Industries · Building and hardware supplies
Hardware store inventory software for South African building suppliers
Thousands of small items on the shelves, heavy materials in the yard and contractors waiting at the counter. VasKem gives building and hardware suppliers one cloud record of what is on hand, where it is and who it was sold to.
- From R4,500/month excl. VAT
- South African company
- WhatsApp-first support
- Try the product tour without signing up
Why building supplies stock control is hard
South African building and hardware suppliers range from a single-branch hardware store in a small town to multi-branch merchants serving builders, plumbers, electricians and DIY customers across Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. Few businesses carry a wider spread of stock: bolts by the unit, paint by the tin, cement by the bag and timber by the length.
That mix creates a familiar set of problems:
- A long tail of small SKUs. Fasteners, fittings, hand tools and plumbing parts add up to thousands of lines, many of which sell slowly. Knowing what is dead stock matters as much as knowing what is about to run out.
- Bulky yard stock. Bricks, sand, stone, roof sheeting and timber live outside or in a yard, are hard to count and are easy to lose through damage, over-supply or theft.
- Break-bulk selling. A box of screws or a roll of cable is bought in one unit and often sold in another, which quietly throws out balances if the break is not recorded.
- Contractor accounts and quotes. Builders ask for a quote for a full job, come back weeks later, and then collect in several loads. Tracking what was quoted, invoiced and paid is a job in itself.
- Counter pressure. Walk-in customers and trade staff want an answer immediately: do you have it, where is it and what does it cost?
- Seasonal and project-driven demand. Building activity rises and falls, and a single large project can empty a shelf of a line that normally sells slowly.
- Shrinkage. Small, valuable items such as power-tool accessories and brass fittings are attractive to theft, and losses rarely show until the next count.
If you are still running this from a spreadsheet or the stock module of an accounting package, these issues usually show up as stock that "is on the system" but cannot be found. Our guide to signs you have outgrown spreadsheets covers the warning signs.
How VasKem maps to a hardware and building supplies operation
| Challenge | VasKem module | How it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the right item fast | Product records and barcode lookup | Each product holds a SKU, name, barcode, category, unit of measure, dimensions and prices. Scan or look up a barcode to pull up the record. |
| Shelf and yard locations | Multi-warehouse inventory with bin locations | Record stock against aisles, shelves and yard bays, and set up each branch as its own warehouse. |
| Counter sales | POS | Record in-store sales so stock reduces at the right branch as items leave. |
| Contractor quotes and accounts | Quotations, invoices and CRM | Quote a job, mark it accepted, convert it to an invoice in one click and record partial payments. Customer records keep contacts, notes and follow-ups together. |
| Trade orders and collections | Dispatch orders and picking lists | Link each order to a customer and warehouse and give the yard or store team a picking list. |
| Running out of fast movers | Reorder points and low-stock alerts | Set a reorder point and quantity per product so cement, fasteners and paint are reordered in time. |
| Supplier deliveries | Purchase orders and goods receipt | Raise purchase orders with an expected date and receive stock against them; balances update on submit. |
| Shrinkage and damage | Stock takes, adjustments and audit log | Count by bin or yard area, review automatically calculated variances, require admin approval and see who changed what. |
You can bring your existing product list across with a CSV import; duplicate SKUs are skipped, so a rerun does not create doubles. Ask VasKem, the built-in read-only AI assistant, can answer plain-language questions such as which products are below their reorder point at a branch, with links back to the source records.
Branch moves are recorded as stock transfers, so both locations update. Read more on running multiple warehouses.
Book a demo on WhatsApp Take the product tour
What VasKem does not cover for building suppliers
Some needs in this trade are specialised. Check each one that matters to you before you commit:
- Automatic pack-size conversion. VasKem stores a unit of measure per product but does not claim to convert between boxes, packs and units automatically.
- Cut-to-length and weighed goods. Selling timber, chain or cable by the metre from a longer length, or sand by mass, is not a dedicated workflow.
- Delivery planning. Route planning, vehicle tracking, weighbridge links and proof-of-delivery apps are not included.
- Price lists and credit control. Confirm whether your contractor pricing and account limits can be represented in the way you work.
- Accounting integration. Connections to your accounting package are not included by default; they can be scoped depending on the APIs available.
- Mobile and offline use. VasKem runs in desktop and laptop browsers and needs internet access. There is no native app or offline mode, so test your yard and counter devices during the trial.
Demo checklist for hardware stores and building suppliers
- Import a real sample. Bring a CSV of 50 products, including fasteners, a few yard lines and some duplicates, and see how the import handles them.
- Scan and find. Scan a barcode and confirm you land on the right product, bin and balance.
- Ring up a counter sale. Complete a POS sale and check that stock reduces at the correct branch.
- Quote a contractor. Create a quotation for a small job, accept it, convert it to an invoice and record a partial payment.
- Break a box. Show how you would record selling single units from a sealed box, and decide whether that process works for your staff.
- Count the yard. Run a stock take on one yard bay and walk through the variance and approval steps.
- Transfer between branches. Move stock from one site to another and confirm both balances update.
- Receive a supplier delivery. Receive goods against a purchase order and check the low-stock alert clears.
Plans start from R4,500 per month excl. VAT for 3 users and 1 warehouse; your quote covers extra users, branches and onboarding. See pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Can VasKem handle both walk-in customers and contractor accounts?
Yes. The POS module records counter and in-store sales, while quotations, invoices and payment recording support contractor and trade customers. Invoice statuses such as Partially Paid and Overdue show what is still outstanding. If you rely on customer-specific price lists or credit limits, test how you would handle them during the demo.
Can I sell items like screws or cable by the box and by the unit?
Each product has a unit of measure, but VasKem does not claim automatic conversion between pack sizes. Many suppliers set up the box and the single unit as separate SKUs and record the movement when a box is broken. Walk through your own break-bulk items in the demo before you commit.
How do I keep track of materials stored in the yard?
Set the yard up as its own warehouse or as bin locations within your main site, so sand, bricks, timber and cement have a recorded location. Regular stock takes on yard areas, with variance approval, help you see losses early. VasKem does not track weighbridge readings or delivery vehicles.
Does VasKem manage deliveries to building sites?
Dispatch orders link stock to a customer and warehouse and produce picking lists, and returns and logistics records can be captured. VasKem does not include route planning, vehicle tracking or proof-of-delivery apps. If you need those, they would be a separate system or a scoped custom project.
Will VasKem work during load-shedding?
VasKem is browser-based and needs an internet connection. With a backup power solution for your router and a device, staff can keep working; there is no offline mode. If you have several branches, staff at a branch with power can still see stock across all locations.
See VasKem on your own stock and workflow
Send a WhatsApp with what you stock, how many locations you run and where things go wrong today. We’ll walk you through how VasKem would handle it and confirm your price in writing.