Inventory & Procurement Automation with Sonar: Smarter Stock, Smoother Operations

For ISPs, managing inventory means ensuring the right equipment is available when and where it’s needed. Delays or shortages can slow down installations, frustrate technicians, and impact customer experience. 

Sonar helps reduce these risks by automating key parts of inventory and procurement workflows. This allows teams to focus on delivering service instead of managing spreadsheets. 

Live Inventory Tracking 

With Sonar, inventory is tracked in real time across multiple warehouses and locations. Counts update automatically as items are received, assigned to a job, or consumed in the field. This ensures accurate records, reduces manual errors, and provides visibility into stock availability at all times. 

Threshold-Based Alerts 

To prevent stockouts, Sonar supports threshold-based notifications. When the quantity of a tracked item falls below a defined minimum, the system automatically triggers an alert. These alerts can be configured globally or per location, ensuring critical gear is reordered before it becomes unavailable. 

Automated Purchase Order Approvals

Purchase orders in Sonar can follow automated approval rules. Orders below a user-defined price threshold can be auto-approved, while those above the threshold require approval from an assigned manager or approver. This setup balances flexibility with financial oversight, ensuring purchases are efficient but controlled.

Inventory Assignment to Jobs and Locations

Sonar allows direct assignment of equipment to jobs, customer locations, network locations, or storage locations. This automation reduces errors from manual tracking, ensures technicians have the required equipment for scheduled work, and keeps all inventory movement traceable and auditable. 

Managing Consumable Inventory

Consumables—such as connectors, cables, fasteners, and mounting gear—are easy to overlook but are critical for field operations. Sonar treats consumables as either generic inventory items or segmentable inventory items: 

• Generic consumables are interchangeable items that do not require tracking at the individual unit level (e.g., screws, zip ties, basic connectors). 
• Segmentable consumables can be tracked by type, size, or length, which is especially important for cables and similar materials.

Cables in Particular

Cables represent one of the most important consumables for ISPs. Different types of cable (fiber optic, coaxial, twisted pair, or drop cables) are used for various network deployments. Each may come in spools or pre-cut segments. 

With Sonar, ISPs can track cable usage in two primary ways: 

• By spool or bulk length: allowing technicians to log how much cable remains after each job.
• By pre-cut units: ensuring specific lengths are stocked and available when needed. 

This level of tracking prevents shortages during installations, ensures accurate job costing, and reduces waste by keeping records of partial spools or leftover cable segments. 

Keeping Operations Moving, Without Guesswork

Effective inventory and procurement management underpins smooth ISP operations—from new installs to customer upgrades. Sonar’s automation gives ISPs a reliable way to stay stocked, reduce waste, and keep field teams equipped, without relying on manual spreadsheets or guesswork. 

Up Next: Learn how Sonar helps automate networking, job scheduling, and incident response workflows to support your entire field team.