Katana Manufacturing ERP Review: Features, Pros & Cons

Katana is a cloud-based manufacturing ERP (MRP) software that helps small and midsized businesses manage their end-to-end manufacturing processes. It supports both made-to-order (MTO) and made-to-stock (MTS) workflows simultaneously.

Its pricing starts at $179 per month, billed annually. If you wish to explore before making a long-term commitment, you can use its 14-day free trial offer.

Its native integrations and developer APIs make it easy to integrate with other software so that your manufacturing data and teams are in sync with the rest of the business. Katana MRP also made it to our Best ERP Systems list as the best manufacturing ERP.

No software is perfect. It really depends upon what you need and what you are willing to pay for. Let’s look at the pros and cons of Katana manufacturing ERP to decide if it’s the right fit for you.

Pros

Katana ERP truly handles all manufacturing tasks end to end—right from sales order management and inventory to purchase management, supply chain management and shop floor control. The software itself is easy to use and straightforward with spreadsheet-like dashboards that use color-coded boxes for displaying the progress of each task.

Some features, such as the ability to place purchase orders right from the product planning dashboard, adjust priorities using drag and drop, etc., make it a much better manufacturing ERP system.

Cons

The software focuses completely on the end-to-end manufacturing process to the exclusion of everything else. For other business processes, such as accounting, CRM, time tracking, etc., you must integrate with other apps. There are some native integrations available for e-commerce and accounting apps but not for other critical functions such as HR. This can be challenging for a manufacturing ERP, considering it is a labor-intensive industry.

Also, except the Essential package, you must purchase its implementation package (worth $400 at the time of writing this). The package helps you get set up quickly and efficiently, but that’s an extra cost you must factor into your budget.

Let’s look at the core features of Katana manufacturing ERP, which make it such an excellent ERP for manufacturing businesses in a wide range of industries from F&B and apparel and footwear to industrial machinery, automotive and electronics.

Live Inventory Management

Katana’s live inventory management feature ensures you are never out of stock even while maintaining an optimal production schedule. It provides real-time tracking and insights into inventory levels for both finished products and raw materials. BOM (bill of materials) level inventory management enables you to set a reorder point for every material, preventing stockout.

The live inventory management feature becomes even more critical when managing across multiple warehouses. For accurate inventory, you can even use barcodes to receive and issue stock.

Purchase Order Management

Granular tracking of purchase orders in Katana MRP avoids stockouts at inopportune moments. You can create timely purchase orders based on accurate material requirements, which further leads to inventory cost optimization without impacting production and order fulfillment. It also enables you to keep a close eye on the status of each purchase order so that you can follow up with the vendors or shop floor operators based on delivery expectation timelines.

Real-Time Master Planning

The purpose of ERP is to gain visibility into all business processes and plan accordingly. Katana MRP facilitates real-time visibility into end-to-end production and resource management, workflows right from sales orders and vendor purchase orders to on-time production and order fulfillment.

Real-time master planning ensures optimal inventory levels at all times, prioritization of production based on raw material availability and task-level shop floor management for effective shop floor management. You can also automate manufacturing cost calculations based on your bill of materials and operational workflows.

Production Planning

Katana allows you to prioritize manufacturing tasks based on availability of required materials. You can calculate accurate expected completion dates for each order. The insight helps you to re-prioritize manufacturing tasks accordingly and keep your sales team ready for delivery. You have full control over delay risks associated with material supply lead time.

Complete Shop Floor Control

Katana’s Shop Floor app gives you complete floor-level control from scheduling and task prioritization to task assignment and floor activity optimization. You can view order and BOM for every task listed in the app. Combined with live material tracking, the app enables you to monitor material consumption and keep track of products and batches in real time.

Katana offers four plans—Starter, Standard, Professional and Professional Plus. If you are not sure about how long you would want to stick with Katana, you can start with monthly billing. However, annual billing is more cost-effective.

	Starter	Standard	Professional	Professional Pro
Starting Price	$179 per month, billed annually	$359 per month, billed annually	$799 per month, billed annually	$1,799 per month, billed annually
Shipped Sales Orders per Month	1200	6,000	18,000	40,000
No. of Full-Access Users	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
No. of Shop Floor Operators Allowed	None	Three	Three	Contact for details
Additional Shop Floor Operator Cost	Not available	$9 per month per user	$19 per month per user	Contact for details
Batch and Expiration Date Tracking	Not available	Available	Available	Available
Katana Shop Floor Mobile App	Not available	Available	Available	Available
Support	Live chat and email	Live chat and email; onboarding support package available	Priority live chat and email; onboarding support package available; dedicated customer success manager	Dedicated support; advanced onboarding packages

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Starter

Katana’s Starter plan is perfect for small manufacturers who need a simple scalable solution to manage their business needs. It includes unlimited users with full access to all manufacturing data and software features. They can manage inventory, make products and fulfill customer orders in up to three different locations.

The Starter plan provides native integration to popular e-commerce stores Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce and accounting software Xero and QuickBooks Online. You can also integrate with other software for CRM, automation, reporting and shipping.

Advanced

The Standard plan includes more features that are required for growing businesses that need advanced solutions for complex manufacturing processes. Besides including unlimited users, the Advanced plan also includes three shop floor operators with access to the Katana shop floor app. However, they do not have access to the manufacturing data or other features.

The plan also allows batch and expiration date tracking, multi-currency transactions and full access to Katana’s open API. However, the Advanced plan requires that users purchase an implementation package for $400 in order to get set up quickly and efficiently.

Professional

The Professional plan is well suited for large-scale manufacturers that are looking for a robust solution and excellent guidance and support to go with it. Besides all the features of the Advanced plan, the Professional plan provides priority support and allocates a dedicated customer success manager. You also get early access to new features that are still in the development phase.

At the time of writing, the Professional plan was being offered at a discount of $200 per month for the first year of subscription.

Professional Plus

The Katana Professional Plus plan is a completely tailor-made plan with custom pricing, dedicated support and advanced onboarding packages. You need to reach out to them for a quotation with details about your business needs.

Katana offers a 14-day free trial you can use to test its premium features. When you log in to Katana for the first time, you will be asked some basic details about the type of manufacturing unit you run, number of warehouses, e-commerce platforms you use, etc.

The software is populated with demo data for all dashboards so that you can see how it works. There is a large yellow button in the top toolbar to delete all the demo data with just a single click. However, it is advisable to do so only after you have added some data of your own, so you do not have to stare at an empty dashboard and feel lost.

When you log in for the first time, a help box opens on the right, listing the initial steps you must take to get started. All you need to do is follow the instructions, and you will be set up in no time at all. It has all the steps for processing an MTO order.

Katana has an intuitive interface and is extremely easy to use. The dashboard names and menu items are self-explanatory. Color-coded boxes make it easier for you to visualize the end-to-end workflow on any dashboard.

If you already use a popular e-commerce platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce, you can integrate the two to import all the products from the site automatically.

How safe is this product? How does it compare to others in terms of security? Any particular concerns?

Katana has excellent live support by human agents. Any review that you read definitely mentions its awesome support and ability to solve customer problems quickly.

Here are a few additional features that can make it easier for you to manage your manufacturing processes.

Accurate Costing

If you have entered the costs of all the materials used, you can accurately calculate manufacturing costs for all orders. You can set up workflows to automatically update ingredient-level costs with each purchase.

Contract Manufacturing

If you outsource your manufacturing, Katana MRP makes it straightforward to issue purchase orders, track progress of your order and receive items with their accurate costs calculated. You can also track materials at partner locations in real time and place orders to purchase out-of-stock materials.

Expiration Date Tracking

You can use barcode scanning for adding stocks to track expiration dates of each item in your stock. This further equips you to handle expired items properly and place replenishment orders accordingly.

Omnichannel Order Management

Katana enables you to unify all your sales channels—B2B as well as e-commerce platforms—in a single dashboard. You track all your orders and re-prioritize them based on delivery deadlines and material availability irrespective of how the orders were placed.

	Katana ERP	Aptean ERP	SYSPRO ERP	Acumatica
Forbes Advisor Rating
Starting Price	$99 per user per month (billed annually)	Contact for pricing	$199 per user per month	Contact for pricing
Free Trial	14 days	No	No	No
Installation	Cloud, on-premises	Cloud, on-premises	Cloud, on-premises	Cloud
Warehouse Management	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Forecasting	Add-on	Yes	Yes	Yes
Software Integrations	Add-on	No	Yes	Add-on
Read Reviews	-	-	Read Syspro ERP Review	Read Acumatica Review

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Katana Manufacturing ERP vs. Aptean ERP

Katana is a fully dedicated manufacturing ERP whereas Aptean has solutions for many business types, manufacturing being one of them. To estimate your expenses for Aptean, you will need to reach out to its sales team, whereas Katana has its pricing displayed publicly on its website. It even has a free 14-day trial you can use to explore its features.

Katana Manufacturing ERP vs. SYSPRO ERP

SYSPRO is a more robust and rounded ERP for small and medium businesses as compared to Katana, which is a fully dedicated manufacturing ERP. Katana offers accounting and software integrations as add-ons whereas both are part of SYSPRO. However, both of them lack HR functionality. Katana offers automation, budgeting and CRM add-ons but SYSPRO has these features as part of its core product. Learn more with our SYSPRO ERP review.

Katana Manufacturing ERP vs. Acumatica ERP

Katana MRP is available as both cloud and on-premises installation but Acumatica is a cloud-only software. So it really depends upon whether you are okay with an ERP software you can never install on premises. Both of them provide core MRP features such as warehouse management, forecasting and supply chain management.

Acumatica also has accounting functionality and supports HR integrations as an add-on. But Katana has no support for HR integrations currently and integrates natively with Xero and QuickBooks Online for accounting support.

Katana manufacturing ERP is best for small and midsized manufacturing businesses looking for a visual solution to manage inventory, production and sales.

If you are looking for a fully dedicated manufacturing ERP that takes care of end-to-end manufacturing functions, Katana MRP is excellent. You would never need to worry about out-of-stock items, out-of-control manufacturing costs or shop floor mismanagement with Katana. However, Katana Starter is just that—a very basic MRP—and doesn’t have shop floor management features. Once you are familiar with the basics of the software, you might want to upgrade to higher plans for better visibility and control.