Free Order Management Software for small business UK 2021

Order management software can be a vital tool to help centralise sales order processes from multiple channels, so you can track and manage everything from one place. It can save your business time by automating tasks and streamlining order fulfilment. This should mean fewer mistakes, happier customers and a more cost-efficient order management process.

In this guide, we’ll run through the options for free order management software for small businesses in the UK in 2021.

Free order management software in the UK 2021

Many order management solutions offer free trials, so you can test out the product before starting to pay a monthly or annual fee. But there aren’t too many products out there that are available for free.

To help you find the right order management software for your startup or small business, here’s a rundown of the handful of solutions available for no monthly cost.

Zoho Inventory

Zoho Inventory offers a full inventory management solution for small to medium size businesses.

Its key features include:

• Multi-location warehouse stock management - including tracking transfers between warehouses
• Sales order management and invoicing
• Packaging and shipping - including printing shipping labels and access to real-time shipping rates
• Vendor relationship management - including custom price lists, purchase orders and billing.
• Integrations with accounting software, payment gateways, ecommerce and many more.
• Mobile app for iOS and Android - so you can manage orders on the move.

The key thing for small businesses to know is that Zoho Inventory has a free plan. This doesn’t give you access to all the features, and you’ll be limited to 2 users and just 50 orders from 1 warehouse per month¹. You do get a lot for a completely fee-free plan, but if you need additional features you can look into upgrading to a paid plan - prices range from £49 to £189 a month¹.

Hydra OMS

This is a completely free, open source order management software suite, which works on business processing management principles.

With Hydra OMS, you’ll get the following features:²

• Order execution flow automation
• User-friendly order execution wizard
• Customisation through integration with third-party software
• Access to the Hydra billing system
• Visualise and build your own business process flow models
• SQL database integration.

Square for Retail

Square for Retail is a full PoS system, offering tools for multi-location inventory management, taking payments and much more. While it’s primarily aimed at selling and processing payments, there are also plenty of functions to help streamline and manage orders, stock and the customer experience.

Its key features include:

• Intuitive inventory management across multiple locations and channels - including a handy counting tool and smart stock forecasts
• Automatic purchase orders
• Create and print barcode labels
• Vendor management tools
• SKU and GTIN support
• Smart website builder
• Checkout tools - including barcode scanning, returns and exchanges
• Sales, profit margin and inventory reporting
• Team management tools - including timecard reporting
• Integrated payments - complying with required PCI standards
• Invoicing, professional estimates and automatic customer reminders.

Square for Retail has a choice of plans available, starting from £49 per month, per location for paid plans³.

But there’s also a free plan, which comes with no monthly fee and offers a surprisingly large number of features - including basic inventory tools, a free online shop and a free retail PoS app. But you will pay a fee of between 1.75% and 2.5% for payment transactions³.

Odoo

Odoo is another free open-source software solution, but it does far more than just inventory management. It’s an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform designed to maximise warehouse efficiency.

Odoo offers all kinds of high-end features and functions, including:

• Smart double entry inventory management
• Fully automated stock replenishment
• Route products directly from suppliers to customers for faster order fulfilment
• Dynamic real-time reporting
• Custom dashboards
• Integrate inventory management with other Odoo apps, including Sales, Purchase and Accounting.

It may well be that Odoo does far more than you need it to, at least for now. But if your business grows and order volumes increase, it’s good to know that there’s free order management software out there that’ll be able to cope.

Have suppliers abroad? Save money when you pay them

If you can find free order management software that does just what you need it to, you could make some serious savings. Not only on the monthly fee, but also in terms of improving efficiency and saving time across the whole of the order process.

But there’s another way that small businesses can save money, this time in relation to paying suppliers. If you’re starting to trade internationally or source supplies from abroad, the Wise Business multi-currency account is the ideal choice.

With one powerful borderless account, you can pay suppliers in 70+ countries for tiny fees and convert at the mid-market rate. And it’s easy to automate your workflow and make batch payments of 1,000 at once using the Wise open API. You can even integrate your favourite business tools, including accounting software such as Xero and Quickbooks.

Your business can sell overseas too, receiving payments from all over the world without high recipient fees.

Start saving today with Wise

Summary

There isn’t a huge choice of free order management software for small businesses in the UK, and not every free solution will hit your brief.

But if you can find the right fit for your company, you can whip your order management processes into shape and save both time and money - all without paying a monthly fee.

Sources used for this article:

Sources checked on 23-June-2021.