How to track parts and stock without a POS

Plenty of good workshops run without a POS. For a one or two bench shop that's a fair call: a POS is a monthly bill, a migration and a training job. Where the no-POS shop bleeds is parts. The bike that sits three days waiting on a cable you thought you had. The chain you fitted and forgot to bill. The order placed twice. None of that needs a POS. It needs a short list, kept honestly.

Count the lines that move

Don't count everything; that's why most stocktakes happen once. Count the parts that turn over and stop a job when missing: cables and outers, pads in your three common fitments, tubes, chains, cassettes, bar tape, sealant, the bearings you go through. For most workshops that's 30 to 60 lines, not 600.

1. 1Give each line a SKU, even a made-up one, written the same way every time.
2. 2Record what's on the shelf now. Leave it blank rather than guess: an unknown count is honest, a wrong one is worse than none.
3. 3Set a reorder point per line: the number at which you'd want to order, not the number at which you'd run out.
4. 4Recount the fast movers monthly and the rest when you touch them.

Velobook keeps your own counts with those four fields (item, SKU, on hand, reorder at). A blank count is stored as unknown, not zero. Import from a spreadsheet on a SKU match, and keep separate counts per location once a van or second site carries its own float.

Scan the barcode instead of typing the SKU

• Typing part numbers with greasy hands is where stock records die
• Velobook scans from a phone or tablet camera, or a cheap USB or Bluetooth handheld
• Scan a part onto a quote, onto a job, or in against an order when a delivery lands
• An unknown code is bound to the product once and known from then on

Keep the part attached to the job that needs it

The expensive failure isn't miscounting; it's a bike against the wall waiting on a part nobody can name. Parts belong on the booking: needed, on the shelf, on order, billed. Velobook shows the parts a job is waiting on right on the booking, flags a part added to a job but never quoted, and takes stock off your counts when the job finishes.

Order from a list, not from memory

• Keep supplier details in one place. Order email, account number, minimum order, freight-free threshold, lead time.
• Let approved work create the demand. A part on an approved quote joins the order list on its own.
• Raise a real purchase order and keep it open until the goods arrive.
• Receive against the order, including part deliveries. Tick off what turned up, leave the rest outstanding.
• Tell the customer their part is in on purpose, not automatically. A part landing rarely means the bike is ready.

Velobook covers all of it: suppliers, an ordering list fed from approved quotes, purchase orders sent by email or marked sent by hand, and a goods receipt that handles partial deliveries and puts what arrived back on your counts.

What changes if you add a POS later

Nothing is wasted. With a POS connected, stock numbers come from the POS and Velobook only reads them: it never reserves stock or takes it off for a quote. Your hand-kept counts stay separate. Shops on Lightspeed, Ascend or Shopify get the parts lookup, the ordering list and the job-side parts view reading from the POS, with the same barcode scanning.

Pitfalls to avoid

• Counting everything. A 600-line stocktake is abandoned by line 200.
• Zero standing in for unknown. Different facts. Treating them the same trains everyone to ignore the number.
• Reorder points set at zero. By the time the hook is empty, a bike is already waiting.
• Parts fitted but never billed. Nothing flags it unless you go looking.
• Two people ordering. One list, one person raising orders.