UncleJoe
Member
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2011
- Messages
- 154
Not sure which category to post this in but it is an enhancement in my shop so I posted it here.
We all know we should have a shop inventory. I have many photos of all my tools but not a real shop inventory and the task of writing everything down seems so laborious that I just don't want to try.
Well I came up with a very easy way for me to have a complete inventory of all my tools while sitting comfortably at my desk drinking coffee and typing very little.
First you need a little spreadsheet that fits your needs. On mine I simply have the following headings and I may find I need to add a few later on and it is simple to do.
My headings:
Quantity, Item Description, Supplier, Serial Number, Type, Cost, Total.... You can add as many or as few as you feel are helpful.
Next I take my cell phone. Now I have a Samsung S4 but I believe most modern phones will do. My phone has excellent speech to text capabilities. I found a simple little app called Note that allows you to take notes. I open the folder that has all the photos of my shop and I start telling my phone what I see. I have to tell it new paragraph after each item so that it begins a new line. My dictation sounds something like this; Kreg Jig new paragraph incra router table new paragraph Festool Sortainer 9 drawer new paragraph.
When I am done I have a list of all my tools. The speech recognition on my phone was amazing accurate and got brand names like Festool and Rolair correct. In all I had to edit a few entries but I did that in excel and it was very fast and easy.
Once I had the inventory list on my phone in Note I was able to email the text file to myself. From there is was simple to copy and past it into my spread sheet and now I have a detailed list of all my tools and I can go back and enter cost or quantity or serial numbers at my leisure.
I also downloaded a free program for my phone called CamScanner. It scans receipts or anything by taking a photo. This converts it to a PDF file which can then be stored on the phone or sent to your laptop. I send mine to OneNote and once in OneNote it is stored and OCR which means I can search the file full of receipts and it will find every receipt with the word Festool if I need to look up something. I have been using this for my business records since the beginning of the year and it is great. If I have a receipt or someone hands me a business card I scan it with my phone and toss the paper away and I know I can always find it.
Well this I found this inventory thing to be a fast and accurate way for me to get a complete inventory of all my tools. I have been putting this task off for far too long. My Insurance agent is a hobby woodworker too and he told me to send him the list and the photos and he will have them on file should anything ever happen. It may make the claim process easier.
We all know we should have a shop inventory. I have many photos of all my tools but not a real shop inventory and the task of writing everything down seems so laborious that I just don't want to try.
Well I came up with a very easy way for me to have a complete inventory of all my tools while sitting comfortably at my desk drinking coffee and typing very little.
First you need a little spreadsheet that fits your needs. On mine I simply have the following headings and I may find I need to add a few later on and it is simple to do.
My headings:
Quantity, Item Description, Supplier, Serial Number, Type, Cost, Total.... You can add as many or as few as you feel are helpful.
Next I take my cell phone. Now I have a Samsung S4 but I believe most modern phones will do. My phone has excellent speech to text capabilities. I found a simple little app called Note that allows you to take notes. I open the folder that has all the photos of my shop and I start telling my phone what I see. I have to tell it new paragraph after each item so that it begins a new line. My dictation sounds something like this; Kreg Jig new paragraph incra router table new paragraph Festool Sortainer 9 drawer new paragraph.
When I am done I have a list of all my tools. The speech recognition on my phone was amazing accurate and got brand names like Festool and Rolair correct. In all I had to edit a few entries but I did that in excel and it was very fast and easy.
Once I had the inventory list on my phone in Note I was able to email the text file to myself. From there is was simple to copy and past it into my spread sheet and now I have a detailed list of all my tools and I can go back and enter cost or quantity or serial numbers at my leisure.
I also downloaded a free program for my phone called CamScanner. It scans receipts or anything by taking a photo. This converts it to a PDF file which can then be stored on the phone or sent to your laptop. I send mine to OneNote and once in OneNote it is stored and OCR which means I can search the file full of receipts and it will find every receipt with the word Festool if I need to look up something. I have been using this for my business records since the beginning of the year and it is great. If I have a receipt or someone hands me a business card I scan it with my phone and toss the paper away and I know I can always find it.
Well this I found this inventory thing to be a fast and accurate way for me to get a complete inventory of all my tools. I have been putting this task off for far too long. My Insurance agent is a hobby woodworker too and he told me to send him the list and the photos and he will have them on file should anything ever happen. It may make the claim process easier.
