Manufacturing: BOM, work orders, costing
Bills of materials, the three work-order types, costing, the production board and the production reports.
Manufacturing ERP
Make it, cost it and track it — from the BOM to the books.
Bills of materials with real wastage, work orders on the right work centre, production in one step or in stages, job workers who hold your stock, and a cost per unit built from what was actually spent. TamilAccounting runs the shop floor and posts every step to the same ledger you close the month on.
BOMs with wastage
Three work-order types
Production board
Actual costing & WIP
Job work, costed
25 production reports
What’s new
What’s new in Manufacturing
In 2026 the module grew from work orders and a BOM into planning, shop-floor tracking, real costing and job work — all in the core, no add-on needed.
New
Work-order types that say what you do
Quick Assemble and Quick Unassemble finish on save. Produce in Stages records release, runs, extra issues, costs and close.
Watch the walkthroughNew
The production board
Every open order in the column it has reached — draft to closed — with the one action that moves it on. Filter by work centre, team or job worker.
Watch the walkthroughNew
Work centre on the work order
A BOM line can serve all work centres, so one bill of materials is shared across lines and each order picks where it runs.
Watch the walkthroughNew
Costing from what was spent
Each run puts output into stock at what it drew; labour and overhead are charged to the order; close settles the rest so WIP ends at zero.
Watch the walkthroughNew
Job work and subcontracting
Material goes out on a challan and stays your stock at the job worker’s location; it comes back with rejects, scrap and the charge.
Watch the walkthroughNew
GST papers for job work
In India the job-work challan prints for the vehicle, an e-way bill can be raised on it, and the ITC-04 report comes from the same challans and receipts.
Learn moreNew
Shop-floor tracking
Job cards, rejection reasons, a downtime log and work-centre capacity and hourly rates feed the yield, load, labour and OEE reports.
Watch the walkthroughNew
25 manufacturing reports
Planning, shop-floor, cost and job-work reports, filtered by the work order’s work centre and team, most of them exporting to Excel.
Watch the walkthroughNew
Quality Control app
Inspections on production runs and job-work receipts, stock held until a decision, non-conformance and certificates of analysis.
Learn more
Without a manufacturing system
Where a factory quietly loses money
Most workshops plan on a whiteboard, issue material from memory and work out the cost after the month is over. These are the leaks that follow.
No one knows the real cost
The price quoted is based on an old recipe and last year’s rates. Wastage, labour, overhead and the subcontractor’s charge never reach the number.
Cost: orders that look profitable and lose money on the floor.
Material issued on guesswork
Components go out by the handful with no plan to compare against, so over-use and pilferage look exactly like normal production.
Cost: stock that never reconciles and shortages found mid-run.
“Where is that order?”
Whether a job is released, waiting for material or half-made is known only by walking the floor or phoning the supervisor.
Cost: missed delivery dates and customers who stop reordering.
Stock vanishes at the subcontractor
Material leaves on a hand-written slip. Weeks later nobody is sure how much came back, how much was spoiled and how much is still there.
Cost: unexplained shortages and bills you cannot check.
Rejects and stoppages go unrecorded
Rejected pieces are swept into a corner and machine stoppages are never logged, so yield and downtime are guesses.
Cost: the same losses, month after month, with no data to fix them.
Production and accounts apart
The floor keeps a register, accounts keep the books, and work in progress is a number someone types in at year end.
Cost: a balance sheet the auditor questions and a slow month-end close.
With TamilAccounting
One work order, start to finish
Each step picks up the one before it, and each step writes its own stock movement and ledger entry as it happens.
Sales orderRaise the work order from it, or let it create one
Bill of materialsComponents, wastage and the standard cost
Work orderType, work centre, team, in-house or job worker
ReleaseMaterial requirement built from the BOM
Issue or sendExtra issues, returns, or a challan to the job worker
ProduceOne run or several, with batch, expiry and rejects
Add costsLabour and overhead, each to its own account
CloseRemaining cost settles onto the finished item
How it works
Everything the shop floor does, recorded once
Overview, board, work orders, issues, costs, productions, job cards, job work, downtime and BOMs sit as tabs on one Manufacturing screen.
Bills of materials
A BOM that plans for what production really uses
The bill of materials opens as a tab on the item and lists what goes into one unit. Its cost roll-up shows material with wastage, standard labour and standard overhead.
- Each line has a component, quantity, unit, source location and a wastage %
- A line can belong to one work centre or to all of them, so lines can share one BOM
- Recalculate Standard Cost from BOM updates the item’s material cost in one click
- Copy a BOM to a similar item and change only what differs
- Where-Used shows every item that consumes a component, and how many levels deep
Work orders
Three ways to make it, chosen per order
Every production job is a work order. It records the item, quantity, required-by date, work centre, team and the location the output goes to, and can be saved as a draft until it is ready.
- Quick Assemble — components out, finished item in, on save
- Quick Unassemble — the same step in reverse, components back into stock
- Produce in Stages — release, produce in runs, add costs and close
- Plan Stages turns a multi-level BOM into a work order for each sub-assembly
- An item can remember how it is usually made — in-house or by a job worker, and at what rate
Material & cost
Material and cost gather on the job, not across the month
Releasing an order builds its material requirement from the BOM, wastage included. Anything the plan did not allow for is issued to that one order, and labour and overhead are charged to it as they are incurred.
- Issue extra components to one order without changing the BOM for every other
- Return unused material to a stock location so the order carries only what it consumed
- Labour and overhead posted against their own accounts
- Work centres carry hours a day, working days and hourly labour and overhead rates
Production & costing
Output into stock at every run, settled at close
Produce the full quantity at once, or in several runs as the work finishes. Each run draws its components and puts the good output into stock straight away, at what that run drew.
- Batch and expiry on the output; batch-tracked components drawn earliest expiry first
- Rejected quantity recorded with a reason — its material cost stays with the good units
- Closing settles whatever cost the order still holds, so its work in progress ends at zero
- Reopen a closed order when something was missed, void a run, and close again
- Settle WIP finds orders closed before their cost was final and clears them
Shop floor
A board that tells each shift what to do next
The Overview shows open, in-progress, overdue and closed orders and units finished this month. The Board shows every open order once, in the furthest stage it has reached, with the action that moves it on: release, send materials, produce or receive, close.
- Columns from draft and awaiting approval through to closed
- Filter to a work centre, a team or a job worker
- Job cards schedule operations by work centre, team or employee; workers accept them or report a hold-up from the employee portal
- A downtime log records when a work centre stood still, and why
To release4
In progress7
Overdue2
WO-0142 · Pump housing × 200ReleaseTo release
WO-0138 · Control panel × 40ProduceIn progress
WO-0135 · Plated bracket × 1,000ReceiveWith job worker
WO-0131 · Gear assembly × 120ClosePartly received
WO-0127 · Valve body × 60Due yesterdayOverdue
Job work
Subcontracting that keeps the stock on your books
Mark a supplier as a job worker and they get a stock location of their own. Set a work order to be made by them at an agreed rate per good unit; material goes out on a challan and comes back as a production receipt.
- The challan shows what is required, already sent and still to send for each component
- Receipts record good quantity, rejects with a reason, scrap or by-product, and unused material
- The charge accrues on receipt; the job worker’s bill clears it and any difference goes to cost of sales
- Job Work tabs on the work order and the supplier show holdings, accruals and what is unbilled
- Material held by job workers reconciles to the account that carries its value
Out on challan3 orders
Charges accrued₹18,400
Not yet billed₹6,200
Job worker A · plating1,200 pcsWith job worker
Job worker B · painting450 pcsPartly received
Job worker C · machining300 pcsReceived & billed
Rejected on return18 pcsReason logged
Costing you can defend
What happens in the books on a job-work order
Sending material to a job worker is a stock move, not a sale: it goes to their location and, if you keep a separate Stock with Job Workers account, to that account. Nothing is earned or spent.
When the goods come back, the material and the agreed charge pass through the order’s work in progress into finished stock. When the bill arrives it clears the accrual, and a bill above or below the agreed rate shows up in cost of sales instead of disappearing.
1,000 units back from the job worker
Worked example — material sent ₹50,000, agreed charge ₹10 a good unit. The receipt and the bill post these; nobody types them.
| On the production receipt | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Work in progress — material consumed | 50,000.00 | |
| Stock with job workers | 50,000.00 | |
| Work in progress — job-work charge | 10,000.00 | |
| Job-work charges accrued | 10,000.00 | |
| Finished goods stock | 60,000.00 | |
| Work in progress | 60,000.00 | |
| When the job worker bills ₹10,400 (before GST) | ||
| Job-work charges accrued | 10,000.00 | |
| Cost of sales — rate difference | 400.00 | |
| Supplier account — job worker | 10,400.00 | |
| Totals | 130,400.00 | 130,400.00 |
Illustrative figures. Each run puts its output into stock at what it drew, and closing the order settles anything work in progress still holds onto the finished item, so the order ends at zero.
Watch it in action
Watch manufacturing, start to finish
Recorded on a demo company: one bill of materials run through all three work-order types, a job sent out to a job worker and brought back costed, and a textile order followed from yarn to e-invoice.
Job work: send it out, get it back costed
Material goes to the job worker on a challan, stays your stock, and comes back with the charge added.
Textiles end to end: yarn to e-invoice
One order followed from the buyer to the signed QR — weaving, dyeing at a job worker, GST and the e-way bill.
Quick takes · under a minute or two
Reports
25 manufacturing reports, each supervisor’s own floor
Manufacturing has its own section in Reports. The summary reports filter by the work order’s work centre and team, and almost every report exports to Excel as well as PDF.
Plan
Before the work starts
What to make, with what, and whether there is enough.
- Bill of Material Listing (multi-level, with cost)
- Where-Used
- Material Shortage
- Open and Overdue Work Orders
- Make-to-Order Tracking
- Work Centre Load
Shop floor & job work
While it is being made
Where every order is, and what is out with job workers.
- Work Order Listing and Work Orders
- Work Order Issues
- Job Cards and Job Card Summary
- Stage Progress
- Job Work Challan and Job Work Register
- Material with Job Workers
Output & cost
After it is made
What it cost, what was lost and how the floor performed.
- Production Register and Material Consumption
- Material Usage: Plan vs Actual
- Work Order Costing and WIP Valuation
- Production Performance and Rejection and Yield
- Labour Cost and Efficiency, Downtime and OEE
- Batch Traceability
More features
The details that take the chasing out of production
Made to order
Raise a work order from a confirmed sales order, line by line, or tick Auto Work Order so saving the sales order creates them.
Multi-stage production
Plan Stages creates a work order for each sub-assembly you make, and the parent can’t close while a stage is open.
Work centres & teams
Centres with capacity, working days and hourly rates; teams with a leader, members and a labour rate; your own process types.
Rejects & downtime
Rejections and machine stoppages are logged against reasons you define, and feed the yield and OEE reports.
Batch & expiry
Output carries its batch and expiry, components are drawn earliest-expiry first, and Batch Traceability follows a batch either way.
Stock checks
Where negative stock is not allowed, Quick Assemble won’t save while a component is short, nor Unassemble without stock.
Everything on the order
One view shows requirements, issues, productions, costs, job work, sub-orders, job cards and the ledger entries behind them.
Approvals & drafts
Save an order as a draft, send it for approval where your workflow asks for one, and approve or reject it from its view.
Works with
The modules and apps a factory uses alongside it
Quality Control NewInspections on production and job-work receipts, holds, non-conformance, CAPA and certificates of analysis.Explore Textile ERP NewYarn in kilograms, cloth in metres, dyeing at a job worker and GST to the e-invoice.Explore MaintenProMaintenance jobs, preventive schedules and spare parts from stock for the machines on the floor.Explore Inventories & ServicesItems, units, locations, transfers, batches and stock valuation that ties to the books.Explore Purchases & PayablesPurchase orders, goods received, supplier bills and job workers’ accounts in one place.Explore Sales & ReceivablesSales orders that raise work orders, deliveries, invoices and collections.Explore GST e-Invoice & e-Way BillIRN and signed QR from the invoice, and e-way bills including for job-work challans.Explore One PortalWorkers get their job cards on the employee portal, accept them or report a defect or hold-up, and the store is told.Explore
Why businesses stay
Bring your data. We’ll keep it right — and keep making it better.
Switching software is the hard part. We help you move, keep your records sound, and keep improving the system with you.
Data migration & opening balances
Move across from Tally, Zoho, QuickBooks, Xero, Sage 50 or SMACC, or from Excel templates for items, customers, suppliers, employees, chart of accounts and opening balances. You preview every row before it is saved — and our team helps you through it.
Your data, kept right
Your database is backed up three times a day — every 8 hours — and your files are backed up too. Each company keeps its own separate database; roles decide who can see, enter, approve or void; every change is on the audit trail; and everything exports to Excel or PDF whenever you want it.
Always improving, with you
We follow up regularly with the businesses that use it, and their requests become features. Updates arrive on your account automatically — nothing to download or reinstall.
Connected to what comes next
GST e-invoice and e-way bill, ZATCA, WooCommerce, WhatsApp, biometric devices, online payment gateways, mobile apps and an AI assistant — and new connections are added as the market moves.
FAQ
Manufacturing: common questions
Quick Assemble suits kits, combo packs and same-day assembly from parts already on the shelf — it finishes on save. Quick Unassemble breaks finished units back into their components. Produce in Stages is for production that takes time: release the order, produce in one run or several with batch, expiry and rejects recorded, add labour and overhead, then close.
Yes. A confirmed sales order with manufactured items can raise a work order for the order or for a single line, carrying the customer, item, quantity and delivery date across. You can also have work orders created automatically when the sales order is saved.
Each production run draws its components at their stock value and puts the output into stock at what it drew. Labour and overhead are added to the work order as they are incurred, and closing the order settles whatever cost it still holds onto the finished item. The Work Order Costing report shows material, labour, overhead and expenses for each order and the cost per unit against the BOM standard.
No. A bill of materials line can be set to all work centres, so one BOM serves every line and the work order says which work centre it runs on. Lines that only one centre uses can still name that centre.
No. A job worker is a supplier with a stock location of their own, so sending material on a challan moves it to that location — it is still your stock, at your cost. When it comes back, the good quantity, rejects, scrap and unused material are recorded, and the job worker’s charge accrues until their bill arrives.
Reopen it. Reopening reverses the close’s settlement, lets you void a run whose stock is still there or carry on producing, and you close it again when it is right. Orders closed before their cost was final can be cleared from the Settle WIP screen.
Yes. Output is recorded with its batch and expiry, rejected quantity is recorded with a reason on every run, and the Batch Traceability and Rejection and Yield reports follow them up. Serial numbers are not tracked in manufacturing.
Quality Control is a separate app you can switch on. It opens inspections on production and job-work receipts (as well as purchases, transfers and returns), can hold stock until a decision is made, and records non-conformance and certificates of analysis.
Put the shop floor and the books in one system.
Start free with your own bills of materials and work orders — and switch on job work and quality control when you need them.