Inventory Manager

The Inventory Manager was born out of necessity when I worked for a computer repair company. At that time, customer records were tracked through Excel files, but the system was inefficient and rarely updated beyond basic information like names and phone numbers. Wanting to improve the organization and accuracy of our customer data, I developed the Inventory Manager to create a more reliable, structured system for customer and order tracking.

Project Background and Initial Challenges

Initially, customer information was often incomplete or inaccurate, leading to frustration among both employees and customers. My goal was to implement a tool that would:

• Organize Customer Data: Provide a single, accessible place to record detailed information about each customer’s repair history, contact details, and transactions.
• Improve Customer Satisfaction: By adding more detail to printed invoices, customers had greater transparency and confidence in the services provided.

Core Features and Functionality

Inventory Manager became an essential tool for the business, and while we didn’t end up using it for inventory tracking, it transformed how customer information was managed:

• Enhanced Record-Keeping: Allowed staff to easily record and retrieve detailed customer data, making follow-up and service history tracking much smoother.
• Insurance Tracking: When the company introduced an insurance program, I added a system to track customer payments, claims, and profitability, ensuring better financial oversight.

Development Journey and Lessons Learned

The initial file-based storage system became cluttered quickly, which pushed me to learn how to implement a database for better organization and scalability. This transition not only improved the tool’s performance but also gave me hands-on experience in database management—skills that have been valuable in my later roles.

Even after leaving the company (and then later becoming its owner and operator), I maintained a good relationship with the owner, who continued using the program. Although some of the latest source code was lost, I have preserved partial versions on GitHub, along with a rewritten customer handling system to address bugs in the original.

Developing Inventory Manager taught me the importance of scalable, organized data storage and instilled practical skills that I’ve applied in subsequent projects and positions.

Source: Inventory Manager