Manufacturing accounting software for factories that are too small for an ERP.
You buy materials, turn them into products, and the cost has to travel with them — into work in progress while the job runs, into finished goods when it is done, into cost of goods sold when it sells. General-purpose accounting software cannot do that; a full ERP costs more than the factory makes. Nonari does it on a small-business ledger: bills of materials, production jobs, live WIP, variance, and the standard manufacturing reports.
Bills of materials that cost
Multi-level BOMs — component, sub-assembly, finished good — with cost rolling up at every level from the actual material cost layers.
Jobs with live WIP
Open a job, issue materials, log labour, record output. WIP is a live balance per job, not a month-end estimate.
Variance you can act on
A job that consumed more than the BOM said posts the difference to a variance account with the job number on it.
Cost has to move with the product, and generic tools cannot move it.
A small factory’s books have one job that a service business or a shop never faces: turning the cost of inputs into the cost of an output. Steel, fabric, resin and hours go in; chairs, garments and mouldings come out; and until they sell, they sit on the balance sheet at what they cost to make. QuickBooks, Xero and their peers have no work-in-progress account that a job can move cost through, no bill of materials, and no idea what a finished unit cost. Manufacturers on those tools either expense everything as bought — which makes profit swing with purchasing rather than sales — or keep the real costing in a spreadsheet the accountant cannot audit.
A mid-market ERP fixes this at a price and a project size that a twenty-person factory cannot justify. Nonari puts the manufacturing flow on the same ledger as the invoicing and the bank: raw materials at landed cost, jobs that carry WIP, finished goods at actual cost, and cost of goods sold only when the product sells.
- Multi-level BOMs with expected quantities and cost roll-up from live material costs
- Production jobs that issue materials, log labour and overhead, and record output — WIP live per job
- Finished goods valued at actual job cost; cost of goods sold posted on sale, not on purchase
- Material, labour and overhead variance against the BOM, posted with the job number
- COGM, finished-goods valuation, WIP ageing and the manufacturing account as standard reports
Job 118, from the first issue to the shelf.
Job 118 is 200 chairs. Issuing 5,000 of timber and hardware moves that cost out of raw materials and into WIP for the job. Two workers log 60 hours between them at $20 — $1,200 of labour into WIP against wages payable. Overhead is applied at a rate per labour hour, $800. The job now shows $7,000 of WIP; the BOM said $6,600, and the $400 difference is visible while the job is still open, with the reason (12 kg more timber than planned) on the issue lines.
On completion, 200 chairs move from WIP to finished goods at $35.00 each. When a distributor buys 50, cost of goods sold takes $1,750 and finished goods drops by the same. Profit on the order is real, the balance sheet carries the 150 chairs left at $5,250, and the accountant can trace every dollar from the timber bill to the invoice.
Four stages, one cost, no spreadsheet.
This is the whole of manufacturing accounting: cost accumulates through the stages and is released to the profit and loss only by a sale. The tools that cannot hold the middle two stages are the tools that make a factory’s monthly profit meaningless.
A week: catalogue, BOMs, one live job.
Import materials with opening quantity and cost, finished goods with any opening stock at cost, and suppliers with open bills. Build the BOMs for your top products first — most factories cover 80% of output with a dozen. Set the labour rate and an overhead rate per hour. Open one real job, run it through, and compare its cost with what you believed it was. Then add the rest.
- Materials and finished goods with opening quantity and cost (CSV)
- BOMs for the top products; labour and overhead rates
- Opening balances loaded until the trial balance foots
- Operators invited to log time and output (unlimited users)
What the manufacturing edition includes.
Multi-level BOMs
Component to sub-assembly to finished good, with expected quantities, scrap allowance and cost roll-up at every level.
Production jobs and stages
Jobs with stages (cutting, stitching, finishing), material issues, labour and overhead logged per stage, output recorded on completion.
Live WIP and variance
WIP per job while it runs; material, labour and overhead variance against the BOM posted with the job number for audit.
Finished goods at actual cost
Output valued at the job’s actual cost; products that are both bought and made keep their cost source per layer.
Manufacturing reports
Cost of goods manufactured, finished-goods valuation, WIP ageing and the manufacturing account, all standard.
Factory and trading arms
A factory that sells to its own trading company at cost plus markup: the provision for unrealised profit is computed automatically.
Nonari vs generic accounting software for a manufacturer
Two plans. Every feature on both.
One location, one company
Up to 3 locations, +$32 each after
Unlimited users on both. 15-day free trial, no card. See the full pricing page.
Frequently asked.
What is the best accounting software for a small manufacturer?
One that carries cost through work in progress and finished goods instead of expensing materials as bought — which means bills of materials, production jobs, live WIP and variance on the same ledger as invoicing and the bank. Nonari does that at a small-business price; general-purpose tools need an inventory add-on and manual journals, and mid-market ERPs need an implementation project.
Can QuickBooks or Xero handle bills of materials and WIP?
Not natively. Neither has a work-in-progress account that a job can move cost through, and BOMs require a third-party manufacturing add-on plus a sync. Cost of goods sold in those setups is usually a month-end estimate. Nonari posts material, labour and overhead to the job as they are consumed and values finished goods at the job’s actual cost.
How is variance handled?
When a job consumes more or less than its bill of materials specified — material, labour hours or overhead — the difference posts to a variance account with the job number, while the job is still open. The variance dashboard ranks jobs by overrun so the cause is found while the batch is still on the floor.
Can a product be both bought and made?
Yes. Some SKUs are purchased from suppliers and also produced in-house. Each cost layer records its source — a bill or a production job — so the average cost and the margin stay correct whichever way the units arrived.
Do you support process manufacturing and by-products?
Today Nonari supports discrete, job-based manufacturing with stages. Continuous process manufacturing with yield variance and by-products as separate finished goods is out of scope; scrap is handled as a write-off line on the job, with the reason on the entry.
How much does manufacturing accounting software cost?
Nonari is $29 a month for one site and $70 a month for up to three, manufacturing included, unlimited users, 15-day free trial with no card. Manufacturing ERPs for the same features typically start in the hundreds per month per user plus a five-figure implementation.
Run one real job and compare the cost with what you believed.
15-day free trial, no card. Load a BOM, open a job, issue materials, log an hour of labour and watch WIP move to finished goods at actual cost.