The Small Manufacturer's Guide to Managing a Business: From Customer Quote to Final Payment

Manufacturing order processing software tracks a customer order from the first inquiry to the final payment: the quote, the order, the materials, the production run, the shipment and the invoice. OrderDen does this for makers and small manufacturers, with every step on one set of records.

Making the product is one part of the job. Each order also brings a price to work out, materials to buy, a batch to make, a parcel to send and a payment to chase. Spread across spreadsheets, email and a notebook, even a simple order gets hard to follow.

Below, one order goes through every stage: 200 custom-labeled candles for a gift shop.

1. Keep one record for each customer

A good order starts with the right details: who the customer is, where the goods go, how they pay and what terms you agreed.

For a repeat customer, digging those out of old emails costs time on every order. The client record in OrderDen holds the company details, contacts, billing and shipping addresses, payment terms and price list. The default addresses fill in Bill to and Ship to on every new quote, order and invoice.

A candle maker supplying several gift shops keeps each shop's wholesale price list on its record, so every quote starts at the right price.

Read about clients

2. Send quotes customers can accept in one click

An inquiry usually turns into questions about quantity, labeling, price and delivery date. A quote puts the answers in one document, so both sides agree before any work starts.

This is the job of quote management software: one place to write quotes and see which are sent, accepted or declined, without tracking replies through your inbox.

Each quote gets a number, line items, discounts, tax on each line and payment terms. The customer opens it from a share link and accepts with one click. Tick Ask the client to sign before accepting and accepting becomes a signature. Turn on Ask for a deposit on acceptance and the deposit invoice goes out as soon as they accept. Optional follow-ups email the customer 3 and 7 days after the quote while it's still waiting for an answer.

For the 200 candles, the shop sees the price and the deposit on one page before it commits.

Read about quotes · Read about deposits

3. Turn the accepted quote into an order

Once the shop accepts, you need a record of what you agreed to make and by when.

Sales order management software picks up from the quote, so nobody types the job in twice. Convert to order creates a confirmed order with the quote's lines, discounts, taxes, addresses and the customer's PO number. The order then carries the promised date, the stock set aside for it and each shipment.

Read about orders

4. Plan materials before you start

A confirmed order tells you what you need to buy. For candles that's wax, fragrance oil, wicks, jars and labels, and running out of any one of them holds up the whole job.

Each material in OrderDen has a unit and a cost. A bill of materials lists what goes into each product and how much of it. Record purchases from your vendors, receive them in full or as they arrive, and spread freight and its tax across the lines so stock carries its real cost. When something drops below its reorder point, one click on Draft purchases for low stock turns every alert into a draft purchase, one per vendor.

You plan from the actual recipe, not a guess.

Read about materials · Read about purchasing

5. Keep stock and production on the same records

You need to know what you have as much as what you need to make: materials received, finished goods, stock set aside for orders and stock already shipped.

Every change to stock goes on a movement ledger: deliveries, production runs, shipments and stocktake differences. Note which bin each item lives in, set reorder points and allocate stock to a specific order.

A production run scales the bill of materials to the batch size. When you complete it, you enter how many came out, what went in, what was wasted and how long it took, and the stock updates to match.

For the gift shop's order, the wax and jars used and the 200 finished candles all land on the same records.

Read about inventory · Read about production

6. Ship it without losing track of the order

Some orders leave in one box. Others go out in several parcels over a week or two.

Each shipment is recorded on the order's Fulfillment tab with the quantity in that box and its own packing slip. Connect Shippo, Easyship or ShipStation to compare rates and buy the label from the order. The carrier and tracking number go on the shipment, and the customer gets an email with the tracking number. A parcel you sent another way goes in with Enter tracking.

The 200 candles can go out in one shipment or three, and every box stays tied to the order.

Read about shipping

7. Invoice what shipped, and see what's still owed

Delivery isn't the end of it. The order still has to be billed, the payment recorded and any balance chased.

Invoice an order for everything shipped so far, or one shipment at a time. Each shipment is invoiced once, so nothing gets billed twice. The deposit already paid comes off the invoice as its own line, so the customer sees exactly what's left to pay.

Connect your own Stripe account and the customer pays by card from the invoice's share link. A payment made by check, bank transfer or cash is recorded by hand. Payment reminders are optional, and the AR aging report shows who owes what and for how long.

The final invoice to the shop shows what shipped, the deposit it paid and the balance.

Read about invoices · Read about payments

8. Check what the job made

Once the money is in, look at whether the job paid. The selling price doesn't tell you that until materials, labor, shipping and other costs come off it.

A credit note corrects a sale: goods sent back, a price charged wrong or money returned. A write-off records an amount you won't collect.

For bigger jobs, a project collects the quotes, orders, invoices, hours and expenses in one place, and the Project profitability report shows the margin on each. The Revenue & margin report breaks margin down by client, item and period.

That's what you price the next job from.

Read about credit notes · Read about projects

Every step on one set of records

A small manufacturer often has two or three people covering sales, buying, production, shipping and the books. When each of them keeps their own spreadsheet, keeping those sheets in agreement becomes a job of its own. If you're still weighing up whether spreadsheets are enough, read our guide to spreadsheets vs. manufacturing software.

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Frequently asked questions

What is manufacturing order processing software?

It tracks a customer order through quoting, confirmation, purchasing, stock, production, shipping and invoicing, so each step uses the same information as the one before.

How does quote management software help a small manufacturer?

It writes, sends and tracks quotes with prices, quantities, discounts and payment terms. An accepted quote becomes an order without retyping it.

What's the difference between a quote and a sales order?

A quote is an offer: the products, quantities, prices and terms you propose. A sales order is the work you've agreed to do once the customer accepts. It's what you make, ship and invoice against.

Can I ship and invoice an order in parts?

Yes. OrderDen records several shipments against one order, and you can invoice them together or one at a time, all tied to the original order.

Can manufacturing software track production costs?

With bills of materials and production runs, yes. OrderDen records the materials used, the quantity made, the waste and the time on each run. Project and margin reports then show what the work earned.