Small warehouses

Your warehouse runs on spreadsheets. When is that a problem?

Practical notes for owners of small warehouses and stockrooms on when a WMS for a small business makes sense, what a first system should do, and how to avoid buying too much.

Good fit if you

Count stock by hand or in a spreadsheet
Have a few staff and one building
Want clear steps, not a sales pitch

You do not need to buy everything

If you run a small warehouse, most WMS marketing is aimed at someone else. It talks about thousands of locations and dozens of dock doors. You may have a few racks, a stockroom and a clipboard.

These pages are for you. We explain when spreadsheets stop working, what a first system should do, and what you can safely ignore for now. We will tell you when something simpler is the better choice.

What a location-based system shows that a sheet cannot

These are screens from the Microsive demo platform, all demo data. A spreadsheet lists your stock in rows; here the same idea is drawn as a building and a set of shelves, so you can see what knowing where things are looks like.

3D warehouse management system building view of a demo warehouse with racking, labelled zones and dock trucks (demo data) — A whole demo building with labelled zones. A sheet can list zones, but it cannot show them side by side like this. Demo data.

3D warehouse management system rack view of shelving rows with cartons, an open aisle and a forklift carrying a put-away task tag (demo data) — A single row of shelving with cartons and an open aisle, the level of detail a location code points to. Demo data.

See Cargohold

Start here

01Spreadsheets

Warehouse inventory spreadsheet

Four tabs, the columns each one needs, and the locks that stop people typing over stock. A column guide for small warehouses, not a download.

Updated 12 Oct 20266 min read

02Locations

Warehouse location naming

Name shelves, bays and pallet slots with codes that run from large to small, then label one aisle at a time without stopping work.

Updated 12 Oct 20265 min read

03Spreadsheet limits

Warehouse management in Excel

Ten signs a spreadsheet no longer fits your warehouse, a quick self-test score, and what to try before you buy any software.

Updated 12 Oct 20265 min read

04First WMS

WMS for a small warehouse

The five jobs a first warehouse system must do, what a small team can skip, and an eight step test to run with your own goods.

Updated 12 Oct 20264 min read