SAP S/4HANA Cloud vs. Wave Accounting

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a modular ERP that enables users to run mission-critical operations in real time from anywhere, introduce new business models in any industry, and expand globally. SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a SaaS product and can also be deployed in a hybrid landscape for quicker time to value.​ ​​ SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a foundational component of the SAP…N/A
Wave Accounting
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Wave Accounting is a free, cloud-based accounting platform exclusively for small businesses. It supports double-entry bookkeeping and permits unlimited user access, invoicing, and expense management. Wave Accounting integrates with Wave's invoicing, receipt scanning, payment processing and payroll apps.
$0
Pricing
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Starter
$0
Pro
$16
per month
Pro - billed annually
$170
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPer user, per month
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Considered Both Products
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Oracle Cloud EPM helps in financial planning and analysis, Faster closing, and accurate reporting. It provides comprehensive financial management. It also helps with strategic planning and economic insight. Workday Financial Management has helped us manage our financial …
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Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP and Microsoft Dynamics 365
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Oracle Network Cloud Service
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SAP Concur, SAP SuccessFactors HCM and SAP Business Technology Platform
Chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is far ahead than any other ERP I have used
Chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Easier to use, more comprehensive
Chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Not quite comparable as some of the applications are more born in the cloud.
Chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Sage X3, Sage 300 and Acumatica
Chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud
We have moved all our ERPs from Data Center to Cloud and new Implementation is on SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud
It is the best in class product
Chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud
blackline has limited functionalities compared to SAP S/4HANA Cloud can offer
Wave Accounting
Chose Wave Accounting
It is a useful solution but not designed for the UK market. For a businesses that want to see their debtors, creditors, profit and loss and balance sheet it is a great solution, however with those needing legal UK compliance the software will not work as well and the other free …
Chose Wave Accounting
Albeit Xero is much more robust and does require a monthly subscription payment. Wave Accounting is perfect for the very small client that does not have funds to pay for accounting subscriptions nor the high level of transactional/account management required of some clients.
Chose Wave Accounting
quickbooks seems to be more feature rich and can connect to my POS. At some point i may witch over if my accounting becomes too complicated for Wave Accounting
Chose Wave Accounting
Wave is easier to understand for the accounting illiterate
Wave is free
Chose Wave Accounting
Xero, Facebook Business Manager (formerly Pages Manager), Google Search Console, DataCamp and BuildSmart
Chose Wave Accounting
It doesn't in anyway due to the fraud that is inflicted on so many companies!
Chose Wave Accounting
This was my first invoice company. I had seen Freshly before. Venmo is far less of an accounting tool. QuickBooks seems terrible with a monthly cost. Which is why I hadn't moved companies yet. But I just learned my Website host, Wix, offers it right through my site and Clients …
Chose Wave Accounting
Wave's price point was in line with what my company needed to manage basic accounting (payable and receivable accounts). It made it easy for me to issue monthly invoices to clients and track when invoices were paid. The software makes these tasks easy to manage and inputting …
Chose Wave Accounting
I shopped Wave and Quickbooks. I loved Wave's interface and ease of use. It had everything I needed for the free version.
Chose Wave Accounting
The best feature about wave is that they let you use it for free for basic accounting and pay per use payments. But based on my horrible experience with how they cancelled my payments feature, I would never use them again!
Chose Wave Accounting
Wonderful, great support, and many videos on how to do it. Fast response to emails. Does "Fund Accounting" that is required for many non-profits.
Chose Wave Accounting
As I stated previously, Wave is a free system. It serve you well as non-resident of USA/Canada for your basic bookkeeping needs, as a micro-business. If you are a resident of those countries, you will benefit immensely from the payroll function as well. If you are looking for a …
Chose Wave Accounting
Circling back to the "free" thing again. For a small business, I am getting for free what QuickBooks online charges no less than $40/month. Moving away from "free," these other solutions I listed above do more, and these would be the right solutions for the right needs. All of …
Chose Wave Accounting
Wave Accounting is very similar to QuickBooks Online. The functions of Wave Accounting are very similar to QuickBooks Online. The major difference is that with the low pricing of Wave Accounting, it lacks all of the bells and whistles that QuickBooks Online has like …
Chose Wave Accounting
I was not impressed with Xero or Zipbooks simply because they were expensive and still as, if not more, confusing than QuickBooks. QuickBooks is, unfortunately, the standard. I dislike it, and I think it is just a huge corporation trying to steal small businesses money, but …
Chose Wave Accounting
Wave feels more geared toward a younger generation. QB feels very old and stuffy, though they're slowly coming around. QB feels much more powerful than Wave but Wave did what I needed it to do. My CPA had never heard of it before so I ended up needing to have both, but Wave …
Chose Wave Accounting
I chose to keep Wave first because it is free and easy to use but I also could not find anything else that allowed me to create customer categorizations at least not with a free account. There have been a lot of improvements to Wave over the years so the reasons I was looking …
Chose Wave Accounting
Basically, we selected Wave because it was a free accounting system. We have not tried another accounting system that is so much better than Wave Accounting that we should leave Wave Accounting. Every time, we find another online accounting system we do a review of the system …
Chose Wave Accounting
Invoicing is the only feature I was looking for and for that Wave had a better UI, which is why I selected it versus Stripe. I believe Stripe has more functionality, but it was more than I needed for my purposes. That being said, I do use Stripe in conjunction with Wave …
Chose Wave Accounting
Honestly, it stacks up pretty good except for the ACH transactions. With QuickBooks, ACH transactions were in my account in 2 business days at the 1% charge (that both companies charge).

The support is similar on both sides. I spent 18 days trying to cancel my QuickBooks …
Chose Wave Accounting
Unfortunately we did not do our due diligence before selecting Wave. We came across them through our payroll provider (ADP) and assumed that it was good since we have had a great experience with ADP. In the future I would strongly recommend others to not just read online …
Chose Wave Accounting
I trialled Freshbooks a while back but they pack too much into the system for what it is. Wave has a super simple UI and dashboard and doesn't feel overly complicated to navigate yet offers all the features everyone is looking for. Being able to customize the system to brand …
Chose Wave Accounting
For the pricing arrangement, the ease of use and the user-friendliness of the app, Wave crushes Quickbooks Online and Zoho Books. Freshbooks was a little bit closer as the two are more of an apples-to-apples comparison, but Freshbooks doesn't offer a non-paid option and they …
Chose Wave Accounting
I was using Billings Pro, and On the Job. I did trials of Due and Sighted. But I didn't like the UI and features of those 2. After testing out Wave, I liked the features, UI, and customization better than the other options. Wave is much easier, and the user interface is very …
Features
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.3
Ratings
15% above category average
Wave Accounting
6.2
Ratings
22% below category average
Pay calculation8.10 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Benefit plan administration8.30 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.00 Ratings1.20 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
7.9
Ratings
4% above category average
Wave Accounting
8.5
Ratings
11% above category average
API for custom integration7.90 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Plug-ins7.90 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.5
Ratings
4% above category average
Wave Accounting
6.4
Ratings
26% below category average
Single sign-on capability8.70 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.20 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
7.9
Ratings
9% above category average
Wave Accounting
6.3
Ratings
22% below category average
Dashboards7.90 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Standard reports8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Custom reports7.80 Ratings5.00 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.3
Ratings
7% above category average
Wave Accounting
7.0
Ratings
11% below category average
Accounts payable8.40 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Accounts receivable8.30 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Global Financial Support8.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers8.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations8.20 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Configurable Accounting8.20 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Standardized Processes8.60 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Cash management00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Bank reconciliation00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Expense management00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Time tracking00 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Fixed asset management00 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Multi-currency support00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Multi-division support00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Regulations compliance00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Electronic tax filing00 Ratings5.90 Ratings
Self-service portal00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings5.20 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.6
Ratings
8% above category average
Wave Accounting
8.1
Ratings
10% above category average
Inventory tracking8.60 Ratings5.60 Ratings
Automatic reordering8.40 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Location management8.20 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Manufacturing module00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.4
Ratings
7% above category average
Wave Accounting
7.6
Ratings
2% below category average
Pricing8.20 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Order entry8.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Credit card processing9.00 Ratings2.30 Ratings
Cost of goods sold8.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Order Orchestration8.00 Ratings5.80 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Subledger and Financial Process
Comparison of Subledger and Financial Process features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.7
Ratings
15% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Billing Management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Cash and Asset Management8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Travel & Expense Management10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Period Close8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Execution Management
Comparison of Project Execution Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
9.3
Ratings
30% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Project Planning and Scheduling10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Task Insight for Project Managers8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Mobile Functionality10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Definable Resource Pools9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Grants Management
Comparison of Grants Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.3
Ratings
11% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Award Lifecycle Management8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Procurement
Comparison of Procurement features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.2
Ratings
17% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Bids Analyzed and Compared8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract Authoring8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract Repository8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Supplier Management8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Risk Management
Comparison of Risk Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
9.8
Ratings
40% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Risk Repository10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Control Management10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Control Efficiency Assessments10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Issue Detection9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Remediation and Certification10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Logistics
Comparison of Logistics features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.2
Ratings
21% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Transportation Planning and Optimization8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Transportation Execution Management7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Trade and Customs Management8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Fulfillment Management8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Warehouse Workforce Management8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing
Comparison of Manufacturing features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.5
Ratings
14% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Production Process Design8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Production Management8.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Configuration Management8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Work Execution8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing Costs8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Supply Chain
Comparison of Supply Chain features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.3
Ratings
15% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Forecasting8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory Planning8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance Monitoring8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Product Lifecycle Management
Comparison of Product Lifecycle Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
9.0
Ratings
23% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Proposal Management10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Product Master Data Management8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Small Businesses
Zoho One
Zoho One
Score 8.9 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Infor VISUAL
Infor VISUAL
Score 8.0 out of 10
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
24SevenOffice
24SevenOffice
Score 9.0 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.3
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
6.7
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
2.9
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.7
(0 ratings)
2.1
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
4.7
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
3.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
The software reduces the stress of managing multiple departments in the supply chain sector. It offers great performance for both small and large businesses. With the built-in AI, it improves the overall efficiency of the organization and helps in reducing maintenance. The product customer care and support services are available 24/7.
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Wave is free to use, and they have some premium features you can pay for. For someone just starting out as a small business, freelancer or independent contractor, this is a Godsend. You can look professional, have something easy to manage, and yet also have excellent records come the end of the year. You won't spend a bunch of time having to learn the program, it's very intuitive and you get a host of great features that will make getting paid easy.
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Pros
  • SAP S/4HANA Cloud is entirely based on continuously monitored processes enhanced in numerous operational business areas.
  • The solution allows the immediate analysis of company performance indicators due to enhanced functions.
  • Ideally built on future technologies, the organization’s platform aims at providing a system intended to expand based on business complexity.
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  • The dashboard provides instant views of month-by month income & expenses for the past 12-24 months, a breakdown of current year expense by category, and net income for the past year and year-to-date.
  • Invoicing has easy templated set up has lots of per invoice options such as single/recurring payment options, due dates.
  • Year end reports are easy to generate in either pdf or csv format.
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Cons
  • The beginner's user-friendly UI can help learners learn easily, and it feels a bit complex.
  • Implementation of AI bot on common tasks.
  • There are no offline functionality that users can use remotely.
  • As the scalability of the products grows, they become more expensive.
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  • One area of improvement for Wave would be combining the various mobile applications into one app.
  • Another room for improvement would be on the dashboard level. It would be great if they could use more bar graphs and get away from pie charts for things like expenses.
  • Some of the other areas from improvement have been addressed by recent updates so I am excited to see what else Wave brings out.
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Likelihood to Renew
I am not part of the team that makes this decision but I would recommend renewing the contract. Most employees at Tennant are long term employees and would find it difficult to change to a different software. They are comfortable using SAP.
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Easy to use for clients with no accounting background and the price is right.
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Usability
SAP S/4HANA Cloud has a super flexible and intuitive dashboard, allowing every user to navigate effectively. It also has powerful customer help, which acts as a guide for new subscribers. The features deployed are realistic and functional, without defects. Constant changes and updates are proactively shared.
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Wave [Accounting] is very simple and easy to use. Minimal training was required for all our users as the interface is very user-friendly, especially for small businesses looking to use something to track their financial data, Invoice and make payments. I loved using Wave [Accounting]. It lookes professional and [has] all the features we were looking for.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
WAVE is always available when we need it ! Peter
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Wave does tend to slow down when filtering your transactions screen especially by date. This is more of an issue when trying to trouble shoot certain transactions or clean-up a set of books.
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Support Rating
The support system I find great as whenever I run into problems they rectify them quickly as possible they never reacted late the support is just up to the mark for me. They provide many solutions to the problems I faced the [technical] team support is always amazing they [listen] to mean work accordingly.
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I've only had to reach out to support once and they were quick to respond and offered valuable insight to resolve my issue quickly. The team is knowledgeable and if the person you're dealing with doesn't have an answer for you, they get back to you quickly with an answer. It was clear that the support team is genuinely concerned about users making the most of the software.
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In-Person Training
More effective
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Online Training
No answers on this topic
easy to use and east to train on ! Our WAVE clients enjoy the ease of use
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Implementation Rating
SAP requires
a lot of internal and external resources to complete its successful
implementation. The cloud version requires a deeper understanding of the
different capabilities of the local systems (hardware) and the connection
towards your local IT team. We found several problems on our systems that we
couldn't foresee before the implementation and roll out.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Previously we had implemented Azure Cloud Services which had cost us excessively compared to SAP cloud. Also I found the user interface easier to work with compared to the azure cloud as well. Overall the features are really good compared to Azure and cost is also less compared to it
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Wave's price point was in line with what my company needed to manage basic accounting (payable and receivable accounts). It made it easy for me to issue monthly invoices to clients and track when invoices were paid. The software makes these tasks easy to manage and inputting data for accurate accounting and invoicing is a breeze. It really offers a lot of flexibility, so you can use the software the way you need it.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
Once they out grow what is ability to move up to a more robust system?
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Return on Investment
  • Surpasses many well reputed applications in terms of performance and data insight when you are into SAP products
  • More reliable and secure as we are not going to create multiple copy of master data, one single shared master data and all will work like charm
  • For authentication we can also use Microsoft MFA or Google single sign-on , so less complexity
  • For customized business process, we can implement extension packages which are like templates
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  • Wave has enabled our accounts payable to maintain a 99% closure rate by leveraging auto reminders through the email system.
  • Our quote to invoice process is a single click, saving time and effort. Even minor changes during that transition occur simply and easily.
  • Aside from payments, Wave has been free for our usage. Our bottom line is better because we're not investing in software but instead embracing an entire ecosystem.
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ScreenShots

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Screenshots

Screenshot of the Order to Cash Dashboard - For the management of the order-to-cash process more efficiently across revenue streams and business models - including sales of physical and digital goods, services, subscriptions, projects, and bundles.Screenshot of a Sales Management Overview - Helps ensure sales reps meet their goals with an overview of orders and key sales performance metrics, with status tracking for each order in real time for the early detection of potential issues.Screenshot of the Purchasing Spend Dashboard - For weighing various aspects of purchasing spend through quick access to clear, complete, and real-time data, with less risk, and without opening different reports and transactions.Screenshot of Operational Supplier Evaluation - Provides a transparent overview of suppliers. Users can approve the most reliable vendors and get the right mix to serve business needs while reducing risk.Screenshot of Inventory Management - Provides visibility to manage supply chains, to mitigate risk, avoid unnecessary costs, maximize efficiency, and fulfill customer orders on time.Screenshot of Inventory Processing - Enables real-time supply chain visibility and provides meaningful metrics, with customizable dashboards and reports that display real-time inventory that track the status of inbound and outbound deliveries.