MRP for small shops,
built right in.

MRP (Material Requirements Planning) software takes your demand (sales orders, work orders, forecasts), compares it against what you have on hand, and tells you what to make, what to buy, and when. Traditional MRP systems were designed for high-volume manufacturers with complex multi-level BOMs. Modern "light MRP" tools like InventoryQuick focus on small shops and job-shop work — work orders, cutlist tracking, and project-driven forecasting — without the enterprise complexity.

InventoryQuick is purpose-built inventory and asset management with MRP features (work orders, cutlist import, committed demand, project-driven forecasting) on the Enterprise plan ($349/mo). It is not a full ERP — there is no built-in accounting, CRM, or HR. For shops that need inventory + light MRP + an AI assistant at flat pricing, that’s the design. If you need accounting bundled, look at Odoo, Fishbowl + QuickBooks, or NetSuite.

Katana is purpose-built for high-volume manufacturing with multi-level nested BOM rollups, real-time shop-floor scheduling, and batch tracking — starting at $299/mo Core and scaling up with usage. InventoryQuick Enterprise at $349/mo includes Work Orders + cutlist Excel/CSV import + project-driven forecasting + auto-PO — covers the same workflows job-shops and custom-build operations use Katana for, at flat pricing with unlimited users, locations, and parts. For shop-floor scheduling and multi-level BOM, Katana is the better fit. For job-shop and custom builds, InventoryQuick is.

Today, no — and to be precise about what we do instead, there is no saved reusable BOM record at all. Each work order carries its own list of parts and quantities, built or imported per job, and the outstanding quantities become committed demand that flows to your forecasting. For multi-level nested BOM rollups (sub-assemblies feeding into parent assemblies), Katana, MRPeasy, and Fishbowl are purpose-built. For most small shops doing custom or job-shop work, a per-job material list is sufficient and faster to set up — but if a saved, reusable bill of materials is what you are shopping for, we do not have one.

Yes — the Work Orders + cutlist build was developed in partnership with a working cabinet shop (May 2026). Import cut lists from Cabinet Vision, Fulcrum, or generic spreadsheets — we auto-detect SKU and quantity, and every other column from your file (width, length, thickness, grain, or any custom column) maps into our universal JSONB attributes without per-vertical setup.

For small shops, InventoryQuick Enterprise at $349/mo is one of the lower-priced full-feature options with no per-user fees. Katana starts at $299/mo Core but scales with usage. MRPeasy is $49 per user per month from the first seat (Starter), so its total scales directly with headcount. Fishbowl Essentials starts at $229/mo for 2 users (annual billing). For shops just getting started with basic part tracking and POs (not full MRP), InventoryQuick Starter at $19/mo is the lowest entry point and includes barcode scanning and purchase orders.

Yes. Export your parts catalog, work orders, and cutlists as CSV from your current MRP. InventoryQuick’s import tool auto-detects column names and maps SKU, quantity, cost, location, and category. Active work orders and cutlists import via Excel/CSV — per-line attributes map into our universal JSONB so woodworking, metal fab, and sign shops all work without schema changes. Most migrations take under an hour.

Yes. The IQ Assistant is built into every paid plan (with message limits by tier). It answers questions about your inventory and work orders — "how many sheets of 3/4 plywood do I need for next month’s WOs?", "which parts are below trigger?", "create a PO for the items short on the Williams kitchen project" — and can execute the action when you confirm. No other MRP at this price point has this.

About 5 minutes to create an account and import your parts catalog (CSV). Importing your first cutlist takes another 5 minutes. Fishbowl, by contrast, states on its own pricing page that it requires an implementation package with every purchase, including a 6-8 week training certification, and does not publish what that package costs — you book a call to find out. There are no required consultants and no implementation project here.

Yes — the free trial runs at Enterprise level, so Work Orders, cutlist import and the committed-demand forecast are all included. You pick a plan and enter a card to start it, and you won’t be charged for 7 days. Three features that cost real money per use are capped for the week rather than unlimited: 100 AI photo recognitions, 500 assistant messages and 25 price monitors. To keep Work Orders and cutlist after the trial, choose Enterprise at $349/mo.

Nothing is deleted when the trial ends. If you do not pick a plan the account goes read-only, so your data is still there but you cannot add items, raise purchase orders or open work orders until you subscribe. If you subscribe below Enterprise, inventory, purchase orders, sales orders and barcode scanning keep working from $19/mo, and you can still open, view, cancel and delete work orders you already created — creating or editing them is the part that needs Enterprise at $349/mo. That view-and-unwind route exists deliberately, so material committed to an old job never becomes unreachable.

Not in the alert threshold itself — the low-stock alert compares on-hand stock against the reorder point you set on that part, and a part with no reorder point set does not alert at all. Committed demand from open and in-progress work orders is surfaced in demand forecasting and on the dashboard as on-hand against committed, so on a heavily committed part the shortfall is visible there before the alert fires. We would rather state that seam than let you find it on a job.

No multi-level nested BOM rollups, no production or shop-floor scheduling, no capacity planning, no routings or operations sequencing, no labor tracking, no shop-floor terminals, and no batch, lot, or serial traceability. There is also no saved reusable bill of materials: each work order carries its own material list that you build or import per job. If any of those are core requirements, Katana, MRPeasy, and Fishbowl are purpose-built for them and are the honest recommendation.