ERP and Accounting Software
Manufacturing ERP Software
Manufacturing ERP & Accounting Software in the Cloud
Choosing the right manufacturing ERP and accounting software for your business requires looking at the big picture. Where do you need automation the most? Where do your systems and data live currently? How far can you see into your production or supply chains? Where could you be losing time – and money – from inefficiencies?
Software for manufacturers has evolved by leaps and bounds from the days of MS-DOS systems and siloed, on-premise applications. The best solutions now live in the cloud, enabling real-time connectivity between users and databases, continuous innovation and improvement, faster deployment and an overall reduction in IT overhead spend. Implementing a modern cloud-based ERP for manufacturing will allow you to better integrate your disparate business systems and streamline your production management via automation in the right areas.
SWK Technologies will help you find the right accounting and business management software for your needs, with a team of expert consultants bringing years of experience working with manufacturers on implementing ERP and other systems. Whichever part of the industry your business lives in, SWK will make sure you have a solution tailored around your unique pain points, goals and growth objectives.
Manufacturing ERP Solutions for Every Industry
Paper Products Manufacturing
Many of the challenges faced by the paper manufacturing sector – such as maintaining compliance with environmental regulations, managing production waste, and handling production scheduling – can be difficult to overcome without a specialized ERP system. Basic accounting software fails to offer tools that keep track of the intricacies of regulatory adherence and ecological standards facing the paper-based products industry. These applications also struggle to provide insights into waste management when it comes to tracking scrap paper, pulp, and chemical waste. Visibility into inventory across multiple sites is limited and they fall short in managing complex production schedules.
A comprehensive ERP solution built for manufacturers addresses these challenges by offering real-time tracking tools for resource usage, waste management and more. Integrated features for monitoring environmental regulations help certify compliance, and inventory management can provide insight across multiple warehouses. Production scheduling systems can better manage resource allocation, while scrap tracking can reduce waste and improve cost efficiency.
Fabricated & Prefabricated Metals Manufacturing
Manufacturers working with fabricated and prefabricated metals deal with multi-layered production and supply chains. Complexities such as managing customized orders like made-to-order (MTO) and engineer-to-order (ETO), volatile raw material pricing, and accurately tracking metal scrap present significant challenges without an industry-tailored ERP solution. Desktop accounting software often lacks the ability to manage real-time updates for custom orders, track high-value materials with lot and serial traceability, or monitor waste during cutting, bending, and assembly. Additionally, they fail to adjust costs dynamically in response to fluctuating raw material prices.
An advanced ERP system tackles these challenges with product configurators that automatically update bills of materials (BOMs) and schedules. Traceability of metals from raw materials to finished goods improves inventory accuracy and regulatory compliance. Scrap tracking tools optimize material usage by monitoring waste at each stage, while real-time market data adjusts costs dynamically to ensure accurate job costing and profitability despite fluctuating material prices.
Furniture & Home Goods Manufacturing
Managing quality control, inventory, and product variations are critical needs for furniture and home goods manufacturers, smaller ERP systems often lack these features. Solutions like QuickBooks fall short in offering real-time pricing updates for materials such as wood, fabric, foam, and hardware, especially when tracking inventory across multiple warehouses. These applications also lack built-in quality management functionality, making it difficult to verify compliance with safety standards. Additionally, handling product configurations for different wood types, fabrics, modular furniture, and other variations, is cumbersome without advanced configuration tools.
A robust ERP solution tackles these challenges by offering a product configurator that manages product variations. Providing real-time inventory management across multiple warehouses allows accurate material tracking and up-to-date pricing. Integrated quality control tools help confirm products meet regulatory requirements and safety standards, while a scrap tracking and waste reduction feature assists in boosting cost efficiency.
Unify Your Manufacturing Software Stack
Enterprise Resource Planning applications are just one of many types of software built for the manufacturing industry, but all were designed to fulfill a critical need at either end of your production and supply chains. However, as you continue to keep adding more specialized applications – from CAD systems to quality management to shop floor data collection – technology costs multiply and data silos emerge. The key lies in building a technology stack anchored by a modern ERP system that can seamlessly connect with best-in-class applications while eliminating redundant systems.
A true enterprise manufacturing accounting and business management solution consolidates your operations and delivers your data in a single comprehensive view, giving you the big picture of where your company stands. With all financial, operational, and production data centralized, your team can move beyond piecemeal reporting and gain actionable insights into performance at every level. In addition, a unified system reduces the manual tasks associated with reconciling information across disparate applications.
ERP Accounting Software
Modern manufacturing ERP are built from the ground up to deliver powerful finance management functionality at their core. Connect your production management and material requirements planning with your enterprise accounting module and keep track of your costs and transactions at every stage.
Inventory Management
With real-time visibility captured in the cloud, manufacturing SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solutions allow you to keep an eye on your inventory at all times, throughout your entire supply chain. Reduce costs and optimize ROI by avoiding overstocking and understocking on product, ensuring that your production capacity is scaled according to value return.
Production Scheduling and Tracking
Keep up with production deadlines and seamlessly manage project times and costs using enterprise manufacturing job scheduling and planning software. Your project management and estimating software lets you maximize your investments by helping you streamline product delivery times and expenses.
Supply Chain Management and Traceability
Your manufacturing business management and accounting software ensures regulatory compliance by allowing to trace every item by lot and serial number through the entire product lifecycle. Leverage enhanced traceback functionality to gain insight into any end product, as well as raw material components.
Manufacturing Software Add-ons
SWK Technologies offers over 100 third-party software applications to integrate with your manufacturing ERP, allowing you to extend functionality for fixed asset management, accounts payable processing, customer relationship management and more. Automate functions such as sales tax, payments and talent management by choosing the right add-ons for your enterprise system.
Cloud Manufacturing ERP Software
Modern cloud-based platforms have fundamentally transformed how business technology operates, shifting from traditional deployment constraints to real-time connectivity, more fluid implementation processes, and new dynamic levels of functionality not capable with on-premise infrastructure. Taking advantage of cloud manufacturing ERP allows you to capture better visibility at multiple points throughout your supply, production and value chains, especially when leveraging seamless integration between other internal applications and partner systems that require data synchronization.
The migration to cloud-based infrastructure changes more than how your accounting software operates – it represents a transition away from the limitations and pitfalls of legacy technology. Removing the traditional barriers inherent in on-premise set ups unlocks a new level of scalability for manufacturers, allowing you to deploy improved capabilities from more advanced analytics to shop floor automation, all without the need for major IT projects and system downtime. Additionally, with a unified data flow from either end, your team gains clearer – and more consistent – insights across your inventory, production, shipping and supply chain workflows.
Cloud-based Manufacturing Benefits
- Manufacturing Intelligence: Real-time visibility into work orders, material requirements, capacity utilization, and actual production costs across all facilities
- Costs Reduction: Eliminate expensive server maintenance, redundant hardware, and upgrade-related downtime while reducing total IT spending
- Operational Mobility: Enable supervisors and managers to manage production activities, track quality data, and approve workflows from any location or device
- Supply Chain Connectivity: Streamline communication with suppliers and customers through EDI, partner portals, and shipping system integrations
- Quality Compliance: Maintain detailed lot traceability, manage certifications, and automate quality documentation with paperless workflows
- Resource Flexibility: Scale operations efficiently by adding users, production lines, or entire facilities without complex IT infrastructure projects
- System Integration: Connect manufacturing data seamlessly between CAD systems, quality management, shipping software and financial applications
- Continuous Innovation: Benefit from automatic platform updates that deliver new manufacturing capabilities without disrupting production
- Enterprise Security: Protect sensitive financial data with enterprise-grade security protocols and automated backup systems
Discrete Manufacturing ERP Software
Whether you build products to order, maintain configure-to-order operations, or run high-volume assembly lines, modern ERP software tailored for discrete manufacturing challenges helps you adapt quickly to changing market demands. These solutions provide the specialized tools needed to manage complex bills of materials, track assembly costs, and optimize production schedules across multiple work centers or facilities.
From engineering change management to capacity planning, these systems helps you balance customer requirements with available resources. Advanced scheduling tools let you shift production priorities seamlessly, while integrated quality management ensures consistent output across all assembly operations. Real-time dashboards deliver insights into material requirements, work center efficiency, and actual production costs.
Purpose-built manufacturing software form the foundation for digital transformation, especially when implemented with experienced ERP consultants who understand both the technology capabilities you need and align these industry best practices.
Cloud ERP for Discrete Manufacturers
Learn more about these cloud ERP solutions and their benefits for discrete manufacturing:
Sage Intacct for Manufacturing Operations
