One area of business that always seemed to be intrinsically tied to a workstation computer — otherwise, stationary — is inventory (especially with smaller businesses). This is no longer the case. With tablet technology taking over, it’s easy and often encouraged to work on the go. Modern business must be mobile.

With an Android tablet and Easy Invoice, you can tackle the tasks of managing your Invoices and inventory. Easy Invoice features include:

  • Inventory management (create multiple warehouses, manage inventory with sales and purchase orders, different tax rates, and attach notes to inventory)
  • Account management (create groups and accounts for vendors, customers, and partners)
  • Reports (for inventory, financial, business partners, and groups)
  • Share data (invoices, orders, receipts, and reports)
  • Work offline (the software does not require a server connection)
  • Print (invoices, orders, receipts, reports, etc.)

The only caveat to the free version of this software is that it’s limited to 50 receipt transactions. In other words, install the free version, try it, and if it works for you, install Easy Invoice Professional. The pro version will set you back $10.99 (USD).

Let’s install Easy Invoice and take a look at how to get it up and running for your business.


Installation

The installation is quite simple. I’ll walk you through the process of installing the free version. However, should you wind up purchasing Easy Invoice Professional, the installation for that is just as easy.

  1. Open the Google Play Store
  2. Search for “easy office”
  3. Tap the entry for Easy Office (Vega Software)
  4. Tap Install
  5. Tap Accept & download

Once it’s installed, you should find the Easy Invoice launcher in the app drawer and/or the home screen. Tap the Easy Invoice launcher, and you’re ready to work.

Usage

The first task to take care of is setting up Easy Invoice for your business. From the main screen (Figure A), swipe the screen to the left three times. This will take you to the screen that contains the Setting launcher.
Figure A

Easy Invoice on a Verizon-branded Galaxy Tab.

In the Service screen, tap the Settings icon and set:

  • Bluetooth barcode scanner (optional)
  • Default Warehouse
  • Company name
  • Address
  • Contact information (phone, email, web)

At this point, if you know you’re going to be taking advantage of the Easy Invoice multi-warehouse feature, go back to the main screen and tap the Warehouse Manager icon. Within this screen (Figure B), tap the New button, give the new warehouse a Name, Code, and Description, and then tap Save.
Figure B

Quickly manage multiple warehouses from within this screen.

The next step in the setup is to create categories in the following sections:

  • Stock
  • Account
  • Units

With the categories created, you then need to start creating:

  • Accounts
  • Stock

It’s actually best to create everything in the order you see above. This is due to the fact that many of the above depend on having all of the categories (and units) already created.

To create an account, you’ll need to enter the following information in the New Account screen (Figure C):

  • Name
  • Code
  • Category
  • e-mail
  • Phone
  • Address
  • City
  • Tax Number
  • Tax Office

Figure C

Create an account by tapping Account Management | New.

Every time you go to create a new Purchase Order, Sales Invoice, New Payment Receipt, New Collect Receipt, or Sales Order, you must select an account. As you create these, you might get tripped up. Why? When you tap on one of the items (let’s create a new Sales Invoice), you’ll see the Select Account window (Figure D). If you fill out all of the information and then tap Apply, nothing happens.
Figure D

The Easy Invoice app could be a bit more intuitive.

Here’s what you have to do:

  1. Select a category
  2. Tap Apply
  3. Select the appropriate account

Now you’ll find yourself in the Sales Invoice Screen (Figure E).
Figure E

You’re ready to start creating your Sales Invoice.

Easy Invoice is an outstanding, feature-rich Android application that can enable you to run the invoicing and inventory of your small business with your tablet. Give the free version of this application a try. I’m certain you’ll be dropping the coin for the professional version shortly after.

Which inventory and/or invoicing application(s) do you use for your tablets? Share you experience in the discussion thread below.