A CRM for manufacturers, from the quality request to the invoice.
Requests, projects with phases, sales across a customer network and ERP-linked invoicing, in the same system. And a special edition of the product, built specifically for manufacturing.
Two editions, one core.
For manufacturing there is a separate edition of CactusCRM, built around the way the industry works. It sits on the same core described below (clients, proposals, projects, invoicing, time tracking, ERP and portal) and adds what a production facility needs.
- Bill of materials - materials and quantities per finished item, with versions.
- Production orders - from the order to the line, with stages and an owner for each one.
- Inventory - raw materials, semi-finished and finished goods, with movements and reorder points.
- Costing - materials, labor hours and overhead per batch, not estimated.
- Quality control - checkpoints, results and non-conformities with a trail.
- Batch traceability - from the raw material to the recipient, and back.
- Scheduling - line load, lead times and what is at risk of running late.
The exact setup adapts to your own production. Request a demo of the manufacturing edition and see it on a product of your own.
A quality request is no different from a support ticket.
A quality complaint, a warranty claim, a customer question: every request becomes a ticket with a status, an owner and a priority. If a cost estimate is needed first, the system enforces it; if not, work starts right away. And when a request is waiting on an answer from the customer, it has its own status, “Awaiting client reply”, so the customer’s wait never shows up as your delay in any report.
| Aspect | Direct request | Estimate first |
|---|---|---|
| Work starts | Right away | After client approval |
| Statuses in between | - | “Awaiting estimate” → “Awaiting client approval” |
| What the client does | Follows the progress | Approves or rejects the estimate |
An installation or upgrade project moves through dated phases.
- Phases that fit you
- Every phase change is recorded with a date, so the system works out automatically how long each stage of your production or installation process took. The phases themselves adapt to your flow, not to the flow of a web development agency.
- Which project is at risk
- Every active project has a schedule status, calculated from the hours estimated against the hours actually logged.
- Workload per technician
- Every team member has their own workload status, from light to overloaded, before they take on a new assignment.
Sales across your customer network, in the same pipeline.
Whether you sell directly to end customers or through a network of resellers and distributors, every opportunity follows a stage flow built for your own sales process: two ready-made flows are there from day one, or you build your own stages. Proposals are created as PDFs in the system, sent with a link and signed electronically, with the time they were opened recorded, so you know whether the customer simply hasn’t opened it yet or a phone call is needed. And an opportunity that isn’t ready to move forward is snoozed with a required review date, instead of being forgotten in a kanban column.
The customer or distributor sees their own account.
- Invoicing linked to your ERP
- Invoices, payments and the balance of every customer or distributor synced automatically from your ERP, with no double entry.
- Their own portal
- Each account sees only its own tickets, contracts and balance, with online payment through VivaWallet if needed.
- Reopen with a comment
- A closed quality or warranty request doesn’t need a brand-new ticket; it reopens by commenting on it.
- CC list per request
- The customer adds extra email addresses that should be kept informed about a specific request, which helps when a quality issue involves more than one person on the customer’s side.
Every account has an owner, and a contact history.
Calls, emails and meetings with every distributor or key account, counted automatically per account manager, with a manual relationship rating when needed. And an account with no communication at all for several weeks is flagged automatically in a weekly report, before they move their orders to another supplier because they felt ignored, not after they’ve already done it.
Manufacturing FAQ.
Does CactusCRM handle production orders or bills of materials?
Not in this edition. This is the agency and services platform of CactusCRM: requests, projects, sales, invoicing, ERP sync, time tracking and a client portal. For manufacturing there is a separate edition of the product, built specifically for the industry.
Can one of our resellers or distributors access their own tickets and invoices?
Yes, through the client portal. Each account sees only its own requests, contracts and balance.
Are project phases locked into one specific flow?
No. Phases, sales stages and custom fields adapt to your own production or service process.
Let’s design your CRM.
30 minutes. We show you the platform, listen to how your team works, and send a tailored proposal within a few days.