Manufacturing
Accounting software for manufacturers who carry stock
Inventory, cost of goods sold, absorbed overhead and dealer receivables kept current by the documents themselves, so the accountant spends the month checking instead of posting.
In short
SimpleERP is accounting software for small manufacturers. For a pump maker, supplier bills, dealer invoices, work orders, payroll and depreciation each post a balanced journal, and the trial balance, P&L and balance sheet are ready on any date.
Illustration: saving invoice INV-2026-0213 moves stock, posts the customer ledger, records tax and updates the dashboard in one step.
An accounting day at Midland Flow Pumps
The accountant at Midland Flow Pumps comes in three days a week. Her desk holds foundry bills for CI casting lots, a stack of dealer cheques and bank transfer slips, the electricity bill for the CNC lathes and the test bench, and a note from the owner asking why profit looks thin when sales were the best in three years.
Most of the answer sits in stock and in dealer credit. Winding wire and castings bought for next month are still on the shelf, wound stators wait to become monoblock pumps, and what dealers in Leeds and Bristol owe has grown with the season. A ledger that only sees cash cannot show any of that.
In SimpleERP the accountant posts very little by hand. Supplier bills, dealer invoices, receipts, work orders, payroll and depreciation write their own balanced journals. Her job becomes checking: are the banks reconciled, do the tax registers agree, and is the month locked.
Which ledger accounts does a pump maker watch?
The chart of accounts arrives seeded at sign-up. These are the ones that move every day in a unit that buys castings, builds pumps and sells them on credit.
- No closing-stock journal: inventory in the books is the stock ledger's value at average cost
- Overhead absorbed from each completed work order, so shop cost lands in the pump's cost
| Account | What posts to it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory | Bills for castings and wire in; work orders and invoices out | Raw stores, stators and finished pumps at average cost |
| Cost of goods sold | Every dealer invoice, at the pump's average cost | Gross margin each month without a stock guess |
| Manufacturing overhead absorbed | Labour, power and testing per unit from work orders | How much shop cost went into the pumps made |
| Accounts receivable | Dealer invoices, receipts and credit notes | The season's credit to dealers, by age |
| Tax on sales and tax to reclaim | Bills and invoices, at each line's rate | Agrees with the registers before filing |
| Plant and machinery | Asset purchases and the monthly depreciation run | Lathes, winding machines and the test bench at book value |
What are the month-end checks before the accountant visits?
Close the month in the same order each time, and the accountant's visit becomes a review rather than a rebuild.
- Bank reconciliation by ticking cleared lines against the statement until the difference is zero
- Tax summary against the sales and purchase registers, the ones your filer uses for the tax return
- Stock valuation agreeing with the inventory balance in the trial balance
- Lock date set to the month end, so nothing is posted into a closed month
Illustration of a profit and loss statement for Jan–Jun 2026 with net profit of 4,691, a tax summary and the lock date.
Why does profit look thin in the dealer season?
In September Midland Flow Pumps invoiced $436,000 to dealers, but $245,000 of it was unpaid at month end and $76,500 of copper and castings bought for October sat in the raw stores. The P&L counts each sale and its cost; the bank shows only what came in. SimpleERP puts the two side by side.
- Direct cash flow grouped by customers, suppliers, salaries and taxes
- Receivables ageing by dealer, in the usual overdue buckets
- P&L by month to compare the dealer season with the lean months
How is a mistake in a posted foundry bill corrected?
Posted documents are never edited in place. Cancelling the wrong bill writes a reversing journal and takes the castings back out of stock, and the corrected bill posts fresh. Both stay in the audit history with who did what and when.
- Reversal, not deletion, so the trail survives an audit
- Debit note instead, when the foundry agrees to a rate correction after the bill was paid
One system
Where the journals come from
Each document posts its own entry, so the ledger is only as current as the bills and invoices behind it.
Manufacturing
BOMs with scrap and cost roll-up, work orders that move stock, and payroll for shop-floor staff.
See howInvoicing & tax
Tax invoices with VAT, GST or sales tax on every line, numbered by fiscal year and posted in one step.
See howInventory for manufacturers
Castings, copper wire, bearings and finished pumps by warehouse at weighted average cost, with reorder levels and a movement ledger behind every number.
See howPayroll for factories
Two-shift attendance, shift allowance, overtime lines and holiday advances turned into payslips that post to the books.
See howProduction for small factories
Bills of materials for stators and pumps, work orders that check material and move stock on completion, and the real cost of every unit.
See howAccounting
A double-entry ledger with journals, bank registers, statements and a lock date.
See how
Honest limits
What SimpleERP does not do yet
- No bank feeds: bank entries are recorded and reconciled by hand
- No multi-currency; every document is in your base currency
- Tax returns are not filed and e-invoices are not issued from inside the product
- Standard-cost variance reports are not produced; pump cost is actual, from each completed work order
Getting started
Start with accounting
Sign up with your email
Name, email and a password. No card for the seven-day trial.
Tell us about the business
Pick your country and, if you are registered, type your tax number. Accounts, tax rates, units, roles and numbering are seeded for that country.
Enter opening balances
Post the trial balance from your last closed month, including what each dealer owes you and what you owe the foundry.
Run the trial balance
Every posted document is already in the ledger; the trial balance and P&L are ready on any date.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Can my accountant log in and see the books?
Yes. Invite the accountant by email with the Accountant role. They get journals, bank registers, statements, the tax summary and the lock date, and can export any report to CSV. They work in the same books from their own office.
Does SimpleERP work out closing stock for the balance sheet?
Yes. Inventory in the balance sheet is the value of the stock ledger at weighted average cost on that date, covering castings, wire, stators and finished pumps. There is no closing-stock figure to type at year end.
Can I correct a foundry bill after it is posted?
Cancel it and enter it again. Cancellation reverses the journal and the stock receipt rather than deleting anything, and both documents stay in the audit history. If the month is already locked, someone with the right permission must move the lock date first.
Does SimpleERP file my tax returns?
No. It prepares the sales register, purchase register and tax summary that your filer uses for the return, each exportable to CSV. Filing stays with you or your accountant on your tax authority's portal.
Related
Keep reading
Manufacturing
BOMs with scrap and cost roll-up, work orders that move stock, and payroll for shop-floor staff.
Read moreInvoicing & tax
Tax invoices with VAT, GST or sales tax on every line, numbered by fiscal year and posted in one step.
Read morePayroll for factories
Two-shift attendance, shift allowance, overtime lines and holiday advances turned into payslips that post to the books.
Read more
See how accounting works in SimpleERP for manufacturing
Seven days free. No card. Your first invoice in minutes.