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Small Business

Qstock Inventory earns QuickBooks certification

System provides end-to-end inventory tracking/tracing, compliance with all industry regulatory requirements.

Qstock Inventory, a warehouse management system developed and marketed by San Jose-headquartered MSA Systems, Inc., has been named a QuickBooks Certified Silver solution after undergoing Intuit’s independent technical review process, it was announced by Intuit.

The review/certification assures potential users of the QuickBooks/Qstock ERP/inventory management software combination that the MSA inventory management system has met all of Intuit’s requirements for seamless integration and functionality. MSA will display and demonstrate the software at the MDM show in February in Anaheim.

“Besides the software’s broad general applicability, Qstock offers specialized functionality that can be particularly important for nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, beauty/cosmetics or other fields in which sensitive ingredients must be under positive end-to-end control,” said MSA’s Marketing Representative Kim Wilson. “And with its very favorable price-performance trade-offs, the system represents an ideal solution for the range of companies that attend MDM West Pack Show in Anahiem in February.

Powerful Warehousing, Ingredient Tracking

QStock combines state of the art management of physical warehouse processes with a real-time wireless communications environment that uses handheld scanners and printers to update inventory records and to coordinate purchase orders, sales orders, receiving, putaway, picking and shipping. Its fast, detailed ingredient tracking and tracing capabilities can provide valuable support in containing problems in event of a recall or simply in accommodating customer and compliance standards.

As an example, Wilson points to MSA’s quick and easy response to a situation faced by Qstock user East & West Gourmet Afghan Food (DBA “Bolani”), which manufactures highly perishable ethnic food products. CostCo representatives had approached Bolani management about featuring their products but there was a condition: CostCo policy mandated that vendors maintain a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Audit (HAACP) capability — a rigid protocol for tracking every ingredient of every product throughout its production/distribution cycle so that trouble spots can be identified in the event of a recall.

Bolani had no feasible answer, estimating that it would take three or four people to manage the audit and tracking details. In fact, its QStock software routinely recorded the data and because it tracked each ingredient of from receipt through product shipment, it already had the data to support such an audit. Bolani turned to MSA Systems, providing the details on a simulated shipment of nuts..MSA tracked the nuts across a full product recall sequence, tracing their receipt into inventory through their use in a finished product and its shipment to retailers.

Fast, Comprehensive

MSA provided Bolani with the successful HAACP audit in less than two days and instead of the projected days-long, personnel-intensive manual ingredient tracing, the procedure now takes only about five minutes. Qstock Inventory similarly accommodates other commonly applied regulatory requirements, among them the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and various international agencies. Besides QuickBooks, Qstock can also be integrated with other ERP systems or used as a free-standing application.