Raise your hand if the first cake you ever baked was in an Easy-Bake Oven! You know the one: a sparkly, toaster-size oven that allowed anyone to make tasty treats with relative ease. It was the perfect oven for 8-Year-Old You.
That was then, and this now. There’s a reason Adult You wouldn’t start a restaurant with an Easy-Bake Oven. Sure, the basic recipe books and simple tins are perfectly fine for that specific machine, but what if you move on from making a treat or two for your parents to supplying a variety of them to your neighbor’s lemonade stand? You may need a larger oven with more flexible temperatures, different shapes and sizes of pans, and the ability to produce greater quantities at once. You may even want to add on new services and offer a grilled, fried, or frozen snack. Alas, your Easy-Bake Oven simply lacks the functionality, flexibility, and scalability to meet your budding ambition.
You wouldn’t start a restaurant with an Easy-Bake Oven. Here’s why you shouldn’t choose a basic, cookie-cutter software like QuickBooks to manage your manufacturing business.
Business Growth is Hindered
Upon startup, successful companies have the long-term vision to invest in manufacturing equipment that is built for efficiency, growth, and smooth flow of materials. The same basic principle applies to information management: companies need to equip themselves with software tools that allow information to flow with efficiency and speed.
While popular software like QuickBooks or Xero are easy to implement to get you started, they quickly run out of road for managing manufacturing, wholesale distribution, and any business that has inventory. Sure, you could develop a bunch of spreadsheets or pay for add-ons to QuickBooks and try to solve the problem, but in the end, that’s like trying to add more light bulbs into the Easy-Bake Oven.
Pricey Add-Ons are Required
QuickBooks is not an all-inclusive software solution. Not only does it have significant limitations for manufacturing and inventory management, but the marketplace has many add-ons that appear to solve those problems. The result of this is a system that requires ongoing synchronization, increased costs for add-on software, implementation, and upgrades on top of your regular fees.
More commonly, users try to dodge pricy upgrades with additional Excel spreadsheets, stand-alone systems, or other islands of automation to try to get what they need to manage their business. Starter systems like QuickBooks build unnecessary labor and costs into the business at a time when resources are scarce.
Clear Reporting Functionality is Lacking
Unfortunately, systems like QuickBooks are not adequate for capturing and reporting your operational information in a useful, easily understood manner. This hurts your manufacturing business’s chance for success because it handles only your minimum information processing needs and fails to provide you with the data and tools you need to draw conclusions that will positively shape your company’s growth.
When you as a business owner lack clear data, your ability to make decisions for your business is severely handicapped and can cost you greatly down the road.
Are You Looking for Affordable, Easy-To-Use ERP Software?
The world needs to know that there are affordable, easy-to-use ERP systems that are built for start-ups and small manufacturing and distribution companies, uniquely designed to let you start small and scale as you grow.
Attivo All-in-One goes above and beyond a typical enterprise resource planning software by integrating all your essential business management needs into one secure solution at an affordable price. Configurable to your specific needs, Attivo All-in-One comes at a fixed monthly subscription with no hidden fees or pricey upgrades.
With unlimited support, cloud hosting, leading-edge security, and personalized training and online learning systems included, Attivo All-in-One can be fully functional in a matter of weeks with a specially designed, automated implementation process.
