Track Slab Inventory
Quick Definition
Slab inventory tracking means maintaining a real-time digital record of every stone slab in your yard - including dimensions, material type, color, lot number, location, cost, and status (available, reserved, or allocated to a job). Good tracking prevents overselling, reduces waste, and gives your sales team confidence when quoting.
TL;DR
- The average fabrication shop ties up $50,000-$200,000 in slab inventory at any given time
- Without digital tracking, shops lose 5-10% of inventory value to misplacement, double-selling, and poor utilization
- SlabWise tracks every slab from receiving through cutting, including remnant pieces
- Slab Nesting optimization delivers 10-15% better material yield compared to manual layout
- Real-time inventory feeds directly into Quick Quote, so your prices reflect actual stock
- Photos and measurements are attached to each slab record for remote selling
- Starts at $199/month with a 14-day free trial
The Hidden Cost of Not Knowing What You Have
Walk into most fabrication shop yards and you'll see the same thing: rows of A-frames holding dozens or hundreds of slabs, organized (loosely) by material type. Ask the owner exactly what's there and you'll get something like, "We've got about 30 granites, maybe 20 quartzes, and some marble. I think."
That uncertainty costs real money in several ways:
Double-Selling
Your sales team promises a specific Bianco Romano slab to a homeowner on Tuesday. Meanwhile, someone in the back already pulled it for a Thursday fabrication. Nobody updated the spreadsheet. Now you're calling a customer to explain that their slab is gone, and you're scrambling for a replacement - or worse, refunding a deposit and losing the job.
Phantom Inventory
Your records say you have 14 slabs of Colonial White granite. A physical count reveals 11. Three were used as remnants, damaged in handling, or misrecorded on intake. Your books show $6,000 in inventory that doesn't exist.
Poor Utilization
Without seeing the full picture of available remnants and partial slabs, your team defaults to cutting fresh full slabs for every job. That 28-sqft bathroom vanity gets cut from a 54-sqft slab, and the 26-sqft remnant goes to the back of the yard where it sits for six months before being written off.
The Dollar Impact
| Problem | Frequency (monthly) | Cost per Incident | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double-sold slab | 1-2 | $500-$1,500 | $6,000-$36,000 |
| Phantom inventory write-off | 2-4 slabs | $300-$800/slab | $7,200-$38,400 |
| Unused remnants written off | 5-10 | $100-$400 | $6,000-$48,000 |
| Emergency slab purchases (rush delivery) | 1-2 | $200-$600 premium | $2,400-$14,400 |
| Total annual waste | $21,600-$136,800 |
For a shop doing $1-3M in annual revenue, that's 2-10% of top-line revenue disappearing into inventory mismanagement.
What Proper Slab Tracking Looks Like
SlabWise's inventory module treats every slab as an individual asset with its own profile:
Slab Profile Data
- Material type and color - Granite: Colonial White, Quartz: Calacatta Classique, etc.
- Dimensions - Length, width, thickness (measured at receiving)
- Lot and bundle number - For matching veining across multiple slabs
- Supplier and cost - What you paid, including freight
- Location - Which A-frame, which position (row/slot)
- Photos - Multiple angles, taken at receiving
- Status - Available, reserved (with job number), in fabrication, or remnant
- Quality notes - Fissures, pits, color variation flags
Receiving Workflow
When slabs arrive from your distributor:
- Scan or enter - Log each slab with the delivery invoice
- Measure - Record actual dimensions (they often differ from the invoice)
- Photograph - Snap 2-3 photos per slab. This takes 30 seconds each and pays for itself the first time a customer selects a slab remotely.
- Assign location - Tell the system where it's going in the yard
- Done - The slab is now live in your inventory, visible to your sales team, and available for quoting
Reservation System
When a slab is quoted or selected for a job, it moves to "reserved" status. Other team members can see it's spoken for. If the job falls through, the slab automatically returns to available status after a configurable hold period.
Slab Nesting: Getting More from Every Slab
This is where inventory tracking turns from a record-keeping exercise into a profit center.
SlabWise's Slab Nesting feature analyzes your templated job dimensions against your available slab inventory and calculates the most efficient cutting layout. The result: 10-15% better material yield compared to manual layout.
How Nesting Works
Traditional approach: Your fabricator eyeballs a slab, lays out the template pieces, and starts cutting. Experienced fabricators are good at this, but they're working with one job at a time, fitting pieces to a single slab.
SlabWise approach: The system looks at all pending jobs and all available slabs simultaneously. It finds combinations where pieces from different jobs can share a slab, where a remnant from last week's kitchen perfectly fits today's bathroom vanity, and where rotating a piece 15 degrees eliminates the need for a second slab.
Nesting Example
Without nesting:
- Kitchen island (32 sqft) - Cut from Slab A (54 sqft). Remnant: 22 sqft.
- Bathroom vanity (18 sqft) - Cut from Slab B (54 sqft). Remnant: 36 sqft.
- Total slab consumption: 2 slabs (108 sqft for 50 sqft of finished product)
- Waste: 58 sqft (54%)
With nesting:
- Kitchen island (32 sqft) + Bathroom vanity (18 sqft) - Both cut from Slab A (54 sqft). Remnant: 4 sqft.
- Slab B remains in inventory for the next job.
- Total slab consumption: 1 slab (54 sqft for 50 sqft of finished product)
- Waste: 4 sqft (7%)
That's one full slab saved. At $400-$1,200 per slab depending on material, the savings add up fast.
Monthly Nesting Savings Estimate
| Shop Size | Jobs/Month | Slabs Saved/Month | Avg Slab Cost | Monthly Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small (1-2 crews) | 20-30 | 3-5 | $600 | $1,800-$3,000 |
| Medium (3-4 crews) | 40-60 | 6-10 | $600 | $3,600-$6,000 |
| Large (5+ crews) | 80+ | 12-18 | $600 | $7,200-$10,800 |
Remote Slab Selection
One of the most practical benefits of digital slab tracking is enabling customers to browse and select slabs without visiting your yard.
Here's the old process:
- Customer drives 45 minutes to your shop
- Walks the yard for 30 minutes
- Can't decide between two options
- Drives home, thinks about it for three days
- Calls back, but one of the slabs was sold to someone else
Here's the SlabWise process:
- Customer receives a link to your slab gallery (filtered to their quoted material)
- Browses high-res photos from their couch at 9 PM
- Picks their favorite, marks it "selected" in the portal
- The slab is automatically reserved for their job
- Done. No yard visit needed (though some customers still prefer one, and that's fine)
This matters especially for customers who live far from your shop, for contractor-driven jobs where the homeowner doesn't make the trip, and for high-volume builders who don't have time to visit for every unit.
Inventory Tracking vs. Competitors
| Feature | SlabWise | Moraware | ActionFlow | EasyStoneShop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual slab profiles | Yes | Yes | Partial | Basic |
| Photo attachment | Yes | Limited | No | No |
| AI-optimized nesting | Yes | No | No | No |
| Real-time status updates | Yes | Yes | Yes | Manual |
| Remnant tracking | Yes | Partial | No | No |
| Remote slab selection | Yes | No | No | No |
| Inventory-linked quoting | Yes | Partial | No | No |
| Price | $199-$349/mo | $200-$400/mo | $200-$350/mo | $150/mo |
Moraware handles basic inventory well and has the largest user base (2,600+ shops). Their strength is scheduling and job management. But the combination of nesting optimization, photo-based remote selection, and inventory-linked quoting is where SlabWise differentiates.
Remnant Management: Turning Waste into Revenue
Every cut produces remnants. The question is whether those remnants sit in your yard until you write them off, or whether they generate revenue.
SlabWise tracks remnants the same way it tracks full slabs - with dimensions, photos, location, and cost allocation. When a new job comes in that could use a remnant, the nesting algorithm considers it alongside full slabs.
For remnants that don't match upcoming jobs, SlabWise's remnant listing feature lets you offer them at a discount through your Customer Portal or website. Small contractors, DIYers, and homeowners doing bathroom vanities are often happy to buy a 15-sqft remnant at 40% off full-slab pricing.
We cover this in more detail in our Sell Remnants guide.
Getting Started with Slab Tracking
Week 1: Initial Inventory Count
Walk your yard with a tablet or phone. Log every slab - photo, dimensions, material, location. For a yard with 50-100 slabs, this takes 4-6 hours. Do it once and you're set.
Week 2: Process Training
Train your receiving team on the intake workflow (measure, photograph, log). Train your sales team on checking inventory and reserving slabs. This is a 30-minute training session for each group.
Week 3: Go Live
Start using the system for all new orders. Reserve slabs through SlabWise instead of sticky notes on A-frames. Run your first nested cutting layout.
Ongoing: 5 Minutes Per Slab
Each new slab delivery adds about 5 minutes per slab to your receiving process (measuring, photographing, logging). For a typical delivery of 10-15 slabs, that's an extra hour - but you'll save multiples of that in avoided double-sells, better utilization, and faster quoting.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does the initial inventory setup take?
Plan for 4-6 hours for a yard with 50-100 slabs. Larger yards (200+ slabs) may take a full day. You can do it in stages - granite one day, quartz the next.
Can I scan barcodes on my slabs?
Yes. If your distributor provides barcoded slab tags, SlabWise can scan them to auto-populate material and lot information. You'll still need to add location and photos.
What happens when a slab is partially used?
When you cut a slab, the system prompts you to record the remnant dimensions. The remnant gets its own record with updated measurements and a link back to the original slab.
Does the nesting feature work with all materials?
Yes. Nesting works with granite, quartz, marble, quartzite, porcelain, and any other slab material. The algorithm accounts for vein direction when relevant.
Can my sales team see inventory from their phones?
Yes. The entire inventory is accessible from any device with a browser. Sales staff can check availability, show slab photos to customers, and reserve slabs from a job site or showroom.
How does this connect to quoting?
When you build a quote using Quick Quote, the system pulls pricing from your actual slab inventory. If a customer wants Taj Mahal quartzite, the quote reflects what you paid for the slabs you have - not a generic price list.
What if I have multiple locations?
The Enterprise plan ($349/month) supports multi-location inventory with transfers between yards.
How accurate is the nesting optimization?
SlabWise's nesting algorithm consistently delivers 10-15% better yield than manual layout in testing and real-shop deployments. Results depend on job mix and slab sizes.
Can customers see my slab costs?
No. Customers see photos, material names, and dimensions. Your cost data is visible only to admin users.
Does it track slab defects?
Yes. You can flag fissures, pits, color variations, and other quality notes on each slab profile. These flags are visible to your fabrication team during layout.
What about consignment slabs?
You can mark slabs as consignment with the supplier information. They appear in inventory for quoting and nesting but are tracked separately in your cost reports.
How often should I do a physical inventory count?
We recommend a quick reconciliation monthly - check 10-15 random slabs against the system. A full count quarterly keeps your records tight.
Know Exactly What You Have, Every Day
Your slab inventory is one of your biggest assets. SlabWise turns it from a guessing game into a precise, profitable operation - with tracking, nesting, and remote selection built into one system.
Start your 14-day free trial → No credit card required. Log your first slab in minutes.
Sources
- Natural Stone Institute - Slab Inventory Management Best Practices (2025)
- Freedonia Group - U.S. Countertop Market Analysis ($22.1B market)
- Stone World Magazine - "The True Cost of Inventory Mismanagement" (2024)
- Fabricators Alliance - Material Waste Benchmarks for Countertop Shops
- Marble Institute of America - Fabrication Yield Studies
- SlabWise Internal Data - Nesting Optimization Results (2025)
- National Kitchen & Bath Association - Industry Operations Report
- Countertop Fabricator Benchmark Study - Inventory Management Practices (2024)
Internal Links
- Sell Remnants - Turn leftover pieces into revenue
- Speed Up Quoting - Inventory-linked quotes in 3 minutes
- Slab Nesting FAQ - Deep answers on nesting optimization
- Countertop Materials FAQ - Material-specific handling and tracking
- EasyStoneShop Review 2026 - How EasyStoneShop handles inventory