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The Manufacturing module manages the conversion of raw materials into finished goods — tracking bills of materials, production runs, quality checks, and yield variances, with automatic stock updates to Inventory on completion.

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What Manufacturing owns

  • Bills of materials (BOM) — the component recipe required to produce each finished product
  • Production runs — individual manufacturing orders tracking raw material consumption and output
  • Quality checks — pass/fail inspections gating production run completion

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Data flows into Manufacturing from

ModuleWhat it sends
InventoryRaw materials reserved and consumed in production

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Data flows out of Manufacturing to

ModuleWhat it sends
InventoryFinished goods added to stock on production completion
All raw materials used in production must exist as items in Inventory before they can be added to a BOM. Create your product catalogue in Inventory first.

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Common tasks

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Create a bill of materials

1

Open Manufacturing → Bills of Materials → New BOM

2

Select the finished product

Choose the item from your Inventory catalogue that this BOM will produce. This is the output item that gets added to stock when production completes.
3

Set the BOM quantity

Enter the number of finished units this BOM produces per run (e.g. 1 BOM run produces 100 units, 1 unit, or 1 batch).
4

Add components

Add each raw material or sub-assembly required. For each component, enter the quantity needed per BOM run. Be precise — variances are tracked against these quantities.
5

Add operations (optional)

List the production steps (e.g. Mix, Mould, Cure, Assemble, Pack) with estimated time per step. This enables work-in-progress tracking and labour cost capture.
6

Save

The BOM is now available for production runs. It can be versioned if the recipe changes over time.

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Start a production run

1

Open Manufacturing → Production Runs → New Run

2

Select the BOM

Choose the bill of materials for the product you are manufacturing.
3

Set the quantity

Enter how many BOM runs (and therefore how many finished units) you want to produce.
4

Set the scheduled date

Enter the planned start and end dates. These are used for scheduling and reporting.
5

Confirm

Click Start Production. Raw materials in the quantities required by the BOM are reserved from Inventory automatically. The run status changes to In Progress.
6

Track progress

Move the run through stages: Planned → In Progress → Quality Check → Completed.

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Complete a production run

1

Open the production run → click Move to Quality Check

2

Perform quality checks

Record pass/fail results for each configured quality check point (e.g. dimensions, weight, appearance). Failed checks hold the run in Quality Check status until resolved.
3

Click Mark Complete

4

Enter actual output

Record how many finished units were produced. If the actual output differs from the planned quantity, a yield variance is calculated and shown.
5

Review material consumption

Confirm the actual raw materials consumed. If you used more or less than the BOM specifies, adjust the quantities here to accurately reflect actual consumption.
6

Confirm

Finished goods are added to Inventory at the specified location. The raw materials consumed are deducted. All variances are logged for analysis.

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Version a BOM

1

Open the existing BOM → click New Version

2

Make your changes

Modify components, quantities, or operations as needed. You cannot edit a BOM version that has been used in a completed production run.
3

Set the effective date

Enter the date from which the new version should be used. Production runs started after this date will use the new version automatically.
4

Save

The previous version is archived and remains accessible for reference and historical reporting.

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Scrap a production run

1

Open the production run → click Scrap Run

2

Enter scrap reason

Choose: Raw Material Defect, Equipment Failure, Quality Failure, or Other. Add a description.
3

Confirm

The reserved raw materials are released back to Inventory (or written off if they were consumed). The production run is marked as Scrapped. A scrap record is logged for waste analysis.

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Analyse yield and waste

1

Open Reports → Manufacturing → Yield Analysis

2

Set the date range and product

3

Review

The report shows planned vs actual output quantity, planned vs actual material consumption, and the variance percentage per production run. Runs with high waste or low yield are highlighted.
4

Drill down

Click any run to see the full detail: which materials had the most variance, which quality checks failed, and which operators were involved.

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Troubleshooting

Materials are reserved from the Inventory location set on the production run. Check that the required raw materials are in stock at that location. If stock is at a different location, run a transfer in Inventory first, or change the source location on the production run.
Check the production run’s output item and the destination location. If either is blank or set to an incorrect location, the stock update may have gone to an unexpected place. Search for the item across all locations in Inventory → Items to confirm where the stock landed.
You cannot modify a BOM while it is assigned to an in-progress run. Either complete or scrap the run first, or create a new BOM version — the new version will not affect the in-progress run, which continues to use the version it was started with.
Failed quality checks must be resolved before a run can be completed. You have two options: (1) re-perform the check after corrective action and record a pass, or (2) if the issue is acceptable, record it as a conditional pass with a note and override the hold — this requires Admin or Manager role.
High variance is usually caused by incorrect BOM quantities (the recipe was under- or over-specified), actual material waste during production, or measurement differences between the BOM unit of measure and how the materials were actually consumed. Review the BOM and the actual quantities used and adjust the BOM quantities if the variance is systematic.

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FAQ

Yes. A sub-assembly is simply an Inventory item that is itself produced by its own BOM. Add it as a component on the parent BOM. When you start the parent production run, you will need sufficient sub-assembly stock — or run the sub-assembly production first.
Yes. Production costs are calculated from raw material costs (pulled from Inventory cost prices) plus any labour time logged against the run’s operations. The full cost breakdown is visible on the completed production run record and in Reports → Manufacturing → Cost Analysis.
Yes. You can have any number of production runs in progress at the same time. Each run reserves its own raw materials independently — if total reservations exceed available stock, you will be warned at the time of starting the run.
Yes. When a production run is started, the raw material value is moved from the raw materials account to the WIP account in Finance. On completion, it moves from WIP to finished goods inventory. These entries are posted automatically.
Yes. Create production runs with future start dates in Planned status. They appear on the production schedule calendar, allowing you to see resource and material requirements for the coming weeks and plan procurement accordingly.

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See also

Inventory

Components consumed in production runs are deducted from stock automatically.

Procurement

Raise purchase orders for raw materials needed for production.

Sales & POS

Finished goods flow into Inventory and become available on sales orders.