Find the best Manufacturing Accounting Systems

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NetSuite

With an integrated system that includes ERP, financials, commerce, inventory management, HR, PSA, supply chain management, CRM and more – NetSuite enables fast-growing businesses across all industries to work more effectively by a...Read more about NetSuite

4.1 (1454 reviews)

82 recommendations

Fishbowl

Fishbowl is the #1 manufacturing and warehouse inventory management software! Its powerful inventory control system gives your small or midsize business the exact tools needed to transform your inventory management and scale your ...Read more about Fishbowl

4.1 (830 reviews)

69 recommendations

Striven

Striven is a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution suitable for many industries and organizations of all sizes. It offers features for accounting, inventory management, human resources, customer relationship mana...Read more about Striven

4.8 (116 reviews)

42 recommendations

Global Shop Solutions

Global Shop Solutions offers ERP software to serve clients across manufacturing industries of all sizes. The multi-modular application is comprised of independent modules for customer relationship management, inventory management,...Read more about Global Shop Solutions

4.1 (70 reviews)

27 recommendations

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Intellect QMS

Intellect provides a flexible enterprise Quality Management Software (eQMS) solution and platform designed to meet any FDA and ISO compliance requirements, as well as digital transformation goals. Built on the Intellect Compliance...Read more about Intellect QMS

4.5 (79 reviews)

16 recommendations

ProfitKey

ProfitKey is an on-premise manufacturing management solution for small and midsize manufacturers and job shops. It caters to various manufacturing industries including aerospace, defence, automotive, capital equipment, electronics...Read more about ProfitKey

4.3 (13 reviews)

16 recommendations

QT9 ERP

QT9 ERP is a highly-scalable manufacturing platform for connecting and automating business data from multiple systems into one scalable and intuitive solution. QT9 ERP integrates inventory management, accounting management, sales ...Read more about QT9 ERP

4.9 (14 reviews)

15 recommendations

Visual EstiTrack

Henning Software has helped small to midsize manufacturers and job shops for 30 years. Visual EstiTrack ERP has complete material requirements planning, product lifecycle, supply chain, customer relationship, human resource and ma...Read more about Visual EstiTrack

4.8 (11 reviews)

14 recommendations

Deskera MRP

Deskera enables fast growing businesses to operate more efficiently by providing them with an integrated platform that connects manufacturing, accounting, erp, inventory and warehouse management, order fulfillment, procurement, sa...Read more about Deskera MRP

3.7 (3 reviews)

14 recommendations

DELMIAworks

DELMIAworks (formerly IQMS) ERP is developed specifically for SMB and large discrete and batch process manufacturers in the aerospace, medical device, automotive, food and beverage, consumer products, plastics, packaging, and elec...Read more about DELMIAworks

4.1 (288 reviews)

13 recommendations

Rootstock Manufacturing ERP

Rootstock Software is a global provider of manufacturing cloud ERP on the next generation Salesforce Platform. It is purpose-built for mid-size discrete manufacturers who are looking to digitally transform on a future-proof platfo...Read more about Rootstock Manufacturing ERP

4.6 (8 reviews)

13 recommendations

Vicinity

Vicinity Software is a cloud-based or on-premise solution designed for process manufacturers with a specific focus on food & beverage (VicinityFood), chemical (VicinityChem) and breweries (VicinityBrew). Features include MRP, cent...Read more about Vicinity

4.3 (4 reviews)

6 recommendations

Manufacturing & SFC

Transform your extensive manufacturing processes into easily accessible, efficient procedures. Geneva Systems offers MRP & Manufacturing Execution software. Our MRP & Manufacturing Execution module is a robust and comprehensive ...Read more about Manufacturing & SFC

3.0 (1 reviews)

6 recommendations

Deltek Costpoint

Deltek Costpoint is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) and management solution designed to meet the requirements of midsize and large enterprise businesses. The solution primarily assists government contractors, professional se...Read more about Deltek Costpoint

4.0 (205 reviews)

5 recommendations

NutraSoft

NutraSoft Premium/Ultimate is a food & beverage manufacturing ERP for small to medium sized food & beverage businesses who are looking to manage and grow their operation, increase margins, analyze and improve their production proc...Read more about NutraSoft

4.2 (12 reviews)

4 recommendations

Exenta

Aptean Apparel software solutions help apparel, footwear, accessories, home furnishing and other consumer goods brands, manufacturers and retailers to manage their various business operations. Key features include catalog manageme...Read more about Exenta

3.4 (8 reviews)

4 recommendations

OptiProERP with Sap Business One

OptiProERP with SAP Business One is a complete ERP solution for small and midsize manufacturers and distributors. SAP Business One is an ERP platform designed for small and midsize companies with over 70,000 customers. OptiProERP ...Read more about OptiProERP with Sap Business One

No reviews yet

4 recommendations

BatchMaster ERP

BatchMaster Software offers process manufacturing software solutions for the food, chemical, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. Users can run the manufacturing application with QuickBooks, Sage 100&300, Microsoft Dynamic...Read more about BatchMaster ERP

4.7 (6 reviews)

3 recommendations

R4 Enterprise

Royal 4 Enterprise is an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution with built-in modules for distribution, manufacturing, planning, inventory management, reporting and company financials. It serves midsize to large en...Read more about R4 Enterprise

4.5 (4 reviews)

3 recommendations

Aquilon ERP

Aquilon Software offers a combined supply chain, manufacturing, distribution, and financial management system that is deployable either on the cloud or on-premise. All modules integrate with each other, allowing users to gain full...Read more about Aquilon ERP

4.6 (51 reviews)

2 recommendations

Buyers Guide

Last Updated: March 16, 2023

Every company has basic accounting needs, such as general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory and payroll. Accounting for manufacturing companies carries additional requirements. For example, it's important to have features to support job costing, work-in-progress (WIP) reports, change orders and job payroll tracking. However, the market for these systems is complex due to consolidation, new entrants and the increasing demands of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. We wrote this buyer’s guide to untangle the web of this technology.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What Is Manufacturing Accounting Software?

What Type of Buyer Are You?

Benefits and Potential Issues

Market Trends to Understand

The Vendor Landscape

What Is Manufacturing Accounting Software?

Manufacturing accounting software manages all of the financial transactions and operations for manufacturers. Generic programs, such as manufacturing software for Quickbooks, don't have the unique capabilities that manufacturers require.

Additional features found in accounting software for manufacturers include support for sales orders, purchase orders, change orders and work-in-progress (WIP) reports. For engineer-to-order and make-to-order manufacturers, job costing modules are especially beneficial. These modules help manufacturers track actual project costs by materials, equipment and labor, and determine cost differentials by comparing actual costs to estimated costs.

Most systems are offered in a suite of modules that include customer relationship management (CRM), material requirements planning (MRP) and manufacturing execution software (MES). This complete suite of modules is often referred to as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and can manage the entire operations of an enterprise. 

Beyond standard accounting modules like accounts payable, accounts receivable and general ledger, a manufacturing accounting system will have additional features such as:

  • Raw material costing. Allows users to project current and future costs for raw materials based on historical data.

  • Bill of materials. Allows users to calculate total costs for assemblies and subassemblies, with parts and materials lists.

  • Purchasing. Allows users to track inventory and automatically place orders for raw materials when quantities reach a threshold set by the user.

It is this integration with other modules that is a key difference between a generic system and manufacturing accounting programs. For example, inventory requirements determined by the MRP system pass through to the inventory system to check availability, then to the procurement system to create a purchase order, and on to the accounts payable system for payment. The MES system tracks workers time on projects and reports that information to the payroll systems.

Most accounting systems manufacturing firms use is still installed on-premise. In a production environment the workstations are networked, usually with a mix of wired and wireless connections. One of the cost justifications for cloud-based systems is the reduced cost for infrastructure, but that is often offset by the added networking infrastructure requirements of the environment. Even so, cloud-based accounting software for manufacturing company support has long-term business benefits. While the shop floor needs a network, it does not necessarily need to have servers. With the server in the cloud, the facility does not have to have staff to maintain it or back it up.

What Type of Buyer Are You?

It is the “manufacturing” part of manufacturing accounting systems that is hard. Buyers need to match the enhanced functions to shop floor needs. Over 90 percent of buyers fall into one of these three groups:

Enterprise resource planning suite buyer. These buyers value the seamless integration of data and processes that comes from having one system for all functions. For example, they prefer a full-suite system for estimating, work-in-progress management and accounting that can automatically turn an estimate into a budget for project management, and then match invoices to project status and allocate job costs. These buyers favor integrated suites like Oracle, SAP, Sage ERP or Microsoft Dynamics.

Specialist buyer. Specialists in one function, such as job costing or inventory management, may value the feature depth of best-of-breed solutions designed for their function. These buyers may need specific functionality, like the ability to interface with an MRP system.

Small manufacturer. Small organizations often have limited budgets and fewer IT resources to dedicate to a system. They may be deciding between a new system and a new piece of equipment. These buyers need cost-effective tools that are easy to implement and use. Some will prefer full-suite systems, while others may just want one application, such as bill-of-materials production or shop equipment scheduling operations. These buyers typically prefer to use a small accounting software package such as Quickbooks or Peachtree. 

Benefits and Potential Issues

There must be specific benefits to justify the additional costs of a industry-specific system over a generic system.

Any system is a challenge to implement. Because of the increased complexity and the interfaces to other company and operations systems, accounting systems are more challenging than most. This can lead to delays in installing the systems. Worse, a bad installation can yield incorrect results down the line.

Better cost control. Accounting systems for manufacturers gives a much better view of costs due to the MRP integration, MES integration and job costing functions. Increased information lets managers understand and control costs better.

Increased business visibility. Because the systems keep information at the job-cost level, managers have a view of costs and profits of all operations and can judge profitability at each level.

Better compliance reporting. Since these systems interface with systems throughout the firm, it serves as a convenient library for all of the compliance reports. This can significantly reduce the cost of preparing compliance documents for government agencies.

Market Trends to Understand

You could consider these market trends as you research the market:

Use of cloud-based computing. The use of cloud-based systems is growing. NetSuite, for example, is only available as a subscription service. While the cost of running a network is the same as as an on-premises system, there are security and cost benefits to having their systems managed and replicated in the cloud.

Use of Web-based front ends. Whether it's on-premise or in the cloud, more and more systems are allowing the use of Web-based technologies like browsers to run the systems. This means that the computer power can be centralized and workstations only need to be able to run a browser.

Integration with other systems. As manufacturing software evolves, accounting systems must change in step. More information is generated by newer MES and MRP systems than previous versions. As such, these systems are constantly evolving to keep pace.

The Vendor Landscape

This type of buyer...

Should evaluate these systems

Enterprise resource planning suite buyer

SAP, Oracle, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics

Specialist buyer

Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, Sage

Small manufacturer

Intuitive, SYSPRO, Intuit, Geneva, ECi, Exact