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.