN and UNAVAILABLE in October. That means that I have to decide on a direction in March and April so that it could ideally be live July 1. Do you a) have plans to integrate manufacturing capability in that time, or b) extend the LOCATE end date to allow additional integration time, or c) have all (or many) existing customers find a different solution (a solution that is NOT offered by Xero!)?
Hi Derek, thanks for your comment and sorry for the delay in getting back to you – we were just checking timings with our team. We don’t have plans to integrate manufacturing capability before LOCATE is deprecated and unfortunately we’re not able to extend the date beyond October 10, 2022. We’re working with existing LOCATE customers to help them transition off LOCATE and here is a list of partners that understand LOCATE and may be available to offer support transitioning to another product. Otherwise stay tuned for further updates on Xero’s inventory plans later this year.
Hi team,
please add a units of measurement in the inventory management and invoices
this will enhance the inventory management and invoicing to the customers 🙁 pleeaseee
Hi Juan, thank you for your suggestion – this has been passed on to our product team.
Dear Xero, Any new developments in this regard. This is becomming a huge requirement from our clients as they want different pricing categories. There is also no api (suitable) yet for this feature. I have checked
Hi Riaan – thanks for your comment. Integrations can take time and we are currently working with LOCATE. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide an estimated timeline at this stage because there are many dependencies that need to be considered that impacts the roll out. The only thing we can share is that we will be launching the product to US customers first before making it available in other markets. However, stay tuned – we will share more about the integration as soon as we can. Thanks!
Hi
Please can you add a functionality that lets us set re order level and flags items when they need re ordering.
Dear Xero, nearly 4 months since last update – do you have a timeline yet as we really do not want to invest time / effort in another App / Plug-In while waiting for the LOCATE Integration ? Also some details / specifics / milestones achieved, etc., with the integration to date would be greatly appreciated. Kindest regards
Hi Denis, sorry – we don’t have an update yet on LOCATE. As soon as we do, we will let you know.
Can you confirm whether or no Locate will have the following features:
1. In addition to multi product / category functionality a comprehensive Serial Number tracking and registration capability;
2. Effective API’s enabling us to link our Woo based e-commerce shop to the Locate inventory management system;
3. PO; Sales ORder; REceive Note; Fullfillment Note; Inventory Transfer; Payment and Receipt Notes;
4. Ability to type serial number and locate all relevant documents for that SErial Number;
5. Ability to buy and sell in different currencies and integrate financial outcomes to Xero
Happy to discuss if required
Hi, we are now over a year on and very little update in terms of progress being made with the integration of LOCATE in the current Xero base system. As per the August comment, the concept and features of LOCATE are what a lot of business are looking for. But we can’t keep hanging on as we need something now. So any update on status, milestones, anything, would be appreciated as we will in early 2023 need to move to a new system and if the features of LOCATE are not included then we will need to look at other options.
Thanks for your message! We’re working hard to build our inventory product so it meets the needs of all regions we operate in. We announced the first beta for US customers in August and plan to roll out the product to US customers next year. We aren’t rolling it out to NZ at this stage, so if you need something now we suggest looking at alternative options in the Xero App Store.
This is really disappointing that after well over a year you have still not implemented this! I looked back at the messages and people started asking for this in November 21. When are you implementing in Australia?
Hello, any update on this? Have beta customers started using it yet? We are in need of this functionality quite urgently and have been patiently waiting. Thank you.
Hi there, thanks for your patience. The closed beta began last month in March 2023. US customers will be the first to be able to access the product when available.