Custom inventory management software for trades and service businesses.
Custom inventory management software for tradies, joiners, hire companies, cleaning contractors and venues across Australia. Know what is in the yard, each van and each site, reserve materials the moment a quote is accepted, and see what every job really used.
A fixed written quote before we start. Pay upfront or in stages. Ongoing management from go-live.
Stock that moves with the work.
Most inventory management software was designed for shops and warehouses: products come in, sit on a shelf and go out on a sales order. In a trade or service business, stock behaves differently. It rides around in vans, sits on client sites, gets cut to size, goes into jobs, and in the case of equipment, comes back again.
Custom inventory management software follows that movement. It knows your locations, your units, your jobs and your quotes, so the stock count is right during the day, materials are there when a job starts, and the cost of every job includes what it actually used.
Inventory tracking is one of the tools we build under custom software development, usually alongside the quoting and job systems it feeds.
Book a free strategy callSigns you have outgrown your stock spreadsheet
Usually a business carrying real money in materials or equipment, tracked in a spreadsheet, a whiteboard or an inventory system built for retail.
Nobody knows what is in the vans
Stock leaves the yard in the morning and comes back in the afternoon, or does not, and the spreadsheet only finds out at the next stocktake.
Jobs stall waiting on materials
A job is booked, the crew turns up, and the part or product that was "definitely in stock" was used on another job yesterday.
Job costs are a guess
Materials are bought in bulk and used across many jobs, so nobody can say what a particular job actually used, or whether it made money.
Retail inventory software does not fit
You tried a tool built for shops and warehouses. It wants SKUs, sales orders and pick lists, and has no idea what a job, a site or a van is.
What custom inventory software does differently
Six things an inventory system built for one business can do that a retail template has to approximate.
What goes into an inventory management system
Most builds use some of these parts, shaped to how your stock moves. We scope only what you need, and add more as the business changes.
Cin7, Unleashed or a custom build?
Off-the-shelf inventory management software is mature and worth considering first. Here is when it fits, and when building around your work fits better.
Fits buying and reselling products
Cin7, Unleashed, inFlow and Xero's tracked inventory are built for products that are bought, stored and sold. If that describes most of your stock, one of them with Xero is the sensible choice, ready this week.
The trade-off is the model they assume: sales orders and warehouses rather than jobs, vans and sites, and stock that is sold rather than cut, consumed or returned.
Fits stock that is used on jobs
A custom build suits businesses whose materials go into jobs, whose stock lives in many small locations, who work in metres, sheets and litres, or who hire equipment out and need it back.
It connects stock to quotes and job costs, your whole crew can use it without a per-user bill, and it changes as your work does as part of ongoing management.
There is also a middle path. Keep Cin7 or Unleashed for product sales and purchasing, and build the job-specific layer around it: van stock, reservations from quotes and materials costed to jobs.
What inventory tracking looks like in different businesses
Illustrative examples to show how the same idea fits different work. They are not past client projects.
Connected to the tools you already use
Stock touches quoting, jobs, purchasing and accounts. We connect to the systems that already do their job well, and never rebuild accounting or payroll.
Counting in and going live
Your item list, suppliers and prices come across from the spreadsheet or system you use now. Then comes the part that makes the numbers trustworthy: an opening count, one location at a time, so the system starts from what is really on the shelves and in the vans.
- Items, units and suppliers cleaned up before import
- Opening counts by location, from a phone
- Labels printed for shelves, bins and equipment if you want them
- A walkthrough for the crew, kept to the few taps they need
If you are keeping a job app or accounting software, they carry on as normal. Only the way stock is recorded changes.
How an inventory project is priced and run
An inventory project runs the same way as every custom software build: discovery, a written scope with a fixed quote, building in stages you test on real stock and jobs, then go-live and ongoing management.
Every inventory system is different, so there is no price list. You see both figures, in writing, for an agreed scope, before we start.
A one-off build fee
Fixed in your quote after discovery. Pay it upfront, or in stages tied to milestones.
Ongoing management
Every build comes with it: hosting, monitoring, updates, fixes and small improvements, billed monthly from the day your system goes live. New locations, items and supplier formats as the business grows are part of looking after it.
Who owns the software, and who owns the data
We agree code ownership per project, in writing, before the build starts. There are two options.
We keep the code, you hold a licence
Scalepoint owns the code and you get a licence to use the software in your business. You can buy the code out later if your plans change.
You own the code once it is paid for
Ownership of the code passes to you when the build fee is paid in full.
Your data is always yours, whichever option you choose. Your items, suppliers, stock history and job costs belong to your business, and you can export them at any time.
Other ways we can help
Common questions about custom inventory software
What is custom inventory management software?+
Stock control software built for one business. It tracks materials, products and equipment in the places and units that business actually uses, such as vans, sites and storerooms, and links stock to the quotes and jobs that use it, rather than following a retail or warehouse template.
Should we use Cin7 or Unleashed instead?+
If you mainly buy and resell products, yes: Cin7 or Unleashed with Xero is mature and well supported. Custom inventory software suits businesses whose stock is used on jobs, cut or split, spread across vans and sites, or hired out and returned. We can also build the job-specific part alongside Cin7 or Unleashed.
Can the team use it on site?+
Yes. It works on phones and tablets, so stock can be issued to a job, transferred between locations or counted where it sits. Barcode and QR labels make it faster, but they are optional.
Does it replace our accounting software?+
No. Purchase bills, stock value and job costs pass to Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks. GST, BAS and payroll stay in your accounting software.
How much does custom inventory software cost?+
It depends on what the system has to track and connect to, so there is no price list. After a discovery session you get a fixed build fee and the monthly management fee in writing, for an agreed scope, before any work starts.
Who owns the software and the stock data?+
Your data is always yours, and you can export it at any time. Code ownership is agreed in writing before the build: by default we keep the code and you hold a licence to use it, with the option to buy it out, or the code becomes yours once the build fee is paid in full.
Show us where your stock goes missing
Walk us through how materials move from supplier to yard to van to job. We will show you what an inventory system built around it would look like.