Mid-market B2B SaaS5 weeks (discovery + build + parallel run + cutover)
SMB retailPlaceholder
Inventory Ops Automation Cut Weekly Stocktake from 6h to 45min
A 4-store independent retailer replaced its weekly manual stocktake spreadsheet with a barcode-scan + reconciliation workflow, cutting time spent by 87% and eliminating end-of-month variance write-offs.
Placeholder Retail Co.3 weeks (audit + build + cutover)
01 — Problem context
What was getting in the way
A 4-store independent retailer was running weekly stocktake via shared Excel — each store manager spent ~6 hours every Sunday counting, typing, and emailing the consolidated sheet to head office. Variances surfaced 2-3 weeks later at month-end, by which point root cause was unrecoverable.
Pain points
- Weekly 24 manager-hours lost to typing + reconciling (4 stores × 6h)
- Variances discovered late — write-offs of $4k-$8k per month with no traceable cause
- No real-time visibility into multi-store inventory for the owner
- Email-based consolidation broke on staff sick days and version conflicts
02 — Solution implemented
What we built
A barcode-scan-first stocktake workflow on tablets, with automatic consolidation into a single dashboard and same-day variance alerts to the store manager who logged the count.
Stack
- •Mobile barcode scanner app (existing handheld + iPad fallback)
- •n8n workflow for scan ingestion + reconciliation
- •Postgres with row-level access per store
- •Looker Studio dashboard for owner visibility
- •Email + Slack alerts on variance >5%
Engagement
3 weeks (audit + build + cutover)
Delivery steps
- 1
Audited the existing Excel-based process across all 4 stores; captured exact column structure + manager workarounds.
- 2
Mapped barcode scan → SKU lookup → location → quantity into a normalised Postgres schema.
- 3
Built the n8n ingest workflow with idempotency (scan UID dedup) + per-store reconciliation against the prior count.
- 4
Trained store managers in 30-min hands-on sessions; ran parallel (scan + Excel) for 2 weeks to validate.
- 5
Cut over to scan-only; legacy Excel archived. Variance alerts wired to the owner + store manager.
03 — Results measured
What changed
After 6 weeks of running scan-only, weekly stocktake time per store dropped from 6 hours to 45 minutes — owner reclaimed his Sunday and store managers can now run mid-week spot-counts for high-value lines. Variance write-offs dropped 73% because same-day alerts let the manager re-check the count while staff and stock were still on the floor.
| Metric | Before | After | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time per store per week | 6 hours | 45 minutes | -87% |
| Time to surface variance | 2-3 weeks | Same day | Near-zero lag |
| Monthly write-off | $4-8k | $1-2k | -73% |
| Owner visibility | End-of-month | Real-time | Live dashboard |
04 — Client testimonial
In their words
I got my Sundays back. More importantly, when stock walks, I know within hours, not weeks. The dashboard pays for itself every fortnight.
PO
Placeholder Owner Name
Founder & Owner, Placeholder Retail Co.
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