be able to pick and choose the plug-ins that have the specific accounting and processing features and functions you want. Some of the add-ons include:

- Distribution- adds customer file and order management from quote through shipping; packing lists, invoicing, bills of lading, sales history, purchase order generation and accounts receivable management, and more.
- Manufacturing- adds bill of material and work order management, custom routing, process monitoring for quantities, accumulated labor and re-costing, and more.
- Purchasing- adds ability to issue and track RFPs and RFQs, confirm purchase orders, order stock for specific jobs, and more.
- Asset Management- allows you to track various assets within the organization.

Inventory Customization- regardless of the size of your organization, you'll want to make sure that the inventory software you choose has the internal structure that will work for you. By this, we mean that there may be a limit on how many categories you can use to classify or group your inventory, a limit on how many characters can be used to describe a particular item, certain ways that the database can be searched, etc.

Multiple Locations- if your organization has multiple locations (or will in the foreseeable future), you'll want to make sure that the inventory system can handle shipping and receiving across multiple locations.

Material Tracking- depending on how your organization works internally, you will want to find out if the inventory software can issue and track materials to locations, jobs, work orders or other criteria. Making this information available to the appropriate internal and external personnel will help eliminate 'status checks' and provide better information across the board and increase customer loyalty.

Alerts- as the inventory software tracks inventory across your organization, it's important to be alerted to variable such as low inventory, materials shortage, upcoming due dates, cost changes, and so on. The more control you have over setting these alerts, the better the system will function.

Return Management- the better inventory software programs will help you manage repairs, returns and warranty service.

Reporting- many inventory management systems provide status and historical reports that can be imported into other industry-standard accounting programs.

FDA Standards- if your organization works in the medical field, you'll want to find an