Does Zoho One include an MRP or manufacturing module?

Not a full MRP. Zoho One includes Zoho Inventory, which handles composite items, bills of materials for simple assembly, purchasing and stock. For production planning, routings, work centres and capacity, businesses usually build on Zoho Creator or look at Zoho's newer ERP offering, depending on region. Check the current Zoho One app list, as Zoho keeps adding manufacturing features.

Zoho Inventory lets you define composite items made from components and record assemblies, which deducts components and adds finished goods to stock. That covers kitting and light assembly well. Combined with purchase orders, reorder levels and Zoho Books for costing, it suits small makers with simple processes.

What a full MRP adds is planning: multi-level bills of materials, routings and operations, work centres, capacity, scrap, work orders with stages, and material requirements calculated from demand. Zoho Inventory does not aim to cover all of this. Many manufacturers on Zoho One build a production app in Zoho Creator that reads sales orders and writes back stock movements to Inventory.

Zoho has also been building ERP and manufacturing capabilities, with availability depending on country and edition. Check the current Zoho One and Zoho ERP pages. Before choosing, write down your process from sales order to dispatch, mark the steps that need planning or shop-floor tracking, and see which tool covers each.

If you would rather have help mapping this, Flowpeak can review your production flow and recommend whether Inventory, a Creator production app or Zoho ERP fits. The aim is the simplest setup that covers your real process, without paying for planning features you will not use.

Written by Flowpeak, a Zoho implementation partner. Zoho pricing and features change, so confirm current details on the official Zoho site. Free checklists | Ask us a question