November 19, 2009 
If a business has merchandise to sell then they have to keep track of how much they sell and how much is at hand. It is important to know what inventory is low and what inventory has been ordered. Another reason to keep track of the inventory is for tax reasons. If you know how much inventory you have at the beginning of the year, add to that the amount of inventory you purchased throughout the year and finally you determine how much inventory you have left at the end of the year. This will give you the amount that you sold throughout the year.
There are a number of ways to keep track of inventory. If it is small business inventory then you can use a physical inventory report sheet. For bigger businesses you have to use a barcode scanner which keeps track of everything you scan.