Most small organizations track their supplies, equipment, and assets in a spreadsheet. That works until two people edit it at the same time, until a volunteer leaves with the only copy, or until you need to know who checked out the projector last Thursday.
This is a simple, open-source web application that replaces that spreadsheet. It runs in a browser, works on your local network without internet access, and requires no monthly subscription.
What It Does
The inventory management system lets your team:
- Track items — add items with name, description, category, quantity, and location
- Check items in and out — log who has what and when, with a return date
- Search and filter — find items by category, name, or current availability
- Export reports — generate lists of all items or overdue checkouts
It’s designed for:
- Food pantries tracking donated goods
- Tool libraries managing equipment loans
- Community centres with shared AV or event equipment
- Any small org that shares physical resources among a team
What It Is Not
This is not an enterprise inventory system. It does not handle barcodes, point-of-sale integration, or complex multi-warehouse logic. For most small organizations, that complexity is overhead, not value.
What You Need to Run It
- A computer or Raspberry Pi running Linux (macOS and Windows work with minor adjustments)
- PHP (a server-side scripting language) 7.4 or newer
- MySQL or MariaDB (an open-source relational database)
- Apache or NGINX (a web server)
If you want to run this on a Raspberry Pi as a shared server for your whole organization, see the companion guide: Using a Raspberry Pi for your own Inventory Management System.
Getting the Code
The source code is available on GitHub. Download it as a zip or clone it using git (a version control tool that copies code from a remote server to your machine):
git clone https://github.com/coreconduit/inventory-management.git
Then follow the companion installation guide to set up the database and web server.
Backing Up Your Data
Once running, set up regular backups. See How To Backup and Restore your Inventory Management System for step-by-step instructions.