Introduction
The way most consumer brands manage inventory today isn’t designed for scale, and it’s certainly not designed for efficiency. Manual data entry, spreadsheets, and disconnected software might work for brands just starting to gain traction, but as they grow through channel expansion and new product launches, this same stack becomes a drain on resources, causes errors, and makes scaling a challenge. And while traditional tools like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Inventory Management System (IMS) may help manage the basics, they often create more work — not less — with endless data entry and reconciliation needed across an expanding set of operational and financial inventory data.
That’s why we’re building an inventory automation platform at Mandrel. It’s not just another software tool — it’s a new approach focused on eliminating manual data entry across the entire inventory lifecycle. On top of that, it combines operational and financial inventory data into a single, unified hub. Inventory automation streamlines manual workflows — from purchase order management to landed costing, accounting, and inventory planning — reducing errors and freeing up time to focus on strategic priorities that drive growth without sacrificing margins.
In this article, we’ll explore why inventory automation is essential for modern brands and how it transforms outdated workflows to help brands move on from inventory management headaches for good.
Why Is Inventory Automation Important Right Now?
Scaling a brand while maintaining healthy margins isn’t easy. Brands today are trying to do more with a lean team and tightly managed cash flow. Meanwhile, rising digital marketing costs are pushing brands to adopt new channels earlier, which adds margin pressure and stricter inventory requirements. Against this backdrop, managing inventory with manual processes and disjointed, outdated software can create a lot of extra work, result in costly errors, and even negatively impact the bottom line.
Inventory automation fixes that by solving the core problem brands face: time wasted on manual data entry. By pulling together operational and financial inventory data, automating manual workflows, and providing a real-time view of inventory across SKUs and locations, it gives brands a firmer grasp of their inventory position at the SKU level. The result is smart decisions, reduced costs, and fewer headaches for lean operations and finance teams.
Who Should Adopt Inventory Automation?
If your inventory processes are bogged down with manual data entry, endless spreadsheets, and constant back-and-forth between operations and finance, it’s time for an upgrade. Most growing brands hit a point when their current tools can’t keep up — more SKUs, channels, and vendors means more spreadsheets, formulas, and time spent reconciling discrepancies. Operations teams are stuck processing POs and inventory receipts, while finance teams scramble to calculate SKU-level landed costs and assemble inventory and COGS workbooks every month.
Inventory automation puts you back in control. Instead of reactive, manual work, it unifies your operational and financial inventory data and automates workflows so your team can focus on scaling without the manual grind. It’s not just about saving time — it’s about getting accurate, real-time SKU-level insights to make smarter, faster decisions.
Even if you’ve already adopted an ERP or IMS, you may still feel burdened by manual processes. POs still need updating, invoices need matching to receipts, and landed costs often live in disconnected spreadsheets. Most IMS and ERP systems also fall short on real-time inventory visibility and financial data, treating inventory as a single bucket of assets instead of at the SKU level — a major gap when it comes to making product-level inventory (and marketing) decisions.
Inventory automation fills those gaps by linking operational events (like shipments and receipts) directly to SKU-level financial data. It automatically calculates landed costs and provides real-time visibility into inventory quantities and values without the need for endless manual reconciliation. For brands already using an IMS or ERP, inventory automation transforms them from static record-keeping tools into dynamic, automated systems that scale with your business.
How Does Inventory Automation Work?
Think of inventory automation in two layers:
1. Data aggregation
Inventory automation starts by pulling together all your operational and financial inventory data at the SKU level. This includes documents, locations, quantities, vendors, orders, shipments, receipts, fulfillments, payments, and more. No more digging through emails for documents from vendors or trying to piece together data from across third-party software tools using CSV exports. Everything lives in a single, unified hub that updates in real time.
2. Workflow automation
With your data in one place, workflow automation kicks in. This layer handles everything from landed costing to PO management, inventory and COGS accounting, and inventory planning. The software does the heavy lifting, reducing manual inputs to minimize errors while helping your team make faster, more informed decisions.
What Are the Core Functions of Inventory Automation?
Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the key workflows inventory automation tackles — and why they matter.
Data Capture
Stop manually entering data from vendor purchase orders, invoices, and logistics documents. Inventory automation uses AI to extract and understand key inventory data from PDFs or spreadsheets, so you don’t ever have to hunt through your email inbox for a document or spend hours entering data into a PO spreadsheet again. It goes further by linking this data to the relevant objects in the system — vendors, SKUs, locations, and more — so all your inventory data is organized, accurate, and easy to search through and retrieve for use across workflows like landed costs and PO management.
SKU Landed Costing
Landed costs aren’t just for accountants. Knowing the true cost of each SKU, including freight, customs, and duties, is essential for pricing, margin tracking, and building a profitable brand. But calculating SKU-level landed costs is typically a manual process, whether using spreadsheets or legacy software tools. Inventory automation uses data capture and intelligent document linking to allocate indirect expenses, such as freight, and calculate SKU-level landed costs for each shipment automatically, so you can see how they change over time. It handles complex scenarios, like consolidated and split shipments, and even automates accruals for invoices that haven’t yet been received.
PO Management
Make manual PO tracking a thing of the past. Inventory automation creates a digital paper trail for every SKU on every inbound vendor PO — automatically linking documents, capturing SKU-level inventory data, updating statuses, and flagging line-item level discrepancies to prevent overpayments. You’ll always know what’s been received, what’s outstanding, and what you’re paying for.
Inventory Tracking
Keeping track of stock levels in real-time across multiple locations can get messy fast. It’s near impossible without software and tedious even with traditional systems. Inventory automation gives you an accurate, real-time view of your inventory by SKU, status, and location, including raw materials sitting at a co-manufacturer. No need to enter data into spreadsheets or interact with software — even to mark a shipment as received or a stock transfer as complete. Track inventory from vendors to your warehouse and beyond without any surprises.
Inventory & COGS Accounting
Inventory accounting is one of the most time-consuming tasks for finance teams. Inventory automation builds a real-time, SKU-level ledger that captures every movement and cost tied to your inventory (among other data points) in a single place. It automatically creates journal entries for in-transit and on-hand inventory, provides details COGS breakdowns, and takes care of tricky accruals for indirect costs, like freight and customs, even when invoices haven’t arrived yet. No more juggling manual inventory and COGS workbooks or cross-checking endless documents. With inventory automation in place, brands can speed up monthly closes, reduce errors, and have a clear audit trail that actually reflects reality.
Inventory Planning
Inventory automation takes the guesswork out of planning by pulling together sales history, real-time stock levels, demand forecasts, and inbound shipments — all in one place. Instead of relying on static spreadsheets, it rolls data forward automatically, giving brands a live, accurate bottoms-up picture of what they need and when they need it at the SKU level. The system flags low inventory SKUs, recommends PO adjustments based on target levels and lead times, and ensures your inventory stays right-sized to demand without tying up cash or risking stockouts. Smart planning, less manual work, and a supply chain that runs like clockwork.
Integrations
Integrations make inventory automation a plug-and-play solution that fits into your existing tech stack. From commerce platforms, warehouse management systems, bill pay & accounting software, and more, inventory automation software connects with tools you already use through APIs and pre-built connectors. No workflow disruptions, no extra busywork exporting and importing data. Just seamless data flow between systems, cutting out manual updates and keeping everything in sync to help get the most of of your current setup.
How does Inventory Automation differ from similar or related technologies?
Over time, most consumer brands brands end up cobbling together a patchwork of systems to manage inventory workflows as they grow. Each tool helps manage a specific process, but none was built to handle the full inventory lifecycle. Even the more comprehensive platforms fall short — they demand constant manual upkeep and rarely provide the SKU-level insights brands need to make smarter inventory decisions that drop to the bottom line.
That’s where inventory automation steps in: while it can replace some of the tools in your tech stack, it’s real strength lies in enhancing and connecting them, filling in the gaps those tools weren’t built to cover and creating and end-to-end solution for inventory that aggregates SKU-level data and eliminates labor-intensive workflows in the process.
Inventory Automation vs. Inventory Management System (IMS)
IMS tools focus on stock tracking and managing customer orders but they come with limitations: they’re manual, often inaccurate, and a pain to scale. Instead, inventory automation automatically pulls SKU-level inventory events and data from documents and third-parties into a single, real-time ledger. And if you already have an IMS, you may find that inventory automation can enhance that software by streamlining complex financial workflows like SKU-level landed costing and real-time inventory valuation as well as filling in gaps across the inventory lifecycle with PO management and inventory planning. By reducing manual inputs and improving accuracy, inventory automation helps brands make smarter decisions and scale with less friction.
Inventory Automation vs. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
While ERP systems promise an all-in-one solution, the reality is they’re clunky, expensive, and require a lot of upkeep. Implementations can take months (sometimes years) and they often need dedicated headcount just to handle ongoing data entry and maintenance. Even then, they focus on business-level transactional data, leaving SKU-level workflows like landed costing stuck in external spreadsheets. Inventory automation cuts through this complexity with a more flexible and less manual solution. It captures and aggregates SKU-level inventory data straight from your inbox and third-party tools, feeding data directly into your ERP without the manual lift. It also fills in the gaps ERPs overlook — automating workflows like PO management and inventory planning. As important, inventory automation gives brands an easier, more dynamic way to engage with SKU-level data, making it a valuable companion an ERP system that can help brands make smarter, more proactive inventory decisions while reducing the grind of manual data entry.
Inventory Automation vs. Inventory Planning Software
Inventory planning software is designed to predict future inventory needs, but they usually rely on manual data entry and, often, an additional layer of spreadsheets to turn forecasts into purchase recommendations. Inventory automation pulls real-time SKU-level data like inbound shipments, PO commitments, and stock levels into a continuously updated platform, eliminating the constant manual data entry and data syncs that come with siloed inventory planning software. It also connects inventory planning with the rest of the inventory lifecycle — from document data capture to landed costing, PO management, stock tracking, and inventory and COGS accounting — all in one system. The result? Faster, more transparent planning that keeps your supply chain in sync and your decisions proactive, not reactive.
Inventory Automation vs. Accounts Payable (AP) Software
AP software handles vendor invoices and payments, but it isn’t built to manage inventory. It treats costs and payments as simple line items on an invoice with no connection to the actual SKUs those costs are tied to. Inventory automation fills in this gap by building on top of an item master, so all you inventory documents and data — quantities, locations, costs, etc. — are always tied back to individual SKUs in real-time. It also pulls this data into downstream workflows like SKU-level landed costing, PO management (and 3-way matching), inventory and COGS accounting, and inventory planning. By extending AP software with inventory intelligence, inventory automation helps brands improve visibility into the financial components of their inventory.
Inventory Automation vs. Accounting / General Ledger (GL) Software
Accounting / GL software is the main tool brands use to record financial transactions. However, it tracks inventory as a lump sum with no SKU-level detail into inventory locations, quantities, or costs. These systems also aren’t design’t to handle the operational workflows behind the numbers — workflows like PO management, landed costing, and inventory planning — leaving brands stuck in spreadsheets or point solutions to fill the gaps. Inventory automation fixes this by creating a SKU-level ledger that tracks both operational events and financial data, automating workflows and providing insights that accounting software can’t. By feeding accurate, structured inventory and COGS data back into the GL, inventory automation enhances financial reporting and auditability, creating a more dynamic, automated solution.
Life Before and After Inventory Automation (with Mandrel)
Here’s a closer look at how inventory automation with Mandrel transforms several key inventory workflows:
1. Inventory document review and storage
- Before: receive and review floods of documents weekly from vendors to enter key data points manually into a spreadsheet or software before filing the documents away in email archives or nested shared drives.
- After: sync your email with Mandrel and instantly access inventory and freight data extracted into searchable, sortable, and filterable tables — no manual data entry needed.
2. SKU-level landed costing
- Before: spend hours entering PO quantities, finding related financial and logistics documents, allocating indirect costs, and entering these details shared spreadsheets
- After: Mandrel automatically extracts SKU data, links documents, and calculates granular SKU-level landed costs for each shipment (and over time)
3. Three-way matching
- Before: search folders or emails for invoices and GRNs, manually cross-reference line items, and update spreadsheets to identify and calculate discrepancies for each PO
- After: Mandrel automatically links invoices and GRNs to POs and breaks out line item details, making it easy to spot discrepancies to prevent overpayments
4. On-hand inventory calculation
- Before: export CSVs from WMS platforms (or Shopify) and pull raw material counts from vendor email into a master spreadsheet, tie together the data using formulas to link similar product IDs, and spend hours reconciling to get to an “accurate” inventory count every week
- After: Mandrel automatically calculates inventory quantities and valuation by SKU by location — including vendor sites — backed by a full inventory event ledger for auditing
5. End of month document chase
- Before: dig through emails to identify missing invoices and warehouse receipts to reconcile inventory balances and calculate landed costs for COGS
- After: Mandrel captures documents automatically and flags shipments missing documents with context (SKU, PO number, etc.) to streamline vendor follow-ups
Common Objections (and Why They’re Wrong)
1. “We already have an ERP (or IMS) system”
Great! Inventory automation isn’t here to replace you ERP. Instead, it works alongside your ERP to automate a significant amount of data entry, give you real-time SKU-level insights that are otherwise tough to pull out of an ERP, and offer a more dynamic, accessible environment for engaging with your inventory data. It can also serve as a unified hub to automate inventory workflows not always handled by an ERP system, such as inventory planning.
2. "Our team has no bandwidth for onboarding"
Inventory automation is designed to integrate with your existing tools and workflows. No big rebuilds, no massive disruptions. All it takes is a few one-click integrations to connect into your commerce platforms, warehouse management system, and email inbox, and you’ll be on your way to automated data entry, SKU-level inventory data, and quicker monthly closes in no time. And if your setup needs anything more, we’ve got you covered with our complementary white-glove onboarding service to handle customizations, so you can continue to focus on scaling your brand without the hassle of software implementation.
3. “We're concerned about workflow and document compatibility”
We understand that every brand’s operations are unique — and inventory automation is designed o fit right in without throwing a wrench into existing workflows. By focusing on data capture and aggregate, inventory automation slashes the times your team will spend on manual data entry. From there, it takes over repetitive tasks and delivers a flexible interface for reviewing your data that enhances your processes without disrupting them. It’s about making what already works, work better — smarter, faster, and with far lass effort.
4. “We're worried about the cost”
Would you rather pay 3-5 times the cost to someone who tries to do all this themselves, only to have your data still stuck in spreadsheets? The reality is that an investment in inventory automation quickly pays for itself — even on top of third-party software tools — by reducing manual data entry, minimizing errors, and giving you SKU-level data needed to make smarter decisions. Just think about all the time your operations and finance teams will get back when they don’t have to enter data from the supply chain into spreadsheets, calculate landed costs, manually track inventory, and prepare monthly inventory and COGS accounting workbooks.
Inventory Automation: Looking Ahead
As brands continue to push for sustainable, profitable growth while maintaining lean operations, inventory automation will evolve alongside to keep pace — getting smarter, faster, and more integrated into the way modern brands run.
Here’s what’s coming next:
- Smarter forecasting and anomaly detection: with advances in AI and large language models (LLMs), inventory automation will help brands plan more accurately, spot inventory issues before they escalate, and make smarter, more accurate inventory recommendations, eliminating guesswork and empowering brands to be more proactive.
- Stronger integrations across the stack: expect deeper connections with accounts payable, order management, accounting, and ERP software as well as other point solutions. This will position inventory automation platforms as the central hub for SKU-level inventory data, across both operational and financial workflows.
- More flexibility to fit your business: because no two brands operate exactly the same, inventory automation software will grow to support more customizable data models, metrics, and formulas, so brands can tailor workflows and insights to their specific needs — without the heavy lift of complex customizations associated with legacy software.
As these developments take shape, inventory automation is set to become the backbone of modern inventory management, giving brands the agility they need to scale profitably, stay competitive, and manage complexity without adding headcount or headaches.
Conclusion
The future of inventory management is automation. As consumer brands grow, they need systems that eliminate manual tasks, improve visibility, and make scaling operations seamless. Inventory automation can streamline workflows that once ate up hours of your team’s time — like PO management, landed costing, inventory and COGS accounting, and inventory planning — giving you real-time visibility and control at the SKU level. This result is a shift toward faster decisions, fewer mistakes, and healthier margins — all without adding more headcount. It’s not just a software upgrade: it’s a game-changer for how brands run their operations.
Mandrel’s AI-powered inventory automation platform takes the guesswork (and grunt work) out of scaling your inventory processes. From capturing and organizing inventory documents to real-time tracking, costing, and planning, Mandrel centralizes and automates your workflows so you can focus on what matters: driving growth while maintaining healthy margins. And as your brand evolves, we ensure your inventory systems evolve with you — without the overhead or chaos.