Inventory, Sales & Procurement (进销存) with ERP

What 进销存 means

"进" is purchasing (procurement), "销" is sales (orders and fulfillment), and "存" is stock (inventory). Every trading or manufacturing business runs these three flows constantly. Done well, they tell you what to buy, what you can sell, and what you actually have.

Why standalone spreadsheets break

• Stock counts drift from reality as sales and purchases happen faster than anyone updates a file.
• Overselling — promising customers goods you do not have — becomes likely under volume.
• Purchase decisions lag because no one sees true available-to-promise stock in time.
• Finance cannot tie inventory value to the ledger without heavy manual reconciliation.

Core modules ERP unifies

• Procurement — purchase requests, supplier quotes, purchase orders and goods receipts.
• Sales order management — quotations, sales orders, picking, packing and shipping.
• Inventory control — real-time stock levels, lot/serial tracking, cycle counts and multi-warehouse transfers.
• Warehousing — put-away, bin locations and inbound/outbound workflow.
• Integration with finance — every movement posts to inventory valuation and the ledger automatically.

Who needs it

Distributors, retailers and trading companies with many SKUs; manufacturers tracking components and finished goods; and any business running multiple warehouses or selling across channels (online, wholesale, overseas). A very small shop with a handful of products can manage with basic inventory software, but the moment channels or SKU counts grow, ERP pays off.

How to choose

• Match the system to your actual flow: make-to-stock, make-to-order, or pure distribution.
• Confirm it handles your units of measure, batches/serials, and multi-warehouse logic.
• Check that sales channels (marketplace, B2B portal) connect without custom coding.
• Verify inventory valuation methods (standard, moving average, FIFO) fit your accounting.

Common questions