Best Inventory Program Since 2013, Keeps Getting Better

After graduating college, I found myself suddenly making more purchases than ever. The physical items I bought when moving into a new apartment increased, as well as my digital collection of purchased entertainment items (games, movies, etc.) I found myself losing track of items I purchased, especially if I made a quick digital online purchase during my break at work. Between all the new digital delivery formats (Apple, Google Play, UltraViolet, PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, etc.), I started accidentally re-purchasing items on different medias/platforms. The breaking point was when I accidentally purchased the same tools one month apart because I forgot to manually type them into the Excel sheet I was using at that time to keep track of purchases.

My renter’s insurance also stated that I would have to either keep the receipt or have a picture of the item (in my living area) if I ever wanted to file a cliam.

I started looking for Windows solutions for inventory items, but most guides pointed to Excel or Access for homebrew solutions. The Windows software available were bare-bones text-based versions for $50, or $200+ solutions for small businesses. Most of them offered scanning and auto-inputting data from the Amazon database, but they required a laser scanner (like you use at a store checkout) or a webcam.

I found several articles from LifeHacker and TechCrunch that pointed to this little gem on the Mac. Since I run multiple operating systems, I decided to try it out, and boy was I in for a treat!

This app had the following features that made it stand out:
*Link a phone to the computer for wireless scanning of barcodes and uploads of user-taken pictures
*Auto-populate fields such as the product name, model, price, date, and more from Amazon
*Automatically pull stock pictures of the item from websites
*Allow custom editing
*Allow creating of “categories” and “locations” to tag and sort each item
*Show a thumbnail of items when browsing your own inventory
*Back up an archive to a different location in the computer
*Back up to an iPhone so you can view your inventory while mobile

It has recently added new features such as allowing a remote-scan while away from your home wireless network, which allows the app to add items to the computer’s database when you get home!

I still have to manually add digital purchases, but it’s easier to manage than the Excel spreadsheet I used to use. I can just copy-paste the item name from my email receipts and drag-and-drop pictures from Amazon, Google, or other web stores so I can still have the thumbnails when I’m scrolling through my collection.

The two features that I rarely use, but found handy, was the option to export a text-only list to Excel (CSV) so that I could share some of my purchase history with a family member. This also allows your database to be moved to other programs, such as Windows-only programs, if you ever want to abandon this one. The other feature was to restore-from-iPhone. My Mac hard drive suddenly went corrupt one day and I couldn’t recover any data short of sending it off for an $800 raw-data recovery fee. Since I had the entire Home Inventory database backed up (about 1GB) to my iPhone, I was able to restore all of the database (including pictures!) to my new hard drive. Also, remeber that the iPhone requires two of their apps to get all the features: “Remote Entry” and “Mobile Backup”.

There is an option to add receipt scans, warranty information, and now there is a feature where the program alerts you when your warranties and licenses are about to expire. I don’t use those, but I soon may.

This is the first review I’ve ever written in the Apple App Store, but after two years of use, I just can’t say enough about Home Inventory. The program has also updated and kept support since moving from Mountain Lion to Yosemite. I’ve switched over to Windows on all of my computers and tablets, but I keep a Mac around just to use this software. I guess that’s a ringing endorsement for a product - I keep an entire computer around just to use one program!

It’s worth it.

OkinawanMatt about Home Inventory