We can use Visual Basic code to build an inventory management system. Building a Visual Basic inventory system involves the use of relational databases. In our example, we are using Visual Basic 6 to create the inventory system. In Visual Basic 6, there are a number of built-in database management tools which we can use to manage the data.
To start building a good inventory system, we need to have a good planning. First of all, you have to sit down with your client to get detail information about his or her businesses and establish the kind of system he or she wants. For example, you need to know what types of goods they are dealing with, the turn-over volumes, cost prices, selling prices and more. Besides that, you need to know what kind of documents the system needs to deal with like invoices, delivery orders and more.
After getting all the necessary information from your client, you can then start to build a database. Based on the number and types of products, you need to decide what are the variables or fields needed to be included in the database’s tables.
We shall use a hypothetical case to illustrate how to build an inventory system. Let’s say our client is dealing with electrical goods.
Step 1: Creating the database tables
To design the database tables, we need to determine how many tables are needed. In order to keep things simple, we shall limit to two tables in our example.
The first table shall be used to store the data of the inventory or stock in hand. The second table shall be used to record stocks coming in and stocks going out.
The first table shall comprise the following fields:
- Category
- Brand
- Item Description
- Model Number
- Stock
- Unit Cost
- Total Cost
The second table shall comprise the following fields:
- Date
- Category
- Brand
- Item Description
- Model Number
- Stock In
- Stock Out
- Unit Cost
- Total Cost