Acumatica Cloud ERP vs Katana Manufacturing ERP Comparison

We have been working to implement Acumatica for over 2 years with the initial phase of the rollout being 2 months old. While we have many bugs to work out in the software development, the initial impression is huge as our company grows larger. Compared to our previous ERP, Acumatica will allow us to venture further in reporting, manufacturing, accounting and other features.

Nothing against the software per say, however it can be very lengthy to develop into exactly what you want in an ERP. We've worked tirelessly with a consulting company to help us create the perfect software.

Ease of use. It has a vast array of modules. The ability to deploy it on premise or SaaS model makes it attractive. It does not limit the number of users. Very powerful if used correctly.

Lack of support in terms of Acumatica itself. You will have to go through a VAR to help you solve issues. Does require a separate MSSQL server to get it to work. A lot of revisions and updates. Very new and not a lot of history to look back on it.

When we think about ERP, as a cloud ERP solution, this one is great. Because of being cloud based, it's very powerful to integrate and it also gives the flexibility to work on the go, even with a mobile device and internet.

Cloud based comes with both, dependency on server makes it difficult when server is having an issue. Also because of that, costing increases.

Acumatica ERP has very easy to understand user interface. It is ideal for small companies to implement ERP for sales and invoicing. Generic Inquiries and Import by scenarios are excellent features of this product. It is very easy to copy paste transactions. Love this product.

It does not have advanced features in some areas. But, overall a great product for small to medium sized businesses.

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Access data anytime from any device anywhere around the world via an internet connection with a consistent real-time visibility. All users can access and input data into a centralized data store which puts consistent updated information at everyone’s fingertips instantly. the flexibility: Easily scale resources up or down as needed without making a major investment decision. Cloud ERP software will...

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there is just not much i can say about dislike, due to any issues that i have with the system, the system was able to complete all the process without customization.

Great functionality, fully cloud based, and easy to use.

Integration went well. There are some feature holes related to our business we ran into and getting developer attention was challenging, though not really more difficult than other ERP providers.

What can't be configured can be customized to add new functionality or just adjust core functionality. This allows us to mold the ERP software around our business in contrast to so many other software solutions.

I really want a slice of inventory by valuation type. We use a suffix on our locations to get to where we need to be, but I'd like to be able to specify a single location for new, repair, broken, and any other classification we may want to make for a part and identify that the specific inventory is new, repair, broken, etc. From that, I should be able to pull a simple dashboard of how much inventory I have on hand that is new, repair, broken, etc. without having to use separate warehouses or locations.

Thanks for the thoughtful review of Acumatica. It sounds like you are a perfect candidate for Acumatica Amplifiers - or as we like to say, "Acumatica Amps"our Customer Heroes program. Learn more at: https://acumati.ca/2Teo1I2

The customizable dashboard feature is the best thing about Acumatica. You can basically do anything and the basic dashboard is already powerful in itself. Also, the pricing proposal of Acumatica is game changing since it is not based per user which encourages the entire organization to use this system without the worry of cost.

The only con I see about Acumatica setting up your account. I find it quite complex but don't get me wrong, once you understand every variable in setting up then you will appreciate the power of this ERP.

Hello Parker - Thanks for completing the Acumatica review on Gartner Digital Markets! We really appreciate it! Thanks for your time! -Kim

One of the greatest ERP products, I ever had a chance to work with. Was using most of its modules, but most frequent was helpdesk management. Providing support to our clients who had their users created in our centralized system and had communication with them there.

It has a learning curve, some users need time to get in touch with it

Ease of use, comprehensive list of features, Report writing and General Inquiry functionality,

The worst part of Acumatica is how it handles Email. System email accounts, while not a horrible idea, just don't work well. The worst part of that is how the outgoing emails use the system accounts. Outside contacts end up saving these email addresses instead of the "real" user email. Then when they email us using those email addresses the emails go nowhere. All emails should be sent using the user's real email address, and preferably their email client such as Outlook. Third party VAR modules are harder to coordinate. Upgrades are too frequent and expensive if you do not have your own development staff. Customization requires development capabilities. Should be more user-level customization tools similar to Report Writer and GI screen.

Accounting is pretty developed, it's a full ERP, and as long as you "feed" the right information from your CRM/ Field units, everything works great together. You can sort and filter most list views which is very helpful if you are trying to find discrepancies.Basic reporting is available. The system is pretty reliable and rarely goes down.

Data storage is very old school, you have to upload files one by one and click to open them one by one to see what's there. No preview is available. Each file opens in a different window/tab, so it's pretty hard to look through a bunch of photos from field techs, for example. This software can be glitchy when it comes to upgrades and updates. The more you customize, the harder it gets. Hard to customize reports and forms on your own (if you aren't a developer).Lots of extra fields everywhere and removing/hiding them is very tedious

The flexibility the system provides allows our team to work in different aspects of the business while addressing our individual needs and having data connected. Being able to search is a very big pro for us. While we have some customizations for our DCAA compliance, the majority of the system is native and comes down to configuration, which was a requirement for our ERP selection.

Some of the controls can be improved as once something has been submitted/approved, it can be hard to fix upon reviews (ex. Journal Transactions can't be adjusted once released, so you have to reverse the entire entry and start again). There are a lot of tables that are named similarly, so building inquiries or trying to find the correct table and field can be challenging.

In certain aspects the software allowed for enormous flexibility. Item classes and Financial Sub-\Accounts. Open Architecture for creating modifications. We created a fairly large number of modifications, written and implemented by Nexvue, that turned Acumatica from a really good system to an exceptional one.

Out of the box, importing, Transportation and Logistics were weak. We created a Voyage Maintenance module. Freight in and Freight out System enhancements.

Great user interface easy to add custom fields some unique features like Attributes, sub-accounts, non-inventory items, Branches good, detailed security model choice of options of deployment built-in reporting and report customizations good drill-down features within the reporting

The custom report modification tool needs more polish to it The built-in CRM system could be more robust, compared with a CRM-only system

Acumatica is a great ERP and project management solution that allows us to track orders and information in the field, as well as add partners and suppliers and provide them with access to specific tools to track their orders and update their data and completion percentages of their activities. Acumatica enhances team collaboration, so one colleague enters data while another colleague gets access to...

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Acumatica is simple to use and takes little training for the employees to become comfortable with the tools. I also saw data import and export issues.

Thanks for such an incredible review Waleed! We'd love to have you consider joining our Customer Heroes program. Check it out: https://acumati.ca/2Teo1I2

The ease of setup to a non-ERP user was great and support team always willing to help

Minor enhancements like customising documents produced and report Paramus/filters neon saved

Thank you for the feedback!

We tried several ERP systems for our manufacturing business without a lot of luck. Katana, without question, is one of the best and more affordable options we've come across. Coupled with their incredible support, we wouldn't recommend anything else.

While they're super responsive to feature requests, Katana doesn't include an API or Hook.

Thank you for your review! We will be working on opening an API very soon.

Since it integrates with my Shopify store, I now have a closed loop system that can tell me what I need to make, and how much of each part I need to make it.

There could be some extra automation features, like when I create a make-order of a product with subassemblies, it should create make-orders for all of the subassemblies. And when I do that, it should also create purchase orders for all of the parts I'm missing. But I can see why a feature like that could lead to other issues.

Cloud integration and nice User Interface.

- I am still little bit worried about lack of backup available to the user. There should be method to revert in time for example. If somebody messed up something, there is no way to go back. - Another thing is lack of Sage integration. - If new option is added to the existing product/material Internal Barcode is not generated and it has to be created manually. I am not sure why... - sorting for example of PO orders is done by string, so orders are never in the correct order. Prefix PO- should be omitted for sorting table.

This program is easy to implement and is very intuitive and user friendly. We ran into a few hiccups at the beginning and the support team was very responsive and helpful in helping us remedy our issues.

There is a limit in the number of SKUs that the software can support - we were able to find a workaround, but ideally the system will support 200,000+ SKUs in the future.

Thank you for your review!

Handling of inventory, items, products, ingredients, sales orders - all this is handled in a very efficient, clear and easy to use way. Makes the difference compared to many alternative MRP-/ERP-systems. Connector to QuickBooks with automatic trigger for invoices in QB once the products are marked as shipped in KATANA. Connector to Shopify for on-line sale of spare parts. 100% helpful and open minded customer service - very helpful in helping to understand all features and finding the best workflow for specific situations.

There are some functions/features which need improvement, e.g. the customization of documents such as Quotations so every company can generate a set of individual template to serve different areas (machines, spare parts, service,..). 3-5 custom fields for Quotes/Sales Orders/Products would be helpful. Althoug KATANA is intended to be a MRP-system it would be helpful to integrate SERVICE-articles (not only MAKE or BUY articles). This would allow to add a possible service portion to a spare parts quote. Dedicated Delivery Notes (with partial shipments) would be a great feature.

Thank you! Glad you are getting value out of Katana.

Great value, probably the only affordable cloud solution on the market

It's a great piece of software for data entry. Not so great when it comes to using that data to run your business. No dashboards or views that provide insights. They've solved for this by integrating with Easy-Insight and Stocktrim. Now that those are in place, I'm completely satisfied.

Thanks for your review Jonathan, happy to hear Katana saves you the time and effort compared to Airtable!

Cloud based and easy to use. PNs support variants which allows for great flexibility when pricing items to multiple customers.

Interface with Quickbooks could use more customization. Item quantities need to be able to support fractional based values.

The ease of use, the cloud service, the different areas and stuff I can work with related to my supply chain needs (such as the manufacture and supply modules) and the client support

Current lack of export Excel documents and that we can't mass modify elements. I think that also, Quickbooks will be a nice integration and that spanish language may be handy, in the future.

Thank you for growing with us!

Ease of use Set up Customer service Ability to integrate

No in house integrations option. Customer service was so good, I would have liked an integration option directly from Katana