While some may ask how hard it could possibly be to manage a cavernous space that’s heaving with racks, boxes, pallets, and forklifts, there are many who will nod sagely and confirm that it’s huge.

It’s all about getting systems, people and solutions to mix together to create a smooth-running system that controls the materials’ movement and storage and processes the associated transactions, at the heart of it all is having an efficiently functioning stock control system.

You may have a terrific sales and distribution network ready to whizz your goods to customers, but if they’re kept in a warehouse large enough to hide the Ark of the Covenant from Indiana Jones, you’re going to need a pretty sharp stock control system for finding them.

There’s a big financial implication for a start. Stock can tie up a large slice of your business capital, so accurate information about its levels and values is essential for the accounts department.

If it takes a bunch of people to find one particularly item in a search that probably feels like the hunt for the lost needle in the haystack and you can’t locate goods (or Ark) for despatch, you have pretty much failed at the first hurdle. Any decent stock control system will enable you to track stock levels, make orders and issue stock and for many, small firms in particular, paper-based methods, such as stock books and cards, still hold good.

But there’s no doubt the rise of the computer has swept away much of the huge pile of paperwork associated with the daily operation of a warehouse, particularly a large one.

Warehouse management systems have evolved over recent years to become adept at handling a vast range of inter-connected functionalities, such as wave and batch picking, automated data collection, task interleaving, cross docking, advanced shipment notifications and slotting.

Any software system worth its salt will provide a comprehensive stock control functionality that will enable you to fulfil your customer’s requirements accurately, efficiently and on time.Systems can integrate stock and pricing data with accounting and invoicing systems, all drawing on the same set of data meaning it only has to be input once.

By incorporating sales order and purchase order processing into a system, it can also take care of automatically updating stock balances and statistics as orders are processed, along with triggering orders when a set level is reached as part of automatic stock monitoring. Another bonus for those producing goods in batches is automatic batch control which quickly identifies the speediest and cheapest suppliers.

Further stock control technology aid is available through bar coding systems to speed up processing and recording, and Radio Frequency Identification which enables individual products or components to be tracked throughout your supply chain.

All in all there’s plenty of software smart aid to help you and your staff run an efficient stock control operation but if you are just dipping your toe into this particular water you may feel a little overwhelmed about which system would be best for you.

It’s worth drawing up a list of your requirements. You may need, for example:

Prices in different currencies.

Automatic updating, either for groups or single items.

Multiple prices for items.

Quality control and batch tracking.

Cross functionality across more than one warehouse.

Sufficient flexibility built in to adapt to your changing needs.

What you don’t want to do, however, is to choose software that's too complicated for what you need as that is just a waste of time and money.

Some of the best guidance can be gained by talking to others in a similar line of business about the software they use or, if you have one, contact your trade association for advice.

There’s no two ways about the benefits of using modern technology when it comes to monitoring stock but always keep in mind that the basic rule remains unchanged - it needs to be managed accurately.

If you find your biggest challenge is running around looking for goods that are supposed to be in stock rather than converting enquiries to sales, it’s probably well worth while thinking about giving your management systems a new look.