Making sense of your inventory actually starts with setting up your items in your item list. To make it as simple as possible, set up your list according to product lines. Within those product lines, you can have items numbered and in alphabetical order. This makes it much simpler to find what you are looking for when you want to check the stock of what you have. For instance, say you own a furniture store, a sample item list would be like this:
Item nuber Description Product line Quantity on hand
11500951 Lamp Lighting 20
11600201 Vase Accessories 15
11250005 Chair Furniture 70
11250091 Sofa Furniture 50
You can run reports based upon the product line in this way, thereby pinpointing items more easily.