Your team no longer has to wait until the end of the day to know what everyone else has counted. Each user works from their own iPhone or iPad, then shares the inventory database through a common Dropbox account.
The result: a single, up-to-date inventory — no double entry, no spreadsheets to piece together in the evening, and no server to set up.
Synchronisation relies on a shared storage space. It is what hosts the database your whole team passes around.
One single Dropbox account for the whole team: this is the essential condition. If two devices are signed in to two different accounts, they will never see the same inventory.
On every device: open the IO tab, tap the Sync row, then sign in to the team's Dropbox account.
It's free: a basic Dropbox account costs nothing. You can create one dedicated to your inventory, without having to share your personal account.
The whole principle comes down to three actions each user repeats in turn: download, edit, upload.
User 1 downloads the database from Dropbox. They start from the latest version approved by the team.
User 1 edits the data. Quantities, new products, prices, suppliers, stock thresholds: everything happens in the app, even offline.
User 1 uploads the database to Dropbox. Their changes become the new reference for everyone.
User 2 downloads the database in turn. They get the inventory already including User 1's work.
User 2 edits the data. They carry on where the first user left off.
User 2 uploads the database to Dropbox. Both devices are back in line on the same version.
This download → edit → upload cycle is more than a good habit: it is what protects your data. Because every user always starts from the latest version published on Dropbox and sends it back as soon as their work is done, two people never edit the database at the same time. Concurrency problems — those race conditions where two simultaneous changes overwrite one another — simply never get the chance to happen.
And if two uploads were ever to cross paths, the rule applied is simple and predictable: Last Write Wins — the most recent upload is the reference. The latest version replaces the previous one, with no risky merge and no duplicates to untangle afterwards.
Download before you start working, never after.
Upload as soon as you are done, rather than waiting for the end of the day.
One user at a time: let the team know when you are taking over the inventory.
