ERP for Manufacturing
Don’t know the real cost of your product — pricing «by guess» and afraid of underselling? Materials get written off without tracking, raw material balances are unclear, and at month-end it’s impossible to tell what each batch actually cost to make. As long as production accounting lives in Excel and notebooks, you can’t see where the money leaks.
ERPJS is a management accounting system for manufacturing businesses that closes the whole cycle: from a product’s bill of materials to finished goods in stock with cost automatically calculated. It runs in the browser and has a free plan with no time limit. Here’s how it works in practice.
What can ERPJS do for manufacturing?
ERPJS handles full production accounting — from the recipe to the cost of finished goods. Four key capabilities:
Bill of materials (BOM)
You define which materials and how much go into a product. The system knows the recipe of every unit produced.
Production orders
Launch production as a document with statuses «Created → Started → Completed». You always see which stage each order is at.
Automatic cost calculation
On completion the system calculates the actual cost of the product: materials plus labour. No more guesswork.
Materials and stock
Materials are written off from stock at launch, finished goods are received at completion. Balances update in real time.
How does production accounting work: from BOM to finished goods?
The production cycle in ERPJS has four steps, and each one is automatically reflected in accounting and stock:
- Bill of materials. You describe the product’s bill of materials once: which materials, how much, what equipment and the sequence of operations. The system then reuses it for every order.
- Production order. You create an order for the required quantity — the system pulls materials from the BOM and shows the raw material requirement.
- Launch. When production starts, materials are written off from stock automatically — you immediately see how much raw material was used and what’s left.
- Completion. Finished goods are received into stock, and the system calculates their actual cost. The order is closed — the reports show the full picture.
Every step creates entries in financial accounting with no manual work: material write-offs to production and finished-goods receipts happen automatically. More on automation in the article Production accounting: how to automate from raw materials to finished goods.
How is product cost calculated?
ERPJS calculates the cost of finished goods automatically at the moment production is completed. It includes direct costs: the value of consumed materials plus labour and other production expenses defined in the BOM. This is the actual cost — based on materials really written off, not an estimate.
Why it matters: knowing the exact cost of each product, you see your real gross margin and never sell at a loss. ERPJS deliberately does not load general and administrative expenses (office rent, advertising) onto product cost — those are accounted for at the business level in the profit and loss statement. So you get two honest figures: gross margin per product and total company profit.
How to calculate cost correctly and not include the wrong things — in the article Cost of Goods: What to Count and What Not To.
Multi-stage production, semi-finished goods and equipment
ERPJS supports not only simple «material → product» but also complex multi-stage processes. What that means in practice:
- Semi-finished goods. A product can be made of intermediate semi-finished items you produce yourself — the system tracks them as separate positions with their own cost.
- Operation sequence. The BOM defines stages and the order of operations — the system generates a job for each operation in the right sequence.
- Equipment per operation. Each operation can be linked to a machine or equipment group — useful for workshops with several work centres.
- Operation outsourcing. If part of the work is done by a subcontractor, the operation can be marked as external.
It’s exactly this multi-stage capability, equipment tracking and subcontracting that set ERPJS apart from simple inventory programs that stop at single-stage production.
Which manufacturers is ERPJS for?
A good fit for small and medium manufacturers who want to see real cost and control materials:
- Furniture manufacturing
- Garment and textile
- Food and confectionery
- Metalworking and assembly
- Advertising production and printing
- Windows, doors and structures
- Woodworking, agri-processing, made-to-order workshops
Less of a fit for large plants with continuous conveyor lines and complex rate-setting — those need heavy MES/APS systems. ERPJS covers businesses where it’s important to know cost, track materials and never halt production over a shortage of raw materials.
How is ERPJS different from other systems?
ERPJS is software with open business-logic source code. What that gives a manufacturing business:
- Accounting, production, stock and finance in one system — no need to reconcile data between several programs.
- Free plan with no time limit — start your accounting today and move to paid features as you need them.
- On-premise or cloud — for businesses that need to keep data on their own server.
- Open source, no vendor lock-in — your team or partners can adapt the system to a specific process without waiting for vendor updates. You own your data and your logic.
- English interface and REST API — integrate ERPJS with your existing tools.
ERPJS runs manufacturing from BOM to finished goods with automatic costing — in one system together with stock and finance. You see the real cost of every product, control materials and never reconcile data by hand between programs.
Frequently asked questions
How does ERPJS calculate product cost?
Automatically when a production order is completed. The cost includes materials actually consumed (per the bill of materials) plus labour and production expenses defined in the recipe. This is the actual cost, not an estimate. General and administrative expenses are not included — they are accounted for separately in the profit and loss statement.
How are materials written off during production?
Materials are written off from stock automatically when a production order is launched — based on the norms in the bill of materials. Finished goods are received into stock on completion. Both operations create financial accounting entries with no manual input.
Is ERPJS suitable for small manufacturing?
Yes. The system is designed for small and medium manufacturing — workshops, ateliers, small plants. You can start on the free plan with no time limit and move to paid features when you actually need them.
Can it handle multi-stage production with semi-finished goods?
Yes. A product can be made of self-produced semi-finished items, and the bill of materials defines the sequence of operations linked to equipment. Individual operations can be outsourced to a subcontractor. The system tracks accounting at every stage.
How do you track defects and waste?
The actual quantity at each operation is recorded separately from the planned one, so discrepancies are visible. Defective products and waste are written off as production expenses. Control is based on the facts of write-offs.
Why is this better than production accounting in Excel?
In Excel cost is calculated manually and goes stale the moment raw material prices change, while material balances easily drift from reality. ERPJS calculates cost automatically from actual write-offs, keeps balances in real time and stores the history of every order. Migrating from Excel takes a few hours — products and materials are imported from a spreadsheet.