Process Manufacturing Software

Discrete manufacturing refers to a production line that can be torn down and reassembled to change the manufacturing route to create a different version of a similar product. These products can be disassembled back into their original components, like:

• Cars
• Smartphones
• Furniture 

Process manufacturing refers to the production technique of transforming raw materials into a product or finished good that cannot be reverted to its original state via manipulating it with chemical, physical, or biological reactions, including processes like: 

• Mixing
• Blending
• Baking
• Refining

Rather than the output being an individual unit of something, it is usually measured by weight, volume, or length. 

While discrete manufacturers and process manufacturers both use bills of materials, businesses that use process manufacturing tend to refer to BOMs as recipes and formulas, using them to track ingredient ratios, processing conditions such as temperature and pressure, and batch quantities.

Process manufacturing ERP software is built around formula management, batch and lot traceability, compliance documentation, and variables such as yield and waste, which don't exist in generic assembly-based production tools that discrete manufacturers tend to use.

Choosing the best process manufacturing ERP really depends on your particular business, and factors that will dictate the best for you will be things like: 

• Size
• Industry
• Compliance requirements 

But, regardless of these three factors, you should always be on the lookout for a solution that can help you with recipe and formula management, so every batch produced follows the approved and up-to-date BOM specifications. 

Lot and batch traceability is non-negotiable for heavily regulated industries, which tend to be the case for process manufacturers. For them, recalls and audits are a constant operational risk. Find a tool that can easily stay compliant with: 

• Compliance documentation recording
• Demand and supply planning
• Real-time inventory visibility 

Yes! At least in the case of Digit, anyway.  

Every material movement is recorded automatically, so you can see exactly where an ingredient came from, how it was used in production, and where the finished goods were shipped. Each lot or serial number stays tied to its source, quantity, and use throughout the entire lifecycle. 

Within Digit, you can attach certificates of analysis, SDSs, and supplier documents directly to each batch, record in-process and final QC checks, and monitor lot expiration dates and shelf life, creating a fully searchable, auditable trail that supports: 

• Regulatory inspections
• Internal reporting
• Product recalls

In a worst-case scenario, if something goes wrong, you can pinpoint the affected batches immediately rather than pulling entire product lines.

Yes. 

Digit integrates natively with both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, with two-way data sync between your operations and accounting.

When a sales order or purchase order is created in Digit, a corresponding invoice or bill is automatically generated in QuickBooks. Inventory values, cost of goods sold, and income accounts all update to reflect real production activity, so your financial reports stay accurate without manual data entry between systems.

In QuickBooks Online, the sync runs automatically in the background every few minutes via the QuickBooks Web Connector, keeping operations and accounting continuously aligned. For QuickBooks Desktop, data flows through manual or scheduled syncs via the same Web Connector.

Both integrations also handle partial shipments and receipts, creating matching invoices or bills in QuickBooks so your accounting reflects actual production output rather than assumed full-order completions.

Beyond syncing orders and costs, Digit handles the manufacturing side that QuickBooks alone cannot, with COGS syncing to QuickBooks automatically as jobs are completed.

Customers and vendors can also be imported from QuickBooks during setup, reducing the time required to get the integration up and running.

Yes. 

In Digit, formula and recipe management work through its BOM system, which is built to handle the complexity of process manufacturing production.

You can create single-level or multi-level recipes up to 10 levels deep, defining each ingredient's unit of measure, quantity, and cost. Parent-child relationships support subassemblies and intermediate products, and weight and cost totals roll up automatically across every component, so you always know what a finished batch costs to produce.

Version control is built in. When a formula changes, Digit retains the full history so you can revert if needed, set a default primary recipe for production, and maintain historical versions for compliance and audits. You can also create alternative recipes for regional variations or ingredient substitutions without losing the original.

Routing is connected directly to the recipe. Each step in the production process is tied to the formula your team is working from, so you and your operators can easily see: 

• Workstation assignments
• Equipment
• Setup times 
• Run times

After each run, Digit lets you compare actual material usage against planned quantities and monitor yield and variance per manufacturing order, giving you the visibility to tighten up formulas, reduce waste, and improve consistency over time.