Best Inventory Management for Australian Tradies (2026)

simPRO is the gold standard for inventory management in Australian trade businesses with significant materials spend. It's not just inventory software — it's a full job management, quoting, scheduling, and inventory platform — but its inventory module is what sets it apart from every other job management tool on the market.

The headline feature for Australian tradies is direct supplier catalogue integration. simPRO connects to Reece (plumbing and waterworks), Tradelink (plumbing and drainage), Rexel (electrical), Coventry Fasteners, and other major Australian trade suppliers. This means when you're building a quote, you're pulling live pricing from your actual supplier account — not last month's price list, not a manual lookup, but real-time pricing from the supplier's catalogue. Purchase orders flow directly from simPRO to your supplier account. For high-volume plumbing and electrical businesses, this alone saves hours per week.

Van stock management is comprehensive. Each technician's van is set up as a separate stock location, with a defined catalogue of parts. When a tech uses parts on a job, they log it through the simPRO mobile app — those parts are deducted from van stock and added to the job's materials cost. When van stock drops below a threshold, simPRO generates a reorder alert. You can also track stock across a central warehouse and multiple vans simultaneously, which is essential for businesses with five or more technicians.

Job costing in simPRO is precise. Every material, labour hour, and overhead is tracked against the job — you can see your real margin on each job as it progresses, not just after it's invoiced. This closes the loop between inventory and profitability in a way that basic job management software simply can't.

The downsides: pricing is POA (expect $200–500+/month depending on features and user count, with implementation costs on top). simPRO requires a proper implementation and training investment — it's a powerful platform that rewards businesses who set it up correctly and a frustrating one for those who don't. It's not a platform you boot up in an afternoon. For businesses under five staff, the cost-to-benefit ratio may not stack up.

AroFlo is simPRO's closest competitor for Australian trade businesses, and the better choice for many businesses in the 5–15 staff range. It's Australian-built and Australian-supported, and it covers the same core ground: job management, scheduling, quoting, inventory, and van stock — all in one platform.

Like simPRO, AroFlo has direct integration with Australian supplier catalogues including Reece, Tradelink, Rexel, and others. Real-time pricing from catalogues means your quotes reflect what you'll actually pay, not what you paid three months ago before the last price rise. Purchase orders can be sent from AroFlo to your supplier account, eliminating the manual double-entry of ringing through an order and then recording it in software.

Van stock tracking works through the mobile app — technicians log parts used on jobs, stock levels update in real time, and reorder alerts fire when stock drops below your set threshold. The setup is less complex than simPRO, which makes it more accessible for businesses that don't have a full-time software implementation consultant. AroFlo's onboarding is solid for an Australian product, and the support team is local.

Pricing is more transparent than simPRO — from approximately $65 per user per month — which makes it considerably more accessible for businesses that are outgrowing basic job management software but aren't ready for a full enterprise platform. For an electrical business with eight technicians all carrying van stock, AroFlo's inventory module can pay for itself in recovered materials revenue within weeks.

LOCATE Inventory is a dedicated inventory management platform — not a trade-specific tool. It's built for businesses that want best-of-breed inventory management rather than an all-in-one trade platform. If you're already settled on Xero for accounting and a separate platform for job management, and you want a serious inventory layer without committing to simPRO or AroFlo, LOCATE is worth evaluating.

The Xero and QuickBooks integrations are deep and reliable — inventory movements, purchase orders, and cost of goods sold flows into your accounting software cleanly, without manual reconciliation. Stock management is robust: bin locations, batch tracking, serial numbers, reorder points, and purchase order management are all included. It can handle multiple warehouses and locations, including van stock if you configure it as a mobile location.

Where LOCATE falls short for trade businesses is the lack of direct Australian supplier catalogue integration — you don't get the live Reece or Tradelink pricing that simPRO and AroFlo offer. You'll also need to integrate it with your job management software to close the loop between jobs and inventory, which adds setup complexity. For a tradie who primarily needs to track materials against jobs and ensure they're billed correctly, the setup work required to get LOCATE running alongside existing tools is significant.

Best suited to trade businesses with a product element — plumbing wholesalers, electrical distributors, or trade businesses that manufacture or kits products — rather than pure service businesses with van stock.

Cin7 is a cloud inventory management platform popular with product-based businesses — retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers. Some trade businesses use it for materials management, particularly those that also sell products directly to customers or operate in a hybrid service-and-supply model.

The platform has strong integrations — Xero, Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, and many others — which makes it attractive if your trade business has an e-commerce or direct-to-consumer component alongside your installation or service work. For a solar company that sells and installs panels, or an HVAC business that also retails equipment directly, Cin7's breadth of integrations is genuinely useful.

For a pure trade service business with van stock, Cin7 is overkill in some areas and under-equipped in others. It doesn't have Australian supplier catalogue integration (no live Reece or Tradelink pricing), and its job management features are limited — you'd need to integrate it with a separate job management platform. Pricing starts at approximately ~$530 AUD/month, which is significant for a tool that doesn't cover the trade-specific use cases as well as simPRO or AroFlo.

MYOB Advanced is MYOB's enterprise ERP platform, built on the Acumatica cloud ERP engine. It includes a comprehensive inventory and supply chain module that handles everything from purchase orders and warehouse management to job costing and financial reporting. It is, without question, a powerful platform — but it's designed for businesses with the budget and operational complexity to justify a full ERP implementation.

For Australian trade businesses, MYOB Advanced becomes relevant at around $5 million or more in annual revenue, particularly where you have complex materials management, multiple locations or depots, significant headcount, and a need for deep financial reporting across business units. Below that threshold, the implementation cost, ongoing licensing, and internal resource required to run an ERP is disproportionate to the benefit.

MYOB Advanced can be configured to integrate with trade-specific workflows, and Australian implementation partners can customise it for industry needs. Pricing is strictly POA and typically runs into the thousands per month once implementation and licensing are factored in. If you're a large trade business outgrowing simPRO or AroFlo, MYOB Advanced is worth a conversation with an implementation partner.

Unleashed is a cloud inventory management platform that's popular with wholesale distributors, manufacturers, and product-based businesses. Some trade businesses use it for materials management — particularly those with a distribution or resale component alongside their trade work. The Xero integration is one of the best on the market: inventory valuations, purchase orders, sales orders, and cost of goods sold all flow cleanly into Xero without manual reconciliation.

For a trade business focused on service delivery and van stock management, Unleashed is not the right fit. It has no job costing module, no trade job management features, and no direct Australian supplier catalogue integration. You'd need to bridge it to a separate job management platform and handle supplier pricing manually. The platform is built for a different use case — and it's priced accordingly at ~~$530 AUD/month for the entry tier.

Where Unleashed makes sense in a trade context: a plumbing business that also operates as a wholesale distributor of plumbing products, or an HVAC company that sells equipment directly as well as installing it. If materials resale is a significant part of your revenue model, Unleashed's inventory and sales order management is genuinely strong.