Manufacturing Software Compatible With Quickbooks, is a windows based application that uses data from your existing accounting software to create fully integrated manufacturing solutions. Using Manufacturing Software Compatible With Quickbooks allows you to manage production on the most basic level through to complete job costing, inventory management and employee tracking.
Manufacturing and Wholesale POS Software Compatible with QuickBooks: Centaur manufacturing and wholesale point of sale software is compatible with QuickBooks and many other accounting programs. It works with your existing computers and business processes, to quickly adapt to your needs. Now you just have to select a bar code scanner or handheld scanner that supports manual keying and plug it into the USB port.
Intuit QuickBooks is the most popular accounting software available across industry segments for smaller businesses. There are two ways to leverage QuickBooks for a manufacturing business and at least five third party options that allow manufacturers to extend QuickBooks with more sophisticated manufacturing features.
1. QuickBooks Job Cost for Job Shops & MTO Manufacturers
We’ve seen job shops do more than just get by using the job cost and job management features in some editions including QuickBooks Enterprise. Designed primarily for construction industries, there are many similarities with job shop manufacturing that may enable a make to order manufacturer to utilize QuickBooks Job Cost features for their business.
2. QuickBooks Enterprise Advanced Inventory for MTS Manufacturers
Manufacturers who are engaged in a make to stock environment should also consider the QuickBooks Enterprise product which offers bar code scanning, bills of material, assembly management, and optional third party EDI. It even offers lot and serial tracking albeit limited. Despite the advanced features, there are still many limitations with QuickBooks Enterprise in a manufacturing environment. Some of these include:
- Limited choice in manufacturing costing methods to average or FIFO (does not support standard, actual, or LIFO).
- Engineering Change Orders and limited manufacturing bill of material management.
- Virtually zero quality control functionality for inventory or manufacturing transactions.
- Minimal forecasting or material requirements planning (MRP) capabilities.
- There are many other reasons manufacturers outgrow QuickBooks including limitations on field lengths and restrictive database sizes that can cripple system performance. A handy article available from Better Bottom Line will help you identify some of the file limitations within QuickBooks.
The truth is that QuickBooks is a cheap alternative to a real ERP system and eventually every growing manufacturer will reach limitations and will need to move on to another product. To quote our good friend Scott Gregory of BetterBottomLine in his QuickBooks For Manufacturing Businesses And Job Shops white paper, “Whenever I hear QuickBooks and manufacturing in the same sentence, it gives me reason to pause. It should do the same for you!”
Scott knows QuickBooks better than almost anyone in the industry and he knows its limitations. Seek out a company like Better Bottom Line to get the skinny on the pros and cons of There are literally dozens of options available to extend QuickBooks. Here are our top five that companies should consider.
3. Fishbowl Inventory
Fishbowl Inventory is one of the largest third party add-ons for QuickBooks Desktop. Historically focused on distribution, they’ve expanded their manufacturing features and should be considered by any company who’s outgrown the manufacturing capabilities of QuickBooks. While not quite as advanced as other options on the market, Fishbowl Inventory is a great product for light manufacturers and you may be surprised at some of the features in the latest version of their product.
4. MISys Manufacturing
This is our personal favorite. MISys Manufacturing is a small company located in Woodstock, VT that knows manufacturing. They’ve been doing this a long time, have an impeccable track record, and have great products that integrate well with QuickBooks Desktop products (Enterprise, Pro, and Premier).
5. Other QuickBooks Manufacturing Extensions
If you use QuickBooks Online you are going to have limited options for extending manufacturing functionality. Some of your top options for QuickBooks Online are ManuDyn Cloud 9, cloudMRP, Manufacturing Operations & Inventory Management by DataNinja, and MRPEasy. If you use any of the QuickBooks Desktop products you will have a different set of options including E2 Bottom Line by Shoptech, pc/MRP, NumberCruncher, Acctivate, ManuDyn, ERPlite, Catalyst Manufacturing, Infor ERP Visual JobShop, and more. Need help? Pick an experienced QuickBooks ProAdvisor who specializes in manufacturing and they can point you in the right direction.
6. Upgrade to a Real ERP System
Eventually you will reach the limitations of QuickBooks altogether and despite adding on third party products you’ll need to move on to a real ERP system. When you do you should consider popular options including Sage 100c Manufacturing, Sage X3, and Epicor ERP – three great manufacturing-centric options that represent the next logical step in your manufacturing business. Consider e2b teknologies to help you on your journey as we represent these and many other great products to help you get more out of your business operations to manage your business more effectively.
What We Recommend QuickBooks Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition For
QuickBooks Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition is ideal for small- to medium-sized light manufacturers and wholesalers with experienced bookkeepers. It has everything in QuickBooks Premier, plus industry-specific features and advanced inventory tools that are extremely beneficial for manufacturing and distribution businesses.
QuickBooks Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition Is Especially Good For
- Businesses that need an accurate count of inventory available: You can track not only inventory on hand, but also inventory assigned to sales orders, reserved for assemblies, and on purchase orders (POs).
- Manufacturers with complex assemblies: You can define the amounts of materials, inventory, and labor needed for a particular assembly. Those amounts are transferred to the assembled product automatically each time an assembly is completed.
- Businesses with special pricing rules: Prices can be customized by customer, customer type, or assigned to individual sales.
- Businesses that need detailed sales reports: Sales can be broken down by sales representative, product, product type, customer, and customer type.
QuickBooks Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition Is Not a Good Fit For
- Businesses owners who want to manage their own books: QuickBooks Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition is not the best option if you plan on keeping the books yourself unless you have experience with bookkeeping. Compared to cloud-based software, it’s hard to share your books with an external accountant when you need help. You might want to consider a simpler alternative like QuickBooks Online, or explore all the differences between QuickBooks Online vs Desktop.
- Businesses with multiple users: QuickBooks Premier is expensive at $2,099 (one-time fee) for five users as compared to QuickBooks Online Plus, which only costs $80 per month with five users included.
- Businesses that need first-in-first-out (FIFO) or last-in-first-out (LIFO) inventory costing: Your only option for determining the cost of goods sold (COGS) is the average cost method. Third-party plug-ins are available that provide additional inventory options. If your business needs advanced cost tracking with FIFO or LIFO inventory accounting, QuickBooks Enterprise might be an ideal alternative.
Are you looking for something different? If you want to explore other comprehensive accounting software for business owners, check out our guide to the best small business accounting software.
QuickBooks Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition Pros and Cons
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Create invoices from sales orders | Desktop-based program requires installation and setup |
| Transfer cost and quantity from raw materials to manufactured products automatically | FIFO accounting for inventory cost requires a third-party add-on |
| Track COGS using the average cost method | Doesn’t track the weight of inventory for shipping |
| Manage inventory and manufactured products better with in-depth units available information | License required for each simultaneous user (maximum 5) |
| Set special price levels across all inventory, manufactured products, and labor | More difficult to share with an off-site accountant compared to cloud-based programs |
Other popular apps
In addition to Premium Apps, the QuickBooks App Store is home to additional add-ons that can sync with your QuickBooks software. Some popular apps worth noting include:
Fathom
Fathom is a must-have QuickBooks integration for any small- or medium-sized business that analyzes your company’s health by looking at cash flow, profitability, and other performance indicators. As you run the Fathom app, you’ll be provided visuals of business intelligence data and trends, including the financial and non-financial elements of your company. Once you’ve received the information, you’ll be able to strategize and form plans to tackle any issues head-on. Even better, QuickBooks Online Advanced users get a Fathom subscription free as part of their Advanced monthly subscription.
Amazon Business Purchases
Amazon Business Purchases is a new app integration that is perfect for companies that want a simple way to bring in Amazon Business purchase transactions directly into QuickBooks. The Amazon Business app saves time and reduces manual data entry by retrieving the purchases automatically each day. You can then review and reconcile these purchases in QuickBooks. The app also provides details such as product descriptions, item costs, and fee breakdowns for every transaction. Once you have these details, you can organize and sort them into different categories and match with your bank transactions for better expense management.
Expensify
Expensify is one of the best QuickBooks add-ons, and for good reason. With Expensify, employees can expense purchases with the click of a button. By photographing a receipt, whether it’s for gas or a client lunch put on a company credit card, employees can easily get their expenses approved.
Expensify’s SmartScan technology pulls information, such as the merchant’s name, dates, and expense amounts, and imports them into QuickBooks for fast and easy approval. Gone are the days of holding onto paper receipts for weeks on end. Expensify can handle your administrative work, track expenses, and create a receipt bank so you can get your cash flow moving.
Magento
With Magento, you can sync your sales in minutes and track your inventory to save hours of manual data entry. Magento has numerous useful functions, such as allowing you to create an invoice in QuickBooks Online when an order is created in Magento. You can also create a new item in QuickBooks Online when a product is created in Magento. Magento also allows you to create multiple sales channels to QuickBooks Online to ensure stock levels are current, with products matched by product name or SKU. For streamlined inventory management, Magento is the way to go.
Conclusion
Find eazy to install, configure and use Manufacturing software compatible with Quickbooks – a simple but flexible Manufacturing software which allows you to manage your production line using a SQL database.