I am advising several small, high tech companies that make Consumer Hardware. So they need to track inventory purchases, finished goods and basic standard costing. They buy the product "turnkey" from contract manufacturers, so they do not need to track Raw Material, WIP, mfg variances, etc. But their current
Manufacturing and Cost Accounting Software
Answers
We use AllOrders from NumberCruncher
Pricing is less than the $20K, but don't expect stellar support or reporting from the software. We are integrating with QuickBooks - overall it does the job
I have used MIsys and it integrates easily with QuickBooks. Another product to check out is Fishbowl..
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Are you still using MIsys and happy with it?
While there are many packages (go to the short list you mentioned and look at their 3rd party applications listing), maybe you should re-think the initial costs in light of what their re-implementation costs may be.
All things being equal (based on going concern), why double-pay when you can do the job once and correctly? System implementation is a very disruptive process and the indirect expenses can be huge (just think double-work).
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Thanks for the guidance. Unfortunately, we don't have the people resources to implement a real ERP system (most take 6-10 people working partime and on weekends after they do their regular work) 3-6 months to configure and implement. And the cheapest the SaaS or perpetual license and implementation cost that I've seen for these ERP's is $150-200K, easily going up to $300-600K. As a start up company, my client does not have that amount of discretionary cash. We need a $10-20K solution that takes 1 month to implement, pulling 2-4 staff from the population, working on it at night or on weekends. Once we ship our new product, raise our next round of VC funding, and feel that our revenue and customer base can ramp, then we'll go out and hire 20-30 more people and implement a NetSuite. That's usually how companies in Silicon Valley work. My board rather put $200-300K towards a senior application software engineer than an ERP system as the ROI is much higher.
Have you looked at the different levels of QB add ons? You might have to upgrade your subscription level but if it will answer your requirements, then it might be a good temp solution.
http://enterprisesuite.intuit.com/products/advanced-inventory/
Do you know if QB has manufacturing add ons? I'm looking for: Bill of Material, Work Orders, Backflush to pull the raw material into a Work Order based on the BoM and convert it into a finished product, MRP, Advanced Purchasing. I scanned QB's website and did not see any of that mentioned. If QB did have that functionality, I'd be pleasantly shocked. I do see 3rd party bolt on SW apps that have this functionality-----they are basically similar to Ask ManMan. If you implemented or worked with any of those (so far I know of MiSys, Acctivate and AllOrders), please send me your impressions.
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I know that this is an old thread, but what did you decide to go with? We are in the same situation that your company was couple years ago and had used pcMRP, but it was difficult to navigate.
Anonymous (Dir of Fin):
If you are looking at the same marketspace as QB, Xero now has 3rd party add-ons for manufacturing and mrp... you should investigate.
One software you might check out is Unleashed Software. They offer robust inventory control, integration to most major accounting packages and at a pretty reasonable cost. They have serial number tracking, in-depth cost accounting and integrations to major distribution platforms, as well.