The food distributor and manufacturer faced significant operational challenges. It used QuickBooks but needed help with tracking inventory, costing, and overall visibility into its production processes. Upper management at TeaAroma recognized the company’s need for an ERP system.
Senior Accounting Manager Logan Moon’s experience with Fishbowl and NetSuite made him the ideal candidate to guide them through the selection process. When Moon joined the company, it wasn’t using key metrics, like how much raw material was used at any given time. Decision-making was complex due to the lack of precise data, and manual calculations for production processes were time-consuming and prone to error.
The company needed an ERP solution to address these pain points, which could provide the functionality that QuickBooks lacked, such as batch processing, lot traceability, industry-specific compliance, and packaging management. They also wanted their ERP to integrate seamlessly with QuickBooks, which they wished to retain because of its familiarity and ease of use.
With three critical criteria—finding a web-based, food industry-specific ERP system that can integrate with QuickBooks—Moon began searching for a suitable ERP from three options: Fishbowl, Wherefour, and FoodLogiQ. They also looked at NetSuite and SAP.
While Fishbowl was familiar to Moon, it didn’t have a web-based solution, was light in its manufacturing capabilities, and didn’t specialize in the food manufacturing industry. Moon didn’t like Wherefour’s limited costing and calculation methods, and it didn’t have industry-specific food manufacturing features. And FoodLogiQ had limited costing capabilities.
Moon looked at the records from a previous ERP search TeaAroma had records from and saw SAP, NetSuite, BatchMaster, and other options. After talking to each company and seeing their demos, he eventually narrowed it down to three choices, with BatchMaster as the clear leader.
BatchMaster was web-based and stood out for its ability to handle complex food production needs, including BOM processing, lot tracking, and quality control, all of which were critical for the business. TeaAroma imports and exports goods, produces roasted nuts, and repackages beans and rice onsite. BatchMaster could handle all of its order processing plus production.
It also had many explosion features that allowed the company to track costs across its processes in detail, which the company loved. Notably, BatchMaster’s integration with QuickBooks enabled real-time data transfer whenever an order closed, eliminating the manual data entry that was causing them delays and errors.
When Moon presented his findings, TeaAroma’s upper management group agreed with his choice of BatchMaster ERP.
Now that BatchMaster is deployed, the company is much more efficient, spending less time understanding its production costs. Moon has noticed a significant difference in reduced time spent to obtain accurate information.
“Now, when customers ask us, do you have this much for purchase? We can give them an answer right away,” explained Moon. “Before BatchMaster, it would take us one to two days to figure out.”
They now have real-time insight into inventory levels and raw materials, which was previously impossible with QuickBooks alone. At the end of each quarter, they used to have to walk the warehouse and count everything, then calculate from whatever the last count was. It was time-consuming and inaccurate, and there was no way to audit.
With BatchMaster, TeaAroma ensures its inventory is always correct so staff can confidently answer customer inquiries immediately.
BatchMaster’s ability to track costs at every stage of the production process has been invaluable, particularly for its nut roasting, where moisture and oil loss can affect the final product weight.
Peanuts are purchased in 44,000-pound batches and sent out for blanching. When they return, there is another weight difference. BatchMaster can indicate any weight changes and factors in landing costs or other expenses to estimate the cost of goods sold accurately. “BatchMaster’s costing features are a game-changer for us,” stated Moon. “In food production, every ounce of weight loss during roasting affects the final product’s cost. Now, we can track it all down to the smallest detail.”
Moon said that the implementation team’s speed and support level were superior to any other ERP he has worked with. He also complimented the customer service team he began working with after transitioning from the implementation stage.
One of the key criteria for TeaAroma is that the ERP they chose could integrate with QuickBooks. BatchMaster ERP for QuickBooks provides a seamless integration experience with immediate transfer of information from one system to the other, so everyone is always working from accurate data. In Moon’s past, working with FishBowl didn’t provide visibility to the data in QuickBooks, and vice versa.
Their integration with QuickBooks ensures they can maintain the financial system they’re comfortable with while leveraging BatchMaster’s ERP capabilities to optimize their cost tracking, production, quality, and inventory management.
