ERP for small business manufacturing:orders, stock and the floor in one place
TrackFinch is ERP for small business manufacturing, made for shops of 3 to 50. Quotes, orders, parts, buying and work orders live in one system your whole crew opens on a phone. Your books stay in QuickBooks.
Free. No card, no sales call, and you can be running this week.
The same week, run twice
One order for 40 mounting brackets, Monday to Friday. Run it once on a stock sheet and a whiteboard, then once in TrackFinch. Same shop, same crew, same parts.
Monday
Another job ships. 28 brackets (BRK-200) leave the shelf, and 12 are left.
Tuesday
An order comes in for 40 brackets, due Friday. Each one takes two 1/4-20 threaded inserts.
Where the week goes wrongSame order, two answers to “do we have 40?”
Tuesday, after the order
The stock sheet still says 40, so you promise Friday. The inserts are on nobody’s list.
Confirming the order sets aside the 12 on the shelf. Planning shows the rest. You plan the work order, draft the PO and send it to your vendor that afternoon.
Wednesday
A quiet day. As far as the sheet knows, you’re covered.
The work order for 28 is on the Shop floor screen. The crew cuts and forms them.
Thursday
The job starts. The shelf has 12, not 40, and there are no inserts. Someone gets on the phone.
The inserts arrive. You receive them against the PO and the crew presses them in.
Friday
Nothing to ship. You call the customer with a new date.
All 40 brackets ship, as promised.
Next week
The order ships late.
A spreadsheet works until a second person starts promising stock.
After that it’s only as right as the last person who updated it. In TrackFinch there’s one count, and every order, work order and PO works from it.
Start freeAn ERP is two systems sold as one. You already own half.
Every manufacturing ERP is two systems in one box. The shop side runs orders, stock, bills of materials, buying and the floor (on its own it’s called MRP). The office side runs the ledger, invoicing and payroll.
Now look at what you want fixed: the order typed three times, the part you find out you’re short when the job starts, the job that cost more than you quoted. Every one of those lives on the shop side. Your office side already works. Your bookkeeper runs it in QuickBooks.
So for a shop your size, a real small business ERP is the shop side in one system, next to the books you already keep. TrackFinch is that shop side. Put it beside QuickBooks and you’ve covered what an ERP would do for you, without paying twice for the office half or sitting through the project that comes with it.
MRP vs ERP: what each one covers, and which a small shop needs
The shop side
usually called MRPWhere your retyping, shortages and job costs live.
- Quotes
- Orders
- Stock
- BOMs
- Purchasing
- Work orders
- Shop floor
Runs in TrackFinch
The office side
accountingAlready works. You don’t need to buy it again.
- Ledger
- Invoicing
- Payroll
Stays in QuickBooks, or whatever your bookkeeper uses
Invoices and bills still go into QuickBooks the way they do today (nothing syncs; reports export as CSV for your bookkeeper). What stops is typing the same order into the stock sheet, the job board and the purchase list, because in TrackFinch the quote, the order, the stock set aside, the work order and the PO are one record.
One order, four people, one record
Here’s order SO-0041 from the top of the page, 40 mounting brackets, through one sample day. Four people touch it. Nobody retypes it. Each one opens their own screen and picks up where the last person left off.
Office
The quote is priced from the bill of materials: materials, labor from each step’s setup and cycle minutes, then your markup. Accept turns it into a confirmed order.
Buyer
Planning shows 3 sheets of steel short. The PO goes out in the units your vendor sells, a bundle of 5. Receive it, and the part’s cost updates as a weighted average.
Floor
The crew opens the work order on the Shop floor screen of a phone, starts it, ticks off each step and finishes it. 40 brackets land in stock.
Owner
Open orders and stock value download as CSV for your bookkeeper. The Audit log shows who changed what, and when.
No pings, no live feed.
TrackFinch doesn’t push changes at anyone. Each person sees the latest when they open or refresh the screen, and what they see is the one record everyone works from, not a copy someone forgot to update.
No implementation project
You can’t stop the shop for a rollout, and you don’t have to. The usual ERP path runs on other people’s calendars and ends in one big switch. TrackFinch starts with an order you already have, and your spreadsheet keeps working while you do it.
The usual ERP path
- 1Book a demo
- 2Get a quote
- 3Hire an implementation partner
- 4Map your data
- 5Train the crew
- 6Go live
Nothing runs in the new system until the last step.
The TrackFinch path
Start this week- 1Sign upEmail or Google. No card, no sales call./signup/
- 2Import your parts sheetUpload it as CSV and match its columns.Items › Import
- 3Build one BOMPick something you make every week: its parts and its steps.Bills of Materials
- 4Enter one real orderA job that’s on the board right now.Orders
- 5Open PlanningSee what that order is short before the job starts.Planning
Then keep the spreadsheet running alongside, and add each product when its next order comes in.
Free, and the catch you’re looking for
TrackFinch costs nothing. You get the whole system, not a cut-down version, and you never talk to a salesperson to get it.
- Every module. Quotes, orders, stock, buying, work orders and the shop floor.
- Your whole team. Everyone you invite, office and floor.
- No card. Sign up with email or Google.
- No sales call. Nobody books you in. You start when you want.
So why is it free?
TrackFinch is built hand in hand with the shops that run on it. What it needs is real jobs running through it: the odd BOM, the partial shipment, the part that’s always short. So the price is use. Run your actual orders in it and tell us where it doesn’t fit your shop.
Leaving costs nothing
The catch people expect is lock-in. Any time, an admin can download the whole workspace from Settings as a zip of CSV files, one for every table.
- items.csv
- stock_levels.csv
- orders.csv
- boms.csv
- purchase_orders.csv
- work_orders.csv
- and every other table
And your books never moved. They’re still in QuickBooks, so there’s nothing to unwind.
Built for the phones your crew already carries
TrackFinch runs in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer. Nothing to install, no app store, no terminals to mount by the machines. Your crew signs in with email or Google.
Just their own jobs
The Shop floor screen opens on Mine: the jobs on their plate, plus any nobody has started, due first at the top. Tap Start, tick off each step, then Finish.
Your bookkeeper gets numbers, not new screens
The Stock valuation report downloads on-hand times unit cost as a CSV. Every change lands in the Audit log with who made it.
Nobody clocks in. A job’s labor cost comes from the minutes planned on its BOM. And it needs a connection: there’s no offline mode.
When to buy a full ERP instead
TrackFinch runs the shop side: quotes, orders, stock, buying and work orders. Some shops need more than that. If any of these is you, a full ERP is the better buy.
Buy a full ERP if you need
- More than one company’s books. You keep the books for 2 or more companies in one system.
- Payroll from job hours. Your crew’s pay has to come from the hours logged against each job.
- Machines scheduled hour by hour. You need every machine booked by the hour, not just a due date on the job.
- Orders that come in on their own. Orders from Shopify or EDI have to land in the system without anyone typing them.
Where TrackFinch stops
- Screens update when you open or refresh them. They aren’t live.
- One work order makes one lot.
- Nothing syncs to QuickBooks. Numbers move across as CSV files.
None of that sounds like your shop? Start with the shop side.Start free
Questions about ERP for small business manufacturing
Short answers to what’s left.
Is there a free ERP for small manufacturers?
Yes. TrackFinch is free, with every module on for everyone you invite, and you sign up without a card. It covers the shop side of an ERP and leaves the accounting where it already is.
What does ERP cost a small business?
Many vendors price per user and only give you a number after a demo, so you find out the cost late. TrackFinch costs nothing, and you can see what’s included on the pricing page before you sign up.
Do I need ERP or MRP?
If your headaches are orders, stock, BOMs, buying and the floor, you need MRP plus quotes and sales orders, which is what TrackFinch is. A full ERP adds the accounting. Here’s how MRP and ERP differ.
Does it replace QuickBooks?
No, and it doesn’t connect to QuickBooks either. Your invoices, bills and ledger stay there as they are now, and you hand your bookkeeper reports exported as CSV. What goes away is keying one order into a stock sheet, then a job board, then a purchase list: in TrackFinch the quote, order, stock, work order and PO are a single record.
How long until it’s running?
That depends on your parts list, so we won’t promise a number. You don’t need everything in first: one real order and the parts it uses is enough to see what you’re short, and you can do that the week you sign up.
Can I get my data out?
Yes, any time. An admin downloads the whole workspace from Settings as a zip of CSV files that open in any spreadsheet.
Does it work on phones, and offline?
Phones, yes. It runs in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to install. Offline, no. It needs Wi-Fi or a data signal, so check the far corner of the shop.
Does it work for a food or drink maker?
Yes. Each run makes its own lot with a best-by date from the product’s shelf life, and each shipment records which lots went out. Here’s TrackFinch as a food and beverage ERP.
Is there a limit on items or people?
No. Add as many parts, orders and work orders as you run, and invite the whole crew, office and floor.
Runs on the same ledger.
Everything in TrackFinch shares one source of truth — start anywhere, the rest is already connected.
Put this week's first order in today
That's how ERP for small business manufacturing should start: one real order, the parts it needs, and Planning showing what you're short before the job starts. Your books stay in QuickBooks.
Free · Every module · No card needed