MRP Software for Small Manufacturers
A simple MRP system that ties bills of materials, raw material inventory, production runs, purchasing, and costing together — without the price tag or implementation time of a full ERP.
What Is MRP Software?
Material Requirements Planning (MRP) software calculates what materials a manufacturer needs, in what quantities, and by when — based on bills of materials (BOMs), current inventory on hand, and open production or sales orders. Instead of guessing at reorder timing or discovering a shortage mid-production-run, MRP ties purchasing and production decisions directly to what the BOM says is required — see the full definition in the Nstock glossary.
Nstock covers the core of that definition for small and mid-size manufacturers: BOM-driven material requirements, raw material and finished goods inventory tracking, production run management that consumes materials per the BOM, purchasing and reorder guidance, and costing that rolls up from every batch. Compare that against a spreadsheet-based process in our survey of free MRP options, or against a dedicated MRP tool in our Nstock vs. Katana MRP comparison.
When Do You Need MRP Instead of a Spreadsheet?
Spreadsheets work fine for a handful of SKUs and simple BOMs. The pain shows up as component count, batch frequency, and team size grow — see our full breakdown of the true cost of spreadsheet inventory.
| What you need | Spreadsheet | Nstock MRP |
|---|---|---|
| Know what a production run will consume before you start it | Manual lookup across multiple tabs, easy to miss a component | Calculated automatically from the BOM |
| See true, current cost per finished good | Recalculated by hand, usually stale within a week | FIFO-based cost rollup, always current |
| Know when to reorder a raw material | Gut feel or a manual reorder point someone remembers to check | AI Reorder Advisor factors usage and lead time |
| Trace a lot back to its source material | Cross-referencing purchase records and hoping nothing was renamed | Built-in lot traceability with attached documents |
Lightweight MRP, Not a Full ERP
Nstock is built for manufacturers who have outgrown spreadsheets but don't need — or can't justify — the cost and implementation time of a full ERP. That honesty cuts both ways:
What Nstock covers
- Multi-level BOMs and material requirements
- FIFO lot-costed raw material and finished goods inventory
- Production runs that consume materials automatically
- AI-assisted purchasing and reorder timing
- Purchase orders and supplier tracking
- COGS, inventory valuation, and lot traceability
What it doesn't do
- General ledger accounting or HR (syncs to QuickBooks Online instead)
- Shop-floor machine scheduling or MES
- Detailed machine-level capacity planning
- CRM or advertising/marketing tools
See the full feature list on the features page, or how Nstock stacks up against dedicated MRP and inventory tools on the compare page.
Nstock has a Free tier plus paid Starter, Pro, and Business plans, and every new account gets a 90-day free trial with full Business-tier features, no credit card required — see pricing for details.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is MRP software?
MRP (Material Requirements Planning) software calculates what materials a manufacturer needs, in what quantities, and by when, based on bills of materials, current inventory, and open production or sales orders. It prevents both material shortages and overstock by tying purchasing decisions to actual production requirements instead of guesswork.
Is Nstock a full ERP system?
No. Nstock is lightweight MRP and inventory management built for small and mid-size manufacturers outgrowing spreadsheets — BOM-driven material planning, production runs, purchasing, and costing. It does not include general ledger accounting, HR, shop-floor machine scheduling, or detailed capacity planning the way a full ERP does. Many Nstock customers sync inventory value and orders to QuickBooks Online rather than running a full accounting module inside Nstock.
What size manufacturer is Nstock built for?
Small and mid-size manufacturers — typically teams that have outgrown spreadsheets or a basic inventory app but don't need (or can't justify the cost and implementation time of) a full ERP. If you're running BOMs, production, and purchasing across a growing SKU count, that's the range Nstock targets.
Does Nstock handle multi-level BOMs?
Yes. Nstock supports multi-level bills of materials, including intermediate/sub-assembly SKUs that carry their own BOM and cost, rolled up recursively into the finished good's cost.
How is Nstock priced?
Nstock has a Free tier plus paid Starter, Pro, and Business plans, and every new account gets a 90-day free trial with full Business-tier features, no credit card required. See current plan details and pricing on the pricing page.
Does Nstock do capacity planning or shop-floor scheduling?
Not today. Nstock tracks production runs, batch status, and materials consumption, but it does not do machine-level capacity planning or detailed shop-floor scheduling (MES-style). If that's a hard requirement, Nstock likely isn't the right fit yet.