Here’s a demonstration of Acumatica’s Manufacturing Edition—a powerful tool designed to give manufacturers real-time insight into their production processes. If you’re a production or operations manager looking to simplify complex workflows and get a bird’s-eye view of your entire manufacturing cycle, you’re in the right place.
A Real-Time Look at the Production Manager Dashboard
On the Production Manager Dashboard within Acumatica. Right off the bat, this dashboard gives your production team a centralized overview of everything happening on the floor—from production order statuses to work queue capacity and labor/material variances.
For instance, 66% of our production orders are currently in the “Planned” state. You’ll also notice charts showing orders that haven’t started and those needing review—perfect for prioritizing tasks and minimizing bottlenecks.
See Acumatica in Action for Your Team
Discover how real-time dashboards, simplified sales orders, and integrated BOMs can streamline your manufacturing operation.
Insight from the Engineering Dashboard
Next up is the Engineering Dashboard, which provides your engineering team with detailed visibility into engineering changes, pending approvals, and standard costs.
For example, we currently have two change requests and two change orders awaiting approval. You can quickly view who submitted them, the requested and effective dates, and their current status. This streamlines collaboration between engineering and production, ensuring changes are tracked and approved efficiently.
System Navigation and Personalization
Up in the top right corner, I’m signed in as an Admin—so I have access to all levels of the system. Depending on your role, your access can be customized for security and clarity.
A few navigation highlights:
- Universal Search lets you find transactions, help topics, reports, and files using just a keyword (e.g., “production”).
- You can customize your workspace menu on the left side based on your responsibilities. Don’t need to see “Payables”? Unpin it. Need to add “Estimating”? Pin it with a click.
The dashboard itself is fully customizable, either for your individual use or for your entire team.
Ready to Ditch Spreadsheets and Siloed Systems?
Entering a Sales Order: A Quick Walkthrough
Let’s take a brief look at how easy it is to create a sales order in Acumatica. We start by selecting a customer and adding a product—say, a laptop. The system shows real-time inventory levels, available quantities, and pricing.
Key features include:
- Auto-populated discounts, tax rules, and salesperson info.
- Shipment scheduling with optional UPS/FedEx/USPS integrations.
- Editable payment terms and financial options.
- Direct access to shipments, payment links, customer relationships, and financial totals.
You can process a sales order in just a few clicks—including generating shipments, updating inventory, and preparing invoices (without auto-releasing them if you’d prefer a manual check first).
Inventory Updates and Invoice Review
After shipping 10 laptops, the system automatically adjusts the inventory count. You can also track shipment details like weight, origin, and addresses. Once you’re ready, simply review the invoice and release it. You can then email it to the customer or print it. (In my demo environment, I don’t have email configured, so I printed instead.)
Turn Manufacturing Complexity into Clarity
Digging into Manufacturing: Bill of Materials
Now for the fun part—the Bill of Materials (BOM).
We’ll look at a finished product, like a Keurig, which is a manufactured item. From the inventory screen, you can instantly see:
- Valuation and planning methods
- Default warehouse and pricing details
- Default BOM and whether it’s make-to-order
Clicking the pencil icon next to the BOM ID lets you jump straight into the BOM setup, where you can view or edit components and steps used in the manufacturing process. This level of integration allows seamless production planning and real-time updates.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re managing production orders, coordinating engineering changes, or entering sales and inventory data, Acumatica’s Manufacturing Edition ties it all together with real-time visibility and a user-friendly interface.
From dashboards to sales orders to bills of material, Acumatica empowers your team with the tools to work smarter—not harder.
Stay tuned for the next part of our demo where we explore work centers, material variances, and more. Until then, happy manufacturing!
