When people think of manufacturing, they may visualize machines and equipment rather than reports and accounting. However, anyone in the manufacturing industry knows the importance of keeping things organized—including finances.
This article discusses the benefits of QuickBooks manufacturing software and how it streamlines operations.
How QuickBooks Can Help Manufacturers
QuickBooks is accounting software offering different integrations manufacturers can find useful. From inventory management to production planning, learning how to use this program is crucial.
Since inventory and finances are directly connected, you know you want to sell inventory and not allow it to stay in-house too long.
Using QuickBooks for manufacturing can:
- Create a master production schedule (MSP)
- Improve production scheduling
- Prevent bottlenecks
- Prevent overspending on overhead
An Overview of QuickBooks’ Manufacturing and Wholesale Edition
This video offers a quick look at the QuickBooks Enterprise Manufacturing and Wholesale program and how to easily create various reports.
Food Manufacturing: Build Assemblies
QuickBooks solves some of the unique challenges of food manufacturing. Learn how by watching the video below.
Manufacturing Design
The following video demonstrates the best ways to use QuickBooks to focus on different manufacturing situations and Fourlane client experiences.
Stated Costs in Manufacturing
This video addresses misconceptions about QuickBooks. Discover how to create reports that accurately calculate the various costs occurring in the manufacturing process.
Inventory Assembly
Learn how to organize various inventory assembly reports in this video.
Eight Quickbooks Manufacturing Features
Here are eight standout things you can do with QuickBooks for manufacturing.
1. Customize Chart of Accounts for Your Business
A chart of accounts is the best way to record all financial transactions within a business. While there are templates offering the basics, like assets, revenue, and expenses, every business is unique—even if they’re in the same industry.
Customizing your chart of accounts will make your financial reporting more accurate and streamlined. It also provides a better idea of how specific areas of your business operate.
QuickBooks provides industry-specific templates and the ability to refine the chart to suit your needs. This ability saves time while recording unique business needs.
2. Track Discounts and Automate the Cost of Goods
Every manufacturing business has a wide range of customers; sometimes, specific customers get special deals. Whether it’s due to buying high volumes or from customer loyalty, it can take a long time to enter and track different discounts.
QuickBooks automates tracking discounts. Enter the discount once, and you’re done.
You can also monitor the profitability of goods automatically as production, shipping, and other factors increase or decrease.
3. Integrate to Different eCommerce Platforms
It’s practically impossible to run a successful business without using eCommerce platforms. The problem is that with so many platforms, you’ll waste time manually entering information if they don’t easily connect with your accounting system.
ECommerce platforms like Amazon, Shopify, and others easily integrate with QuickBooks and can save hours of data entry. The two systems talk to each other and update reports based on your sales and inventory.
4. Keep Track of Orders
Operating as a manufacturer and retailer means tracking various orders for you and your customers. Tracking large order volumes can lead to mistakes and logistical nightmares as you promise a customer you can fulfill an order—only to discover you don’t have the materials needed to complete it.
Create separate reports for backorders, listing them by date, so when needed supplies are available, you can address orders that have been outstanding the longest. This feature works if you partially fill an order that you must complete. The reporting creates a better customer relationship with accurately communicated timelines.
Of course, this works for regular orders as well. You can run reports to see what orders have been handled and what’s been shipped out and received. You can also track which customers have prepaid for their orders and which still need to pay.
5. Organize Customer Information
Customer information is valuable, and you must protect it. One way to do so is to keep it organized—mixing addresses. This issue is critical for manufacturers because a customer could be a retail brand with multiple stores nationwide.
Keeping addresses organized is straightforward with QuickBooks—create multiple addresses for a single customer without worrying about limits. When preparing to ship products, click the desired customer, and a drop-down menu will appear with the available addresses.
You can also automatically send statements and regular reminders to ensure on-time payment.
6. Produce Manufacturing Reports
Need a quick way to show how your business is doing? QuickBooks can help with that. Offering various templates relating to the manufacturing industry, you can load them up and share them with shareholders, potential partners, and stakeholders.
Some template examples include:
- Inventory Valuation Report: Shows inventory, its value, current sale prices, and more.
- Stock Status Report: Provides an inventory volume snapshot.
- Raw Material Shortage Report: Also known as an assembly shortage report, this report lists materials volume and reordering requirements to prevent shortages.
7. Record Up-to-Date Bill of Materials
Your bill of materials (BOM), the list of supplies needed to build a product, constantly changes. Monitoring inventory can take much time, with the possibility of costly mistakes.
QuickBooks created a feature that lets users record BOM costs. It also automatically updates costs if factors like labor or material costs change.
8. Track Inventory Changes Automatically
Similar to the materials needed to build products, finished products constantly change. Manually monitoring inventory is an almost impossible task—a mistake waiting to happen.
QuickBooks streamlines inventory tracking through mobile barcode scanning. That way, you’re always up-to-date on how picking, receiving, and cycling counting are changing inventory numbers. This method can work with multiple warehouses, and reports reflect each warehouse’s changes.
Stay updated on your business and reduce data entry mistakes.
Plan Ahead by Consulting with Fourlane
Manufacturing is a precise process. One hiccup could derail operations for days or weeks. Before that happens, create a relationship with a QuickBooks consulting service like Fourlane.
We can help you navigate the program. When you partner with Fourlane, you’ll know who to call for help when issues occur.
See how our services can help you today.
