Overhead view of warehouse operations

Notes from the warehouse floor

Practical guides for warehouse and inventory teams, plus the occasional note on what we are building.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Browse by topic

Accuracy Barcoding Operations Automation Choosing a system

Close-up of a barcode scan in progress

The Fascinating History of Barcode Scanners

Nearly every warehouse in the country runs on barcodes, and almost nobody knows where they came from. A graduate student who overheard the wrong conversation, a man drawing lines in beach sand, and twenty-five years of the idea going nowhere.

Barcoding · August 6, 2026

Woman in a blue shirt reviewing a tablet with a supervisor in a high-visibility jacket in a warehouse racking aisle

Is QuickBooks Desktop Going Away? What It Means for Your Warehouse

Intuit has stopped selling some Desktop editions and ended support for the 2023 versions. For a warehouse on Enterprise, the harder question is what converts.

Choosing a system

Finance, Operations

Overhead view of three workers in hard hats moving cartons between a trailer and a pallet jack, with a clipboard of paperwork on the stack

Three-Way Match: How It Works, and Why the Receiving Record Decides It

A three-way match holds an invoice until it agrees with the purchase order and the receiving record. How it works, and why the receipt is the place to start.

Tall racking aisle in a large distribution center, a worker in a hard hat and safety vest standing by a pallet jack

Enterprise Warehouse Management: Tier 1 WMS or a WMS on Your ERP?

Tier 1 warehouse systems are built to optimize very large, labor-heavy operations. When a mid-size warehouse needs one, and when a WMS on your ERP fits better.

Choosing a system

Operations, Finance, IT

Warehouse worker in a knit cap and vest scanning a pallet on a rack with a handheld scanner, tablet in his other hand

RFID vs Barcode: What RFID Is and When Your Warehouse Needs It

Your warehouse already scans and someone is asking about RFID. What tags and readers do, where they pay off, and where a barcode is still the better tool.

Warehouse employee in a denim shirt sitting at a laptop in front of stocked shelving, chin resting on her hands

Cloud Inventory Management: What the Cloud Fixes and What It Doesn't

Moving inventory to the cloud changes who runs the servers and how your crew gets in. Whether the counts are right still depends on the floor and the ERP link.

Choosing a system

Operations, Finance

Food production line worker in a hairnet and white coat checking a stainless steel filling line

FSMA 204 Compliance: Where Manual Warehouses Fall Short

The FDA gives covered food companies 24 hours to hand over traceability records. Where manual warehouses lose the lot trail, and how to keep it.

October 5, 2026

Warehouse worker in a hard hat and safety vest scanning a bin label in a tall racking aisle

Warehouse AI Is Coming. Is Your Data Ready?

Robots and AI copilots run on the inventory data you already have. A five-point test for whether your warehouse has AI-ready data yet.

Operations, Finance

Receiving team unloading cartons from a trailer, one worker scanning a carton label with a handheld scanner

Lot and Serial Number Tracking with GS1 Barcodes

A scan records whatever the label says. How to set up lot and serial number tracking with GS1 barcodes so the record holds up in an audit or recall.

Warehouse worker in a hard hat crouching to scan a pallet label on a low rack with a handheld scanner

Focus on Inventory by Using Cycle Counting With Barcode Scanner Software

A full physical count shuts the warehouse down once a year and still doesn't tell you where a number went wrong. Cycle counting fixes the timing, and a barcode scanner is what makes the swap practical.

Operator working at industrial equipment

Best Barcode Label Printers Compared: Thermal vs Inkjet

If you sell, store, or ship physical products, sooner or later you have to barcode them. Maybe a retailer is asking for scannable labels, maybe your…

Finance lead reviewing data on a laptop

Digitization vs. Digitalization: Why the Difference Matters

Digitization converts something analog into digital form. Digitalization changes how the work runs once it's digital. Confusing the two is how automation projects end up as expensive filing cabinets.

Aerial view of an outbound dock, a forklift loading pallets into a trailer

Multi-Warehouse Inventory Management: What Changes When Stock Lives in Two Places

A second warehouse changes how you track, route, and replenish stock. What actually changes once inventory lives in more than one building.

Choosing a system

September 15, 2026

Warehouse team reviewing results on a tablet

5 Strategies for Building Supply Chain Resilience

You can't forecast the next disruption, but you can build a supply chain that absorbs one. Five strategies covering flexibility, supplier depth, geography, buffer stock, and keeping your own team informed.

Overhead view of warehouse operations

Food and Beverage Inventory Management: What Makes It Different

In food and beverage, a quantity on hand isn't enough to act on. What matters is which lot it is, how much shelf life is left on it, and where it's allowed to sit.

Long warehouse aisle with high racking

What Makes a Cold Storage Warehouse Hard to Run

In a freezer warehouse the cold is the operating constraint, not the product. What that changes about scanners, batteries, dock design, break scheduling, and the temperature records you have to be able to produce.

September 30, 2026

Operator checking counts against a clipboard

Cycle Count vs Physical Count: The Real Difference

A physical inventory count tells you what's on the shelf on one day. A cycle count tells you why the number drifted. Most operations need both, for different reasons.

Operations, Finance

A handheld scanner reading a barcode on a wrapped pallet

Barcode Basics: How Barcodes Work and How to Choose a Scanner

What a barcode actually is, where it earns its keep in a warehouse, and the four things worth checking before you buy scanners: durability rating, temperature range, form factor, and symbology support.

Operations, Floor teams

Worker at a shipping dock printing labels

How to Choose Label Printing Software: What to Ask Before You Buy

Label printing software isn't one category. What decides whether it works is where the data comes from, where the label prints, and whether the barcode still scans when it reaches the customer.

Packages moving down a warehouse conveyor line

Mispicks: Why They Happen and How Barcode Picking Stops Them

A mispick isn't one mistake. Paper picking has four decision points and no verification step, and the expensive part is everything that happens after the box leaves the dock.

Warehouse aisle with bay and bin location labels on the racking

The Move to 2D Barcode Labels

The UPC isn't going away, but a second code is showing up next to it. What GS1's Sunrise 2027 milestone asks of retail scanning, where 2D codes already run in warehouses, and what it means for the scanners you own.

Warehouse operator in a high-visibility vest holding a rugged handheld computer

Mobile Computer vs Smartphone: What's Actually Different

A phone with a scanning app and a rugged handheld will both read a barcode. The differences that decide a warehouse deployment are the scan engine, the battery, the housing, and how the device gets managed.

Two workers counting stock in a racking aisle, one scanning and one checking a tablet

What a Physical Inventory Count Is Actually For

A full count exists to serve valuation, insurance, and planning, not to prove the warehouse is tidy. Why counts come back wrong, and why cycle counting carries more of the load than the annual shutdown does.

Operations, Finance

Subscribe to the Endpoint Blog

Stay connected with Endpoint and receive new blog posts in your inbox.

Subscribed. Thanks, new posts will land in your inbox.

Something went wrong. Please try again, or email hello@endpointas.com.