The best accounting software for your manufacturing business in 2023

As a manufacturing company, you will have some very specific requirements when it comes to managing your business’ financials. That’s why it’s so important to choose accounting software that was built with the manufacturing industry in mind. 

In today’s article, we’ll be breaking down how to choose the best accounting software for your manufacturing business, along with our top recommendations for both large and small manufacturers, to help you choose the best accounting software for your business’ needs and budget. We followed the same logic to choose as we did the best accounting software for wholesalers.

Choosing the right accounting software for your manufacturing business

These are the three basic features that will have the biggest impact on the way your manufacturing business manages its financials:

• Creating quotes and estimates: Your accounting software should allow your manufacturing company to create quotes and estimates quickly and easily.

• Integrations: Your accounting software should integrate with payment providers like Crezco that will let you easily convert quote estimates into invoices, so you can get paid faster.

• Enhanced visibility over manufacturing projects: You need to have visibility over your open manufacturing projects and processes, so that you can see where you should be cutting spending on your production costs and who are your most profitable buyers, as well as tracking how much profit you’re earning from each manufacturing job, and viewing your cash flow forecasts on a dedicated dashboard.

The other key factors that all manufacturing companies must consider when choosing the right accounting software are:

• Scalability: You must ensure you are choosing a piece of accounting software that will grow and scale with you. 

• Ease of use: Before investing in a piece of accounting software, check whether you find its user interface intuitive. It should only take you a few clicks to understand how to raise an invoice or add a contact.

• Reputation: Reading customer reviews (especially from other manufacturers) on a website like Trustpilot is one of the best ways to find out if a piece of accounting software is trustworthy or right for you. 

• Ecosystem: The best pieces of accounting software should give you access to a marketplace full of third-party apps to streamline every aspect of the accounting process. You can use these apps to receive payments or make payments, cash flow management, inventory, time tracking, and more, so it’s definitely worth double checking whether your accounting software of choice integrates with your favourite third-party tools.

• Cost: Last but not least, it’s also important to ensure - especially if you’re a smaller manufacturing company - that your accounting software is affordable. It’s common for cloud-based software to offer subscriptions (rather than one-off payments), which generally start at around £15-20 a month, but be aware that additional features may up the price.

Our top four accounting software picks below are guaranteed to help you with all of the above processes, and all of our picks for the best accounting software for smaller and larger manufacturers are cloud-based, allowing you and your colleagues to keep track of things from your mobile and desktop simultaneously. 

On top of this, Crezco integrates seamlessly with all of the accounting software we’ve chosen; enabling you to handle your local and international payments as a manufacturing business quickly, easily and securely. 

Our top accounting software picks for the manufacturing industry

#1 QuickBooks

One of Crezco’s top picks for small manufacturing businesses

QuickBooks is an extremely popular accounting software company among freelancers and small manufacturing businesses. QuickBooks’ software offers a host of manufacturing-specific features to help you automate your accounting processes and get better visibility over your manufacturing projects; including tracking costs from raw materials to finished goods, automating builds and inventory processes and streamlining your order management. 

On top of this, QuickBooks’ software is easily customisable and the interface is intuitive, its marketplace is well-stocked with useful apps (including Crezco), and QuickBooks’ mobile access is better than many other accounting software companies.

Pricing for this software varies between £8 and £70 per month, meaning you should be able to find an offering that works for your budget, and making it a great choice for small manufacturing companies looking to optimise their accounting and manufacturing processes. 

Pros:

• Easy to use

• Extensive marketplace

• Customisable reports

• Affordable

• Easy to access from any device

• Cloud-based

• Widely used and trusted

Cons:

• Fairly limited support

• Limitations with file size and data, as well as number of users

#2 Xero

One of Crezco’s top picks for small and large manufacturing companies

Xero is a safe choice of accounting software for manufacturing companies of all sizes as it allows you to keep track of your manufacturing assets and stay on top of your cash flow, and is one of the most popular accounting software companies amongst manufacturing companies today.

Xero’s pricing starts at £14 per month (for smaller manufacturing companies), and includes basic features such as inventory management, the ability to create and send quotes instantly and monitor your manufacturing projects’ performance with tailored, smart financial reports. 

However, Xero is also suitable for larger manufacturing businesses as pricing can go up to £36 per month if you want to enjoy extra features (such as unlimited invoices, multiple currencies, and bulk reconciliation). 

We love that Xero provides manufacturing businesses of all sizes with access to a wide range of add-ons and third-party apps (such as Crezco) to help you meet all your wider accounting and manufacturing needs.

Pros:

• An extensive marketplace

• Highly scalable 

• Fantastic customer support and help resources

• Up-to-date charts

• Advanced inventory management

• Cloud-based

• Widely used and trusted

• Competitive pricing (their ultimate plan costs just £49 per month)

Cons:

• Complex (employees will need to be trained in how to use all of Xero’s features)

• User interface could be clearer

#3 Sage

One of Crezco’s top picks for large manufacturing businesses

Sage is another extremely popular accounting software choice for manufacturing enterprises, as it lets you control operations, ensure the delivery of consistent quality, and take advantage of new commercial opportunities. Sage Accounting is priced between £12 - £33 per month, making it a great fit for larger manufacturing companies looking to take control of every detailed aspect of their financials.

Pros:

• Cloud-based

• Offers a free 5-month trial on all subscription plans

• Great mobile access

• Advanced customisation options

• Strong inventory reporting function

• Easy to use

• Widely trusted

Cons:

• Difficult/time-consuming set up

• Some features are overcomplicated

• Costly and geared to larger businesses

#4 QuickFile

One of Crezco’s top picks for small and large manufacturing businesses

QuickFile’s cloud-based accounting software is  reasonably priced and extremely easy to use, making it a popular choice among smaller and larger manufacturing businesses alike. As QuickFile was designed to be compliant with the United Kingdom's Making Tax Digital initiative, it can automate countless tax-related workflows and help you keep better business records than ever.

Pros:

• Affordable (basic version is free for single-person operations, small, and midsize companies, while enterprise-level firms can pay an annual fat rate for a more complete package)

• Advanced analytics

• Extensive marketplace (with over 300 integrations available)

• Cloud-based

• Widely used and trusted

Cons:

• Could be more responsive

• Mobile user interface is less intuitive

• Fairly limited support

Take your manufacturing company’s accounting processes to the next level

We hope you now have a good understanding of what makes a good piece of accounting software, and how to choose the best solution for your manufacturing business’ unique financial needs and budget. 

We hope you enjoy getting started with your new accounting software, and enjoy the benefits it brings to your manufacturing business!