I first learned about SOS Inventory at a Scaling New Heights conference in Orlando. I think it was going back to 2019 or something, the first one they did in Orlando. They were one of the show sponsors and they had a demo booth, and I remember thinking (when I first saw it that they did some features in QuickBooks Online better than the desktop software did). They really nailed some features. Particularly, the feature I like is the separation of shipping from invoicing whereas in QuickBooks Desktop, that was all bundled together and you couldn’t deal with the real practical business flows.
So, I thought it was a good product right from the get go. I started working with a couple of clients. I liked it so much I ended up becoming certified as a SOS consultant. At first I would only get a SOS gig once in a while, but the past year, it’s just been an explosion of new SOS implementation business. It’s become sort of a specialty. I really enjoy the product. I think the tech support is outstanding. They’re very responsive. Steve personally has helped me in a lot of things. He’s been one of the lead developers for years and I’ve worked with a lot of the different folks on the team. And they get back to me and occasionally when I need a little bit more handholding with something, we’ll have a teams meeting or a phone call and that’s been very helpful when needed.
So, I find it’s a good solid product. The support’s great. It meets most of the clients’ needs. It’s cost effective compared to some of the other products out there, so it’s a very good option for a lot of clients. So, it’s helped me develop an inventory niche a little bit and when I first started working with SOS, because I ran my own business about two years ago, I joined a larger corporate consulting firm, Siegel Solutions, and it’s been a real big boon to Seigel Solutions that bring this inventory specialty to to their table and it’s it’s been a great offering from the Siegel service standpoint so customers like it. There’s a few things that I would always like to see a little bit better like during the implementation phase, I’d like to see some more data able to import than it’s able to now. But it does a lot of the stuff that you could automate a lot of the implementation and feeds so, you know, it’s just a good solid product that’s a good fit for a lot of clients that wanna move to QuickBooks Online but need something to handle inventory management because the QuickBooks Online itself just can’t handle it.
Ed Jaworski from Siegel Solutions has been a QuickBooks ProAdvisor for over 20 years. At Siegel, Ed helps small businesses be more efficient through QuickBooks training, implementing 3rd party QuickBooks add-on software, and custom-building QuickBooks integration programs. Ed has been implementing SOS Inventory since 2016 and became an SOS Certified Consultant in 2019. He is an Advanced Certified ProAdvisor for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. Ed was named a Top 100 ProAdvisor by Insightful Accountant, an independent news and information source written specifically for the small business advisor.
SOS Inventory Projects:
- A catheter medical device company that required lot level tracking to manage the disposition of devices sold, and to manage sample inventory in the possession of several sales reps.
- A knee brace medical device company utilizing a complex, multi-layered BOM structure and lot number tracking to manage the flow of products.
- A promotional products distributor marketing to the golf industry, using both warehoused and direct drop-shipped items.
- A custom truck distributor that manages the configuration of specialty industrial equipment installations on each vehicle.
- A multi-national company opening a North American distribution center selling oil and lubricants to
manufacturers. - A start-up robotics company in the warehouse, distribution, logistics industry.
- Other SOS projects: a bio-technology startup company, a wine distributor, a dog snack food distributor, a specialty health food distributor, a candy distributor.
SOS Inventory Implementations:
- Import custom BOM’s and build item list.
- Coordinate a pilot project to test implementation details in a test SOS / test QBO environment.
- Import inventory item adjustments to correct for improper item valuations.
- Implement complex Unit of Measure conversions and specializes customer price lists.
- Analyze SOS – QBO synchronization issues affecting accounting records and recommend corrective
procedures. - Conduct end-user training sessions, including accounting documentation of SOS processes.