Inventory management software
Know exactly what you have, and what you are about to run out of
SmartShelfKart is inventory management software for small and growing businesses — stock, purchase and sales orders, invoicing, and reports that all trace back to the same ledger. It runs in a browser and on Android, against one live database, so the count on the shop floor and the number in the office are never two different numbers.
Free on every tier during launch · No card · Works in the browser, nothing to install
The problem
Most small businesses do not lose stock. They lose track of it.
A spreadsheet works until two people open it, until a return needs unwinding, until someone asks what margin you made on a category last quarter. Then it stops working all at once.
The count is a guess
Nobody edits the sheet at the moment stock actually moves, so the number on screen is always some hours or some days behind the shelf.
Stockouts arrive as surprises
Without a per-product threshold and a reorder signal, you find out you are out when a customer asks for it.
Nobody can answer "why"
A quantity changed. There is no reason attached, no timestamp, and no name — so the same argument happens again next month.
Orders live somewhere else
Purchase orders in email, sales in a bill book, stock in a sheet. Reconciling the three is a weekend job.
What you get
One ledger under everything
Every screen in SmartShelfKart writes to the same transaction record. That is what makes the reports trustworthy — open any number and you can walk it back to the individual movement that produced it.
Stock movement, recorded properly
Receive, issue, transfer, adjust, write off damage, hold stock for a customer and release it again. Every one of those is a typed transaction with a reason and a person against it, not a number someone overtyped.
- Stock In and Stock OutAgainst a purchase order, a sales order, or ad hoc.
- TransferBetween locations, without either side losing the trail.
- Adjust and DamageCorrections and write-offs kept separate, on purpose.
- Hold and ReleaseReserve stock for a customer before it ships.
Orders on both sides
Raise a purchase order, receive it in parts, and watch the stock land. Take a sales order, allocate against stock, despatch it and bill it — all from the same catalogue.
- Purchase ordersDraft, approve, receive and part-receive.
- Sales ordersAllocate, despatch, and convert to an invoice.
- ReturnsInward and outward, restoring the correct quantity.
- Vendors and customersWith their full history and running statements.
Alerts before the sale is lost
A per-product low-stock threshold, a reorder screen that reads real movement history, batch and expiry tracking for dated stock, and a forecast of when each line runs out.
- Low StockEverything under its own threshold, live.
- ReorderA suggested quantity, not just a red flag.
- Expiry alertsBefore dated stock becomes unsellable.
- Stock forecastProjected run-out date per product.
Reports that survive scrutiny
Profit and loss by product and category, ABC analysis, valuation, ageing buckets, the stock ledger and a full filterable history. Numbers are derived from transactions — never typed in.
- Profit & LossMargin by product, category and period.
- ABC analysisWhich fifth of the catalogue carries the value.
- Ageing and valuationWhat is sitting, for how long, worth what.
- Audit logWho changed what, when, from where.
How it works
Running by the end of the afternoon
1. Create a workspace
Sign in with an email address. A workspace is created for your business, and everything you enter is scoped to it.
2. Load the catalogue
Import an existing Excel sheet, or add products by hand with SKU, barcode, category, cost, price and a low-stock threshold.
3. Invite the team
Add staff by email and give each a role. A role decides exactly which screens open and which actions are allowed.
4. Move stock through it
Receive, sell, transfer and count. From that point the reports have something real to read, and the alerts have something to watch.
Who it fits
Built for the size of business that cannot run a rollout
SmartShelfKart is aimed squarely at teams between a spreadsheet and an ERP — where a proper system is overdue, but a six-month implementation is out of the question.
Retail and shops
A fast POS screen for counter trade, barcode scanning, and per-product reorder points so shelves refill before they empty.
Wholesale and distribution
Purchase and sales orders on both sides, part-receipts, customer statements, credit notes and ageing.
Warehouses
Zones and bins, transfers between locations, structured stock takes with variance, and a hold-and-release workflow.
Pharmacy and food
Batch and lot tracking carried through every movement, with expiry alerts before dated stock turns into a write-off.
Manufacturing and workshops
Consumption recorded as a typed movement with a reason, damage kept separate from shrinkage, and price history over time.
Anyone outgrowing a sheet
If two people need the file open at once, or you have ever asked "who changed this?", the spreadsheet has already stopped being the right tool.
Nova
Ask the inventory a question in plain language
Nova is a built-in assistant that reads your live data and answers in words — in English or Hinglish. It is not a chatbot bolted onto a marketing page; it queries the same transaction record the reports use, so its numbers and the Reports screen agree.
Ask what happened
“Which products did we lose money on last month?” “What is sitting in stock over 90 days?” “How much did we buy from this vendor this quarter?”
Ask it to do something
Describe a stock adjustment and Nova prepares the action card for you to confirm. Nothing is written without an explicit confirmation, and nothing is invented — if a product is not in your catalogue, it says so instead of making one up.
Pricing
Free on every tier, right now
4 tiers exist, with list prices of ₹99 to ₹999 a month. All 4 are currently set to ₹0 while the product is in its launch period — including the tiers with the AI assistant.
| Plan | List price | Now | Team members | Products |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | ₹99/mo | Free | 3 | 250 |
| Growth | ₹299/mo | Free | 10 | 2,000 |
| Pro | ₹599/mo | Free | 50 | 20,000 |
| MAX Tier | ₹999/mo | Free | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Full plan comparison, limits and what happens after launch →
Free tools
Work out the numbers before you commit to software
Four calculators, free, no sign-up, no email wall. They run entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Reorder point calculator
The stock level at which you should place the next order, from your lead time, demand and service level.
Calculate →Safety stock calculator
How much buffer you need to hit a chosen service level given how variable your demand and lead time actually are.
Calculate →EOQ calculator
The order quantity that balances what ordering costs against what holding costs, using the Wilson formula.
Calculate →Inventory turnover calculator
How many times a year your stock sells through, and how many days of supply that leaves on the shelf.
Calculate →Guides
How inventory management actually works
Practical explanations of the methods the software implements — written so you could apply them on paper if you had to.
What is inventory management?
The whole discipline in one page: what it covers, the terms that matter, and the four decisions every stock system exists to answer.
Read the guide →The reorder point formula
Why lead time demand plus safety stock is the whole formula, and the three ways businesses get it wrong.
Read the guide →Safety stock, properly
Where the service-level Z-score comes from, and why a flat "two weeks of cover" costs you money at both ends.
Read the guide →ABC analysis
Sorting a catalogue by the value it actually carries, so your counting effort goes where the money is.
Read the guide →Inventory turnover ratio
What the number means, what counts as good in your sector, and why days-of-supply is easier to act on.
Read the guide →Moving off a spreadsheet
An honest comparison — what Excel is genuinely better at, and the specific point at which it stops being enough.
Read the comparison →Common questions
Is SmartShelfKart free?
Yes. Every plan tier is priced at ₹0 during the current launch period, including the tiers that normally carry a list price of up to ₹999 a month. You do not need a card to create a workspace, and nothing expires into a paywall without notice.
Does it work without installing anything?
Yes. The web app runs in any modern browser at smartshelfkart.com/app. The Android app on Google Play is the same product against the same database — stock counted on a phone on the floor shows up on the office browser immediately.
Can more than one person use the same stock list?
That is the normal case. You invite staff by email, give each of them a role, and the role decides which screens they can open and which actions they can take. Every change is attributed to a person in the audit log.
Can I move my existing spreadsheet in?
Yes. Import from Excel reads an .xlsx file and creates products in bulk; Update from Excel matches on SKU or barcode and edits what already exists, so a supplier price list becomes a single bulk update rather than hundreds of edits. Export to Excel goes the other way whenever you want your data back.
Does it handle barcodes?
Yes. On Android and iOS the camera scans the barcode directly. On the web a USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner works as a keyboard wedge — focus the field, scan, and the product is found. Each product can carry both a SKU and a barcode.
What happens when stock runs low?
Each product carries its own low-stock threshold rather than one global number. Anything under its threshold appears on the Low Stock screen, and the Reorder screen turns that into a suggested order quantity based on how the product has actually been moving.
Is my data isolated from other businesses?
Yes. Every record is scoped to a company workspace, and access is enforced in Firestore security rules on the server — not merely hidden in the interface. A user who is not a member of your workspace cannot read a single document in it.
Does it work offline?
Partly. The app caches your working set locally, so it keeps rendering and lets you keep reading while the connection is out, and queued writes sync when you come back. It is not designed for long stretches fully offline.
Start running your stock on something that adds up
Open the web app in your browser, or install the Android app. The same workspace, the same live data, no card required.