14+ Inventory Examples & Templates

Successful planning, development process incorporation, and action execution can be achieved by your business if you will properly prepare, record, and lay out all the items that are necessary for you to complete a particular undertaking. One of the tools that you can use for the organization of certain details, content, and/or items is an inventory.

You can refer to different kinds of  inventory templates and examples if you want to ensure that the quality of your inventories are at par with the standards that you need to achieve.

Elements of a Comprehensive Inventory

An inventory can either contain the list of available goods that you can offer to your customers or the record of raw materials at hand that can be used to manufacture or produce particular goods that your business will sell. There are also inventories that contain the information about the equipment, materials, and other items that are present in the workplace as well as the dates for their maintenance.

No matter what kinds of inventory or inventory list it is that you are making, it is important for you to ensure that you will develop a comprehensive, detailed, and well-formatted document.The essential elements that you need to include in your inventory are as follows:

1. The completion of all the items that are needed to be listed in the document
2. The quality and quantity of the items in the inventory
3. The description of each items depending on the needed data of the business
4. The dates of the inventory assets’ purchasing, expiration, maintenance, and/or monitoring
5. The entities who will be assigned to update the inventory on a regular basis
6. The business division or department who will be tasked to use the inventory for their work processes
7. The scope and limitations of the inventory’s content
8. The time frames in which certain activities must be reflected in the inventory

14+ Inventory Templates

Gift Inventory

Data Inventory Template

Supply Inventory Spreadsheet

Software Inventory Template

Food Inventory Spreadsheet

Stock Inventory Template

Household Inventory Template

Event Inventory Template

Equipment Supply Inventory

School Inventory Template

Bar Liquor Beverage Inventory

Data Inventory Template

Inventory Count Sheet

Template of Medical Supply Receipt Inventory Form

Tenancy Agreement Inventory

How to Make an Inventory

An inventory, in general, is a list of goods that are used or sold by a business. These items are held by organizations to their possession to ensure continuous operations and smooth flow of work activities. The development of an impressive inventory can help companies become more aware of what they already have and how they can make the most out of their resources and assets. With this, you need to be well-guided when creating your own inventory. The steps that you can follow if you want to come up with a detailed inventory are listed below.

• Have an idea about the kind of inventory that your business needs.
• Browse through a variety of templates that you can use as formatting references so you can easily create the inventory that you would like to have.
• Have an outline or a checklist of the items that are necessary to be included in the document. These items can include the names of the items for the inventory, the product number and code of each item, the cost of every item, the stock number of the goods, and the net value of each inventory assets.
• Arrange the format or layout of the actual inventory document and allocate areas or spaces for the details that you will put in the inventory listing.
• Develop the inventory database in a way that it is understandable especially for the people who will use the document.
• Input all the information that should be kept in the inventory and assess whether there are still changes that are needed to be done with the document’s format.
• Update the inventory from time to time so you can ensure that there is regular monitoring of the goods or other materials in the inventory.

Tips in Developing a Well-Formulated and Organized Inventory

Not all inventories function in the same level of quality and efficiency. Certain factors and elements can affect how this document or tool can be of help to your organization and its desire to achieve certain goals and objectives. If you want to ensure the high-potentiality of your inventory’s successful usage, here are some of the tips that you can incorporate in the development processes of the specific inventory document that you are making:

• Ensure that you will have a precise and specific list of necessary inventory assets.
• Have a process of the inventory’s usage especially when it comes to updating or changing any features of its format.
• Always make sure that the inventory is properly maintained so you can retain the effectiveness of its usage.

Types of Inventories

From a landlord inventory up to a retail stock inventory, any kind of inventory is considered as one of the necessary tools that every business should have. The function of this document can help businesses ensure that their resources and assets are utilized, properly allocated, and maximized. Before you can create an inventory, you should first decide on how you would like to use the document and how you can benefit from its existence within your operations. Listed below are some types of inventories that are usually used by businesses and other corporate organizations.

• Finished goods or merchandise inventories are the inventories that are used by businesses to list down the available number of products that they can still sell to their customers. This type of document can help companies address issues of balance with their demand and supply chain. Products that are in stock or are readily available for selling are listed in this inventory together with the quantity of each products and the updates like instances in which items are already needed to be replenished or restocked.
• Equipment inventories are internal inventories that allow businesses to list down all the machines and equipment that they currently have for production and manufacturing. These inventories are necessary to be created so that companies can ensure that all equipment are in good condition and that records of equipment theft are either non-existing or addressed accordingly.
• Raw materials inventories are inventories that contain the list of unprocessed or raw materials that serve as ingredients or parts of the goods that the business produces. This type of inventory is usually created so that organizations can ensure that all the items that they need for their activities or procedures are at hand.

Inventory Sizes

With the continuous and rampant growth of digital media and high-technology processes, traditional inventories are now replaced by inventory spreadsheets. Most businesses already use online inventories or inventory systems that are kept in the IT systems of the company. However, you may still opt to use physical or printed inventories if you think that it can benefit your operations and the people who will be tasked to update the content of the specified document. Just like any other corporate documents, inventories also commonly come in business sizes. Some paper sizes used for printing inventory templates are as follows:

• A4
• (US) 8.5×11 inches

Please take note that inventory spreadsheets can come in a variety of sizes aside from the two business paper sizes mentioned above.

Inventory FAQs

Do you have any questions or even some items that you would like to clarify with regards inventories? Fret not as there are also a lot of people like you who would like to be enlightened on how they can make the most out of the document’s actual usage. Asking questions is actually very healthy and beneficial as it can allow you to gather more details about the creation of the particular inventory that your business needs. Some of the frequently asked questions about inventory creation and usage include the following:

What are inventories used for?

Different kinds of inventories are used for different reasons or purposes. There are inventories that are used for organizing stocks, recording the maintenance schedules of equipment, identifying the current condition of company assets, listing the goods that the company can provide to its clients or customers, or ensuring that all necessary tools are already acquired by the business to support the needs and demands of its operations. These are only some of the ways on how you can use an inventory document.

How can you effectively use an inventory for your business procedures?

One of the ways on how you can ensure the effectiveness of your inventory is by directly specifying the purpose of its usage. With this, all the entities who will use the inventory can be aware of how the document can support their work functions. Also, it will be best if you will limit the number of people who have access in updating the inventory so proper inventory tracking and management can be established.

The completion of the items in the inventory is very crucial as it can effect the efficiency and effectiveness of the document’s usage. Whether it is an estate inventory or other kinds of inventories that you plan to make, you always have to remember that you must keep the inventory details and formatting error-free so you can rely on the document every single time.