Why We Built FerroSync

We didn't set out to build an ERP.

We set out to solve a problem we kept seeing: small businesses running their operations on a patchwork of spreadsheets, disconnected tools, and manual processes — and losing money because of it.

The problem we saw

Talk to the owner of a 50-person distribution company. Ask them how they track inventory. You'll hear something like this:

"We have a spreadsheet for stock counts. Orders come in through email and we enter them into another sheet. Customer info is in a CRM. Invoicing is in QuickBooks. And none of them talk to each other."

That split — production and inventory in one place, books in another — is the same architecture most manufacturing tools still sell. We wrote it out in How shop-floor events post to the general ledger.

Every time something changes — a shipment arrives, an order goes out, a customer pays — someone has to manually update multiple systems. That takes time. And every manual step is a chance for an error.

The result: stock counts that don't match reality. Orders that ship wrong. Invoices that go out late. Revenue numbers that nobody trusts until someone spends half a day reconciling.

These aren't edge cases. This is the daily reality for the majority of small businesses selling physical products.

Why existing tools don't fix it

The ERP market has a gap in the middle.

On one end, you have enterprise systems like NetSuite, SAP, and Dynamics 365. They're powerful, mature, and comprehensive. They're also expensive ($50K-$150K+ in the first year), complex (3-6 month implementations), and built for companies much larger than the ones we're talking about.

On the other end, you have point solutions. A standalone inventory tool. A separate order management system. An invoicing app. On the manufacturing side the common pattern is a production layer plus QuickBooks or Xero. FerroSync vs Katana is the honest version of that split. Self-serve MRP that still runs two systems of record — they have Standard Accounting and still sell QBO/Xero as the books — is covered in FerroSync vs MRPeasy. Each one works fine in isolation. But the moment you need them to work together — when an order should automatically adjust stock, when an invoice should pull data from an order, when a customer profile should show their complete history — you're back to manual glue work.

What's missing is the middle ground: a system that handles inventory, orders, customers, and finance together, in one place, at a price and complexity level that makes sense for a 30-person business.

That's what we built.

What FerroSync is

FerroSync is an integrated operations system for small businesses. Four modules — inventory, orders, customers, and finance — that work together automatically. The current module list — including BOMs, production orders, MRP, lots/serials, and the double-entry ledger — is on Features.

When an order comes in, stock is reserved. When it ships, inventory adjusts. When you generate an invoice, it pulls the right data from the order. When a payment is recorded, your financials update in real time.

No manual reconciliation. No copy-pasting between tools. No end-of-day spreadsheet updates.

We made some deliberate choices about what FerroSync is and isn't:

It's focused. Four modules, not forty. We do the core operations job well instead of doing everything mediocrely.

It's simple. Your warehouse staff should be able to use it on day one. If a system requires weeks of training, it's too complex for the businesses we serve.

It's fast. Pages load in milliseconds. Searches return instantly. When your team uses this 50 times a day, speed matters.

It's affordable. No six-figure implementation. No per-user fees that spiral as you grow. A predictable price that a small business can plan around. Published price: $500/month plus $50 per user on Standard, every module included.

Where we are today

FerroSync is live. Sign up and your own isolated instance is provisioned after checkout. You can try it right now with a full demo environment loaded with sample data: 2,800+ products, 384 orders, 156 customers, and $127K in tracked revenue.

If this sounds like it could help your business, we'd love for you to try the demo. Poke around. See if the workflow matches how your business actually operates. If it does, start your subscription. Standard is $500/month plus $50 per user, accounting included. Or try the live demo — sample data, no card.

What's next

We're building FerroSync in the open. We talk to small business operators every week to make sure we're solving real problems, not imagined ones. The roadmap is driven by what our users need, not what looks good on a feature comparison chart.

If you're running a growing business and your current tools are holding you back, we built FerroSync for you.

[Try the live demo →] See inventory, orders, customers, and finance working together. Ready in 30 seconds.