Guide Articles

ShipStation buys the label and prints it. It doesn't tell your inventory system the order shipped. Here's how Nstock pulls tracking and shipped status back automatically — matched by order number.

Amazon inventory sync for manufacturers selling FBA and FBM. See how order sync and BOM-based costing keep Amazon orders tied to production, without a manual spreadsheet.

A material lot document is more than a CoA. SDS, CoC, TDS, and six certification types each answer a different audit or customer request.

Spreadsheet inventory tracking rarely shows up as a line item, but it isn't free. A transparent cost model — labor hours plus error-driven stockouts — plus a calculator to find your own number.

What food, cosmetics, supplements, and electronics manufacturers each actually need from lot traceability — from FSMA 204 recordkeeping to counterfeit-component provenance — and what a system needs to capture to keep up.

Most forecasting advice assumes years of clean retail data. Here's how small-batch manufacturers with 12-18 months of lumpy sales can still forecast reliably — moving averages, judgment overlays, and where AI helps.

An honest survey of free MRP options for manufacturers — Katana's 30-SKU free plan, Odoo Community, InvenTree, spreadsheet templates, and Nstock's free finished-goods tier plus 90-day full-featured trial.

Why manufacturers should run ABC analysis twice — once on raw materials to drive purchasing and cycle counts, once on finished goods to drive fulfillment and forecasting — with a 10-SKU worked example.

Katana MRP's published pricing starts at $299/mo, but most manufacturers pay more once add-ons and extra locations are factored in. Here's how the plan structure, add-on modules, and real total cost actually work.

A lightweight vetting pipeline for evaluating a new supplier before you commit — RFI, RFP, and RFQ stages that are genuinely optional, plus what happens once you approve one.

How Nstock's Inventory Valuation and Monthly Inventory reports break down finished goods value by brand and let you scope any valuation to a single warehouse.

Nstock now connects to QuickBooks Online — OAuth connect, Chart of Accounts mapping, monthly inventory journal entries, and order-to-invoice sync, so your books reflect real inventory value.

What the Monthly Inventory Report actually calculates, why it freezes on the 1st instead of showing a live number, and how finance teams use it as a clean starting point for the books.

How Nstock calculates inventory turnover — COGS divided by average inventory value — what a high or low ratio actually means, and where the number can mislead you.

How Nstock buckets raw materials and finished goods into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, and 90+ day aging tiers by dollar value, and what to actually do when a bucket turns red.

Where the dollar value of materials sitting in active production batches actually lives once they leave raw materials and before they become finished goods — and why it matters.

What Nstock's Open Purchase Commitments report tracks — pending and partially received purchase orders — and why it matters for cash-flow planning before the spend hits your books.

Connect WooCommerce to Nstock for automatic order sync, FEFO-based inventory deduction on fulfillment, refund restocking, and historical order import — no OAuth required.

Most "free inventory software" is a 100-item list with a countdown timer. What free tiers really include, what to watch for, and when free is genuinely enough.

FIFO and average cost can produce very different COGS numbers from the same inventory. How each works, a worked example, and how to choose for your operation.

A supplier list in a spreadsheet tells you who to call. Real supplier management tells you who is late, who costs more this quarter, and what to reorder before it hurts.

When your product is made from things you also make, costing gets tricky. A practical walkthrough of multi-level BOMs, intermediate SKUs, and honest cost rollup.

Suppliers reply faster to purchasing@yourcompany.com than to a noreply system address. How domain verification works, why SPF/DKIM matter, and how to set it up.

How manufacturers can quote wholesale and white-label deals with live cost and margin visibility — so sales never quotes below cost, and buyers never see your numbers.

How electronics manufacturers and contract manufacturers can manage components, BOMs, production runs, and traceability — without getting buried in spreadsheets.

A comprehensive guide to inventory management for food manufacturers. Covers lot tracking, FDA compliance, waste reduction, BOM management, and demand forecasting — specific to food production.

Understand what COGS is, how to calculate it accurately for manufacturing, and why tracking it matters for pricing, profitability, and taxes.

Step-by-step guide to integrating Shopify with your inventory management system. Automate order import, sync stock levels, and prevent overselling.

Learn how cycle counting works, why it beats annual physical counts, and how to implement an ABC cycle counting program that achieves 95%+ accuracy.

Learn how lot tracking works for food manufacturers, what FDA FSMA requires, and how to implement a system that makes audits effortless.

Learn how lot tracking ensures compliance, enables traceability, and protects your business from quality issues and recalls.

Learn how AI-powered inventory forecasting works, why it beats spreadsheet guesswork, and how to use demand planning to prevent stockouts and reduce waste.

Learn what a Bill of Materials (BOM) is, why it matters for manufacturers, and how to build one that automates your production workflow.

Learn best practices for managing inventory in small manufacturing operations. From raw materials to finished goods, discover strategies to reduce costs and improve efficiency.