Stock control for the business you actually run # No two inventories are the same. So this one is built around yours. Most inventory software hands every business the same empty form and leaves you to bend your trade into it. This one asks what kind of business you run, then supplies that trade's categories, the words you use at the counter, and the questions worth asking about a thing on your shelf. What your trade does not need is simply not there. Garage & overhead door Torsion spring, .250 wire It asks: brand, wire size, length, residential or commercial D-0114 Retail & general Insulated work glove, L It asks: brand, size and colour, barcode, new or open box S-0042 Auto salvage Fender, driver side It asks: what it fits, which side, A / B / C grade L-0042 One app. Three businesses. The same shelf, described the way each trade actually describes it, with a stock number you write on the thing so you can find it again. [Try the demo](https://inventory.bluecraneworks.ca/?new=1) [Ask a question](mailto:hello@bluecraneworks.ca?subject=Blue%20Crane%20Inventory) The real app, free for 10 days. No card. Nothing to install. Set up around you ## Say what you do. It arrives already speaking your trade. Choosing your business type is the first question at signup and the last time you have to think about it. It sets the categories, the condition words, the questions on every item form, and the letter your stock numbers run on. It also puts away whole parts of the product that would only be clutter for you. Business type ### Garage & Overhead Door 01Springs, track, openers, seal, fasteners, lumber. Trucks count as places stock lives. 02Every part is tagged residential or commercial, in colour, because a 16x7 and a bay door are not the same job. 03Save a standard install as a kit. Sending that job out deducts the whole list in one tap. 04No public storefront, no marketplace composer. A door shop does not sell parts to the public, so those screens are not there. Business type ### Retail & General 01Sixty-five broad categories, from apparel to tools to grocery, with room for whatever you actually carry. 02Brand, size or colour, barcode. Scan the barcode with the phone camera or a handheld gun and the product comes up. 03New, open box, used or damaged, and the price memory keeps those apart. 04An optional public page for the stock you want people to see, on a link you can put in an ad. Business type ### Auto salvage 01157 part types in yard words, so "driver fender" and "quarter" find what they should. 02Every part carries what it fits, which side it came off, and its grade. 03One VIN becomes a fitted pull list. Every part inherits the donor's fitment, typed once instead of twenty times. 04Live market prices beside your own, clearly labelled as somebody else's number. Two of these have a page of their own, carrying that trade's real categories, the exact questions its item form asks, and what the app switches off for it: [inventory software for garage door shops](https://bluecraneworks.ca/garage-door-inventory-software) and [inventory software for independent retail](https://bluecraneworks.ca/retail-inventory-software). Auto salvage is sold differently, as [a yard set up with you on a call](https://bluecraneworks.ca/solutions/inventory-systems.html) rather than self-serve. Running something that is none of these? The trades are pluggable by design, and adding one is a day's work rather than a rebuild. [Tell us what you stock](mailto:hello@bluecraneworks.ca?subject=A%20business%20type%20for%20Blue%20Crane%20Inventory) and we will tell you honestly whether it fits yet. Count it ## Get it right once. Keep it right by working. Walk an area and type what is actually on the shelf. The app works out every difference and files the whole walk as one record. After that the count keeps itself: nothing moves it except somebody doing something, and each of those is a tap. Stock count, sea can 1 Example Nylon roller 2"48 → 44 Hinge #230 → 30 · matched Lift cable 8ft6 → 4 Walk filed3 counted · 2 changed 01 ### An empty box means "did not count" Never zero. The difference between a shelf you checked and a shelf you skipped is the whole integrity of a count, so the app will not guess which one you meant. 02 ### Photograph it instead of typing it Point the camera at something on the shelf and the form fills itself in. You confirm. The model proposes, you dispose, and nothing is ever created behind your back. 03 ### It works at the back of the yard No signal is normal inside a steel container. Search answers from a copy held on the phone, and anything you record out there goes up the moment you have bars again. Find it ## Do I have it, and which building is it in. The two things you have to say out loud while somebody waits on the phone. Search takes your trade's own words, and one tap narrows the whole business down to the shop, a container, or a truck. Catalog · "torsion spring" Example Main shop6 on hand · $89 Sea can 214 on hand · $41 Service truck2 on hand Whole business22 on hand Shops, sea cans and service trucks are all just places stock lives, so the van that left at seven is part of the count rather than a hole in it. When it leaves ## A job took it. A hand took it. Either way it is written down. Put a tablet on the bench and the crew taps their name and what they took. Send a job out and its parts come off the count under that job's name. Both land in one running list, so the count is never a mystery and neither is who has what. Activity, this morning Example Bentake · 22 units · 2 lines 14 Elmwood Drinstall · 23 units · 6 lines Main shopcount · 3 lines 01 ### Save the lists you use every week A standard job takes the same parts every time. Save that list once, pull it in one tap, and adjust for the odd job. The saved list itself never changes unless you change it. 02 ### A retry is never a second helping If the signal drops at the wrong moment, the app knows the difference between a request that never arrived and an answer that got lost. Tap again as often as you like. The shelf is charged once. 03 ### The tablet stays on the tablet The bench screen locks the device to itself. A refresh cannot escape it and leaving costs the owner's password, so the crew can take parts without landing in your prices and billing. Before you run out ## Hear about it at the bench, not on the roof. Give anything a minimum. The moment work drags it down to that line you get one email, one and not a stream, and it sits on the front screen until it is back above the line. Needs reordering Example Torsion spring .2503 of 4 Lift cable 8ft4 of 6 Nylon roller 2"17 of 20 Emailedonce, until it recovers That list is also an order sheet. Edit the quantities, then copy it or send it to the supplier without retyping a thing. Why it stays useful ## It never invents a number. Most inventory tools either leave price blank forever or pull an average off the internet. This one watches what you actually charge and suggests from your own history. 01 ### Your prices, not an average Every price you set is remembered against that kind of thing. The next one like it is suggested from what you have charged before, in your market, at your margins. 02 ### Never a made-up number No history means it reads Unpriced, not $0.00. A wrong price you quote a customer is worse than a blank one. 03 ### It remembers where things go File a few of something on the same shelf and the next one suggests the spot, from where you actually filed things. It never reasons from what a shelf name sounds like. 04 ### Duplicates are grouped, never merged Two of the same thing in two buildings read as one row with a total. Each keeps its own stock number, because telling somebody you have two when one is the wrong variant sends a customer away with the wrong part. 05 ### Cost and margin, if you want them Enter what you paid and the margin sits beside the price. Leave it out and nothing nags you about it. 06 ### It runs on the phone in your pocket A web app, so there is nothing to install and nothing to update. Add it to your home screen and it opens like any other app. Straight about what it is ## Early, and honest about it. This is a young product being built with real businesses. Working today: business-type setup, counting and audits, locations across shops, containers and trucks, search, photos, barcode scanning, the bench take board, saved job kits, low-stock alerts and order sheets, price memory, offline capture, a public storefront page, and vehicle teardown by VIN for the yards. Not built yet: bulk import from a spreadsheet, purchase orders and receiving, and staff roles with their own permissions. If that sounds like the right trade, a tool that does the core job properly now and grows with you, get in touch and we will set you up. Common questions ## Asked by owners, answered straight. ### Is this only for one kind of business? No. It serves three business types today: garage and overhead door, retail and general, and auto salvage. You pick yours at signup and the app supplies that trade's categories, vocabulary and item questions. Adding a fourth trade is a contained piece of work rather than a rewrite, so if yours is close, ask. ### What does "tailored to your business" actually change? Five things: the category list, the words used for condition, the questions each item form asks, the letter your stock numbers run on, and which parts of the product are switched on. A door shop is never asked which side a part came off. A yard is never asked for a barcode. And a door shop opens without the public storefront, because that trade does not sell parts to the public. ### Do I have to use the camera? No. The camera is an accelerator, not a requirement. Type anything in and the form asks only what matters for that kind of thing. Either way it lands in the same catalogue. ### Does it work on a phone, in a building with no signal? Yes. It runs in the browser on the phone in your pocket, so you count stock where it sits. Search answers from a copy held on the device, and anything recorded offline uploads when the signal comes back. ### Can my crew use it without seeing my prices? Yes. The bench take board is a locked screen: a crew member taps their name and what they took, and the device stays on that screen until the owner's password unlocks it. Staff roles with finer permissions are on the list, not built yet. ### What does it cost? $24.99 a month per business, after 10 days free with no card. It is included at no extra cost with a full Blue Crane app subscription. ### Where does my data live? Photos are stored in Microsoft Azure's Canada Central region in Toronto. Catalogue records and AI processing use Azure services in the United States. Your data is never used to train AI models. The full detail is on our [data and privacy page](https://bluecraneworks.ca/your-data.html). ### How do I get started? [Open the app](https://inventory.bluecraneworks.ca/?new=1), answer what kind of business you run, and you are counting stock in minutes. Or [send a note](mailto:hello@bluecraneworks.ca?subject=Blue%20Crane%20Inventory) and we will walk your shop through it. ## Stop guessing what is on the shelf. Count it once, keep it honest by working, and know what to reorder before the truck is already loaded. Ten days free, no card, on whatever kind of business you run. [Try the demo](https://inventory.bluecraneworks.ca/?new=1) --- Source: https://bluecraneworks.ca/inventory