Comments on: QuickBooks Groups for Custom Manufacturers

By: Steve Barber

Steve Barber — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:54:08 +0000

Thanks for your articles they have been very helpful. I jsut bought premier and trying to figure out the best way to set up for my business. we make signs and vehicle lettering all to order and everything is prety unique, allthough most things are made from a laundry list of materials. I would like to set something up like assembelies but i think i would have to constantly change the BOM’s. And it’s hard to put a price on items because it varies. for instance a 4′x4′ sign made from the same materials can vary in price based on how intricate a design is. But i would like my invoices to list a product not just a list of the materials used to make them. Any advice?

By: Charlie Russell

Charlie Russell — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:06:32 +0000

Mitchell, perhaps what I should say is that the basic QuickBooks inventory is not the best solution for that kind of process. There are several addons that should be able to do a better job – they take the inventory features out of QB and use QB just for the accounting side of things. I don’t have a specific recommendation on that, as I’ve not delved into these deeply. Take a look at Fishbowl Inventory, for example.

QuickBooks Enterprise has a feature that helps a bit – you can modify the BOM as you issue the job. And, I’ve seen another recommendation on a workaround that I’m going to investigate – if I can make it work, I’ll write about it.

By: Mitchell

Mitchell — Sun, 01 May 2011 04:41:14 +0000

Great article, Charlie! This is exactly the advice I needed to hear for my up and coming company.

Your last paragraph, you mention that for a company that deals exclusively with custom, built-to-order merchandise, Quickbooks is NOT the proper solution.

In your opinion, what would be the right solution for such a comapany?

Thanks again for the great articles!