Natural Products Software
Efficiency and quality for small and midsize Food, Supplement, Cosmetics and Sports Nutrition companies. QuickBooks with extensions are a fraction of the cost of other software.
Why QuickBooks?
Having dominated the small business accounting software market since the 1990s, Intuit’s QuickBooks is used by over 80% of small business in the U.S. QuickBooks is easy to use and helps millions of businesses manage their financials and grow their business.
QuickBooks extensions provide an packaged solution at an affordable price. Acctivate is a popular extension for complete order management and supply chain, combined with our Clarity plugins to offer a solution tailored to small and mid-size businesses in our the Natural Products sector.
Accounting
Add customers automatically
Keep an eye on costs
The integrated accounting system accurately costs each lot through the process, manages manufacturer chargebacks, and allows order processing through multiple options; such as via affordable EDI, over the Internet, or within your order department.
Quickly generate detailed cost reports for your production runs with breakdowns for raw materials and labor used and work in progress of finished goods created. You’ll be able to keep an eagle eye on the health of your business and whether your costs are in line with current (and historic) expectations.
Update QuickBooks with new bills, invoices and purchase orders.
You can create invoices and POs in Acctivate and click a button to send them over to QuickBooks. QuickBooks will recognize the products you are selling (or buying) and treat the invoice or PO just like any other you’ve created. Upon updating your accounting in QuickBooks, Acctivate creates general journal entries for your inventory costs.
Sales
Whether B2B, B2C or both, customers are vital for profitability and keeping them happy, satisfied and, hopefully, loyal should be at the top of every company’s priority list. Acquiring and managing customers requires talented, skilled individuals and a system with real-time, accurate information to manage the process from prospect through sale to customer service.
Accurate quotes
If you are currently manually generating quotes for your customers, you may risk pricing errors. Every time a new ingredient or component is checked in, the pricing will automatically be averaged to create an accurate quote; however, this can be modified manually when creating the quote. This ensures that quotes are as accurate as possible at a component level to ensure you aren't overcharging your customers or losing money.
Customer pricing
Set up different prices for your products for each customer.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
EDI (electronic data interchange) is used by companies such as UNFI, Costco, and Walmart to generate and accept orders, shipment receipts, invoices and any other required business documents. As a technology, EDI is a scheme where files are transmitted between systems and formatted in a standard pre-agreed format.
Lot numbered invoices
Automatically add lot numbers to customer invoices.
Manage promotions
Reduce time-consuming reconciliations and improve accuracy with trade promotion management functionality.
Manufacture to order
Once an order is approved, you can generate a production order and determine the individual components needed for completion. When your SOP is connected to this system, this creates a step by step process to ensure accurate orders each time the manufacturing process is started. Our pre-configured manufacturing industry software has incorporated industry standard best practices while remaining customizable to meet your unique needs.
Quick quotes
The quoting, ordering and invoicing modules let you design custom quotes for large jobs and easily generate orders and invoices for you customers. Create work orders from a set of customer orders and Acctivate will automatically multiply your recipes up or down to produce the exact quantities needed for those orders — perfect for producers who have a different volume each day.
Sales tracking
Track orders by salesperson for accurate commission reporting.
Inventory
Part of running a successful food or natural products business is managing your inventory and stock levels and wisely projecting future needs. With QuickBooks and Acctivate, recipes or formulas with production multipliers instantly send alerts when lacking enough ingredients to meet production. The system suggests orders and gives the estimated cost, based on your current accounting cost methods.
Barcode product and warehouse bin labels
Ready to label your inventory? Acctivate prints product barcode labels with one click.
Cycle counting
Cycle count reports and mobile apps can help you quickly and efficiently keep the real world and virtual worlds in sync.
Landed cost
Do your products and ingredients have a complex road to your door? Landed Cost will help distribute the indirect costs of shipping (including shipping costs, entry costs, duties, brokerage fees, and taxes) to inventory items.
Lot tracking
Lot tracking capabilities automatically enforce lot numbers across inventory items and maintain each lot number throughout the process. If your products require serial numbers, Acctivate provides them.
Mobile warehouse management systems (WMS)
For even more efficiency and accuracy, use our Mobile Order Picking and Receiving modules. Get rugged efficiency by using industrial-grade devices from Zebra, Honeywell and others, or run the software on most Windows Mobile devices.
Stock availability
Log expiration dates and pull inventory for production based on FIFO, LIFO or user-selected lots and transfer inventory between locations with a couple of clicks. Acctivate lets you set reorder amounts for each type of inventory and provides alerts when quantities get below set thresholds.
Weight scale integration
Your organization works with products that are sold by weight, so scales are used intensively. In order to weigh and record the consumption of items more quickly and more accurately, scales integrate into your ERP system.
Lot Track & Trace
Tracks everything used in your food or natural product business, including the user who did the transaction, the date and time, and all the associated costs as well. Generate full traceability reports any time by date range for ingredients or specific lots of production, including items shipped to customers.
Lot traceability reporting
Satisfy auditors with bi-directional lot traceability to support fast recall reporting.
Usage relationship diagrams
Provides lot usage relationship diagrams showing end-to-end material usage during all production processes.
Label Review
Don't slip up on labeling and marketing claims - let regulatory experts review your messaging to avoid potential problems. The optional proofing and review module tracks changes and approval of your labels, as well as proofing content designed for print and web.
Graphics Approval Workflows
Labels, websites and marketing materials are routed through an approval system that tracks change and approvals. Different versions can be compared automatically with pixel-perfect change detection.
FDA Compliance
Customers and governments are continuously setting stricter requirements for quality and food safety (for example HACCP and GMP). You likely negotiate different quality systems in which multiple registrations must be carried out. Logistics chains must integrate so that products can be traced (track and trace) and effective action can be taken in the event of an emergency.
Master Manufacturing Records
Automatically create manufacturing plans for every batch size. Use templates to conveniently manage all appropriate quality and production checks.
Batch Production Records
Generate FDA compliant batch production records that capture production, quality and performance for every run.
Electronic records compliance
Comply with FDA and 21 CFR Part 11 regulations by capturing batch data, sign-offs and processes electronically. Reduce risk even further with electronic signatures and full audit trails.
Labels and Fact Panels
Create food nutrition labels and supplement fact panels using FDA compliant add-on labeling software.
Inspection Status
Production and distribution companies in the food & beverage industry must have full control over all incoming and outgoing goods. Quality and quantity controls are essential. This process works by assigning an inspection status to incoming and manufactured goods. To enable this process to run efficiently and effectively, you need an ERP system that supports and automates this process wherever possible.
Lot track and trace
Meet the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and Safe Quality Food (SQF) standards with forward and backward traceability of lots/serials and supplier ingredients.
Manage specifications
Customers and governments are setting ever more demanding requirements for food quality and safety. When even the slightest change is made to a raw material or recipe, all the specifications of affected products must be recalculated.
Complaints and adverse events
Sometimes, your organization must resolve complaints. In addition to customer complaints, you may also have complaints towards suppliers or internal issues. Whether the complaint is a simple issue or a complex adverse event, the Activity Tracking system lets you manage established procedures to solve these situations.
Ingredient substitution and rework
When changes are needed in real time, track everything that happens and give your Quality team the information they need to sign off on the actual as-built procedure.
Manufacturing
Light Manufacturing: Use the QuickBooks with Acctivate assembly system to manage light manufacturing. Create kits such as holiday baskets and configure-to-order combinations. Build counter displays, samples and testers as the need arises. Easily take care of distributor requests such as pallet and master pack shipping.
Ingredient-based Manufacturing:
Crystal Systems extends Acctivate with formula and recipe calculations, quality documentation and best-practice configuration for raw material processors as well as food, supplement, cosmetic and personal care manufacturers. Acctivate lets you create multiple-level Bills Of Material, check the availability of components, and issue Purchase Orders for supply.
By-product traceability
Production orders let you assign waste products and lot traceability for your by-products. The system includes the cost of your by-products in production costing reports.
Configurable production instructions
Create many different product types such as capsules, processed foods, produce, meat, fish, ingredients, liquid and powders. Each job type is processed in a unique way that lends itself to your type of manufacturing.
Contract manufacturing
Supports Contract Manufacturing environments.
Equipment and labor scheduling
Assign equipment and labor to batch jobs. Link a series of assembly stages into a single manufacturing process. Prioritize the scheduling and execution of specific work orders.
Flexible pick lists
Produce inventory pick lists that work with your team and existing production processes. Design pick lists to meet your needs with Crystal Reports. Add photos, material handling requirements, barcode images and more to make pick lists a natural part of your production process.
Lot tracking
You won’t miss an important transaction during your next audit or compliance inspection. QuickBooks with Acctivate provides complete lot number tracking – from raw materials through finished goods.
Light assembly and kitting lets you pack products into different sizes of containers and generate lot codes through that process.
Produce reports for a single inventory item from the originating vendor to all end-user customers – all the way through the manufacturing and/or distribution process. See what lots and quantities were shipped to customers for a date range.
Material requirements plan
Compute your Material Requirements Plan (MRP) by comparing on-hand inventory to purchase orders, production schedule, backorders and customer orders. Besides creating insight into the workload for work center and machine centers, the Business Alerts provide insight into the plans for critical materials.
Multi-step production
With multi-step assembly orders, you can create complex formulas that model the same way you produce your products in the real world. At each stage of production, Acctivate will let you create new inventory, use inventory created in other runs, and produce whatever finished goods you need.
Plant scheduling
Crystal Reports lets you create a complete picture of all ongoing production orders. You can use filters to select on a particular location or a specific date. From a simple overview of the plan, to detailed process reporting, you configure exactly what you need to organize your operation.
Quality sampling
Tracks samples from Product Development Requests through batch production.
Rework production
Need to make corrections to a production run? No problem. Revise the assembly sequence with necessary adjustments using the reworked production. Maintains full records of what happened. You’ll always know exactly what suppliers gave you which ingredients, which lots they went into and which customers received them.
Ingredient weighing
Create manufacturing pick and weigh instructions with lot and location information. Automatically manage allergen sensitivity requirements. Connect your scales to weigh and record the consumption of items more quickly and more accurately.
Workorders
A work order-driven production module makes it easy to customize your production flow to meet your needs. From consistent, daily production-to-production needs that are driven by your daily customer orders, QuickBooks with Acctivate takes care of your food processing operations.
Yield management
Because the final yield of each production run is a big factor in the true cost of your products, Acctivate tracks the final yield (and any scrapped amounts) of each run and automatically factors it into all cost calculations. You can also apply activity-based labor costs to each recipe.
Find out how easy it can be
Customer Relationships
Attract new customers, cultivate strong customer loyalty, improve the order taking experience, and nurture current customers.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is built-in with Acctivate, to enhance competitiveness by improving sales productivity, enabling management control and promoting business consistency.
The CRM module is a feature-rich system that combines customer tracking with order processing. Take advantage of real-time information about inventory and shipments for a 360-degree view of your customers.
Accurate Quotes
Tight integration with formulas and costs lets you exceed customer expectations and improve margins with more accurate quoting.
Automatically Create E-Commerce Customers
Automatically create new customers and orders when you get an e-commerce order on Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon or another online sales channel.
Business Dashboard
Get a single view of customers, contracts and orders with an integrated dashboard. Stay connected to your entire customer service operation with easy-to-use alerts and business processes.
Customer Sync With QuickBooks
Maintain detailed customer records and notes on each one. Connect Acctivate to QuickBooks and import all your existing customer records. A one-button sync between systems updates changes.
Lot Track and Trace
When you ship (or deliver through a direct store delivery route) your products, keep track of the lot codes you opt to ship and put lot codes on orders and invoices. You always know exactly which lots and quantities went to which customers.
Manage Chargebacks
In the Natural Products industry, suppliers and customers often negotiate price agreements. For example, discounts or rebates are given if a certain quantity is bought within an agreed period. Companies need to record these price agreements with suppliers and customers.
Document Management
When the FDA and other regulators come calling, accurate records will be ready. Crucial quality and compliance records are organized for easy access, with industry-standard version control and electronic signatures.
Design Proofing
Labels and marketing materials flow through advanced proofing tools that compare every version down to the pixels on the page, and track all comments and approvals.
Document control
Establish libraries of SOP’s, Vendor Inspection Plans and Checklists for raw materials finished goods. Check-in changes, set up approvers, and capture 21CFR11 compliant signatures.
E-Commerce
Automatically synchronize your product data with popular shopping carts such as Magento, Shopify and 3Dcart. Simplify your online sales management with built-in connections to omnichannel merchants such as Amazon and eBay.
Crystal Systems can automatically provide follow-up support records in the CRM. Crystal downloads sales orders to keep your accounting current, and uploads inventory stock levels to the channels.
Build a new sales channel with the premier online sales systems. Extending the capabilities of Crystal Complete, our consultants can help you create an exciting new merchandising experience.
Are you ready to get started?
Product Data
Crystal manages the complex product structures of Food, Supplements and Personal Care products. We collect, enter and maintain detailed product data. Your products will have complete raw material specifications, finished product BIll Of Materials, label data and other information.
Increase online sales conversions with public-facing images and descriptions, and publish your information to e-commerce and online catalogs
Allergen and other claims data
Supports allergen, organic, Kosher, Halal and other industry specific types of product data.
Calculate costs
Calculates formula and recipe cost estimates, with packaging and labor details.
Internal specs
Create product specs for variables including size, grade, quality, and whatever you need. Supports unique physical and variable characteristics of raw materials (e.g. calories, sugar, fat, sodium, and more).
Manufacturing instructions and procedures
Embeds QC tests, labor costs and instructions, within recipe and packaging specifications
Potency adjustments
Automatically calculate material requirements using ingredient potencies
Recipe version control
Apply discipline to managing recipes throughout development with multiple revisions and sell-through of discontinued versions
Vendor qualifications
Vendor Qualification for materials and processing requires exact specifications and document management. The Crystal extensions to QuickBooks with Acctivate give you a complete system with specialized reporting for food, supplements, cosmetics and personal care
Customer specifications
Contract manufacturers can generate customer-friendly specifications at the click of a button. Automatically redact flavoring systems and other trade secret information.
Fact Panels
Create ingredient and supplement fact panels using add-on FDA compliant labelling software.
Supply Chain
Automatically generate purchase orders when you run low on stock. To plan your future inventory needs, Acctivate lets you instantly create inventory alerts from a full materials requirements plan (MRP). The plan considers data such as manufacturing demand, purchase orders, on-hand stock and customer orders to determine what you may run out of and when you need to reorder it.
Scheduling
Manage a backlog of manufacturing orders weeks and months in advance. Allocate equipment in advance and revise the machine schedule when production starts.
Detect material shortages
Assign raw materials to production orders in advance. View all production orders that have unallocated components, and see the status of incoming purchase orders and quality control quarantine.
Respond to supplier delays
Automatically find all production orders that are affected by raw material delays. Send and log emails to vendors and production so that everybody knows the impact.
Receiving
Do a full (or partial) check in of received goods and assign lot codes. Log the receipt, truck inspection, COA and other vital data. Track the Quality Control release and warehouse put-away in real time.
Raw material labelling
Print barcoded labels for pallets, containers and samples.
Varying Units of Measure
Purchase your ingredients and supplies in different units of measurement than those used in production. Acctivate automatically performs these conversions..
Quality
Ensure that your facilities and processes will safely deliver your product. The Activity Manager lets you create operating procedures, validate operations and manage a Quality Oversight program.
Crystal organizes the records and our services keep you aware of the responsibilities of Natural Products brands. For more complex regulatory issues, our QMS and consulting partners can provide you with deep expertise in Governance, Risk and Compliance issues.
Quality procedures
Manages the workflow from QC data collection to the review and disposition of substandard products
Workflows
Create flexible process flows using Google Apps and Sharepoint integration. Build on our sample templates for receiving, batch inspection, returns and other FDA compliant procedures. Automatically launch your own custom workflows from the Activity Manager.
Quality activities
Manage quality management procedures with the built-in Acctivate activity manager. Create deviations reports and other quality management events with a few clicks.
QMS Integration
Add third-party SOP and CAPA modules for enhanced compliance management and FDA compliance.
Pack and Ship
If you pack and ship in your own warehouse, we provide control of printed pick lists and packing. Automate your shipping with plugins for FedEx, UPS and USPS..
Catch weight
Catch-weight is traditionally used in industries like meat and cheese, where each item sold has a different weight. For example, your company purchases, produces or delivers products in both pieces as well as kilograms. In this situation, kilograms are often the primary unit of measure for the calculation of cost, purchase, and sales prices.
Connection to weight scales
With integrated scales you can ensure accurate catch weight and variable weight measurements, manage by-product costing, and track inventory across multiple freezers and/or locations.
Direct Store Delivery (DSD)
DSD (direct store delivery) functions help delivery drivers organize and get the right products to customers on their routes. A mobile barcode scanner lets delivery drivers track specific lot codes delivered.
Lot traceability reporting
Trace which customers got which products and lot codes – including who did the shipment (or delivery) and when they did it.
Mobile apps for orders and shipping
Use the Acctivate Mobile Order Picking module for accurate order picking and shipping. Use rugged industrial-grade devices from Zebra, Honeywell and others, or run the software on almost any inexpensive Windows Mobile device.
Serial numbered shipping labels
Make your customers happy with shipping labels that give the information they need. If your customer wants Serial Shipping Container Codes (SSSC) with a unique number, Acctivate can print them automatically. In addition, SSCC Labels offer reliable tracing options, for example in the event of a product recall. This is because information concerning the goods and packaging being transported on the container is linked to the unique code.