The ability to accurately and efficiently manage inventory is critical to ensure cost-effectiveness and guarantee integrity of samples in drug discovery. While many large companies utilise both customised and off-the-shelf automated systems for compound library management, these systems do not come cheaply. Without doubt, for large pharma the return on investment for one of these systems can be justified; however, the upfront cost is typically prohibitive for smaller businesses looking to stretch their limited cash reserves as far as possible. At Exelgen we have shown that for any business with the combination of fit-for-purpose informatics, relatively inexpensive laboratory hardware and well-constructed SOPs (standard operating procedures), it is possible to undertake cost-effective, large-scale compound library management in a small business environment. The informatics and hardware environment deployed at Exelgen are described in detail.