Custom Software for Manufacturing
You’ve Outgrown Your Spreadsheets. Your Software Should Keep Up.
Manufacturing businesses run on precise information: what’s been ordered, what’s in production, what’s in stock, what’s been shipped, and what still needs to be billed. When that information lives in spreadsheets, email threads, and disconnected systems, mistakes happen. And those mistakes can be expensive.
Link Software has been building custom software for manufacturers since 2005. We build systems that reflect how your production actually works and not how a generic software package thinks it should work.
What We Build for Manufacturers
Custom ERP Systems
An ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning) is the backbone of a well-run manufacturing business. It connects your production floor, inventory, order management, shipping, and billing in a single system designed around your specific workflow.
Off-the-shelf ERP platforms can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year in licensing fees — and still require workarounds for the things that make your business unique. A custom ERP built by Link Software is owned outright, built to your exact specifications, and costs a fraction of the ongoing licensing fees of commercial alternatives.
Common modules we build:
- Order entry and management
- Production scheduling and work orders
- Bill of materials
- Inventory and stock control
- Shipping and freight tracking
- Invoicing and billing
- Custom reporting and dashboards
- Employee access levels and role permissions
Customer Order Tracking Portals
Your customers want to know where their order is. And your staff is spending too many hours answering phone calls and emails to tell them.
A customer-facing order tracker embedded on your existing website lets customers check the status of their own order at any time without calling you. The portal pulls data from your internal systems automatically, so there’s nothing for your staff to manually update.
We’ve built order tracking systems for manufacturers of everything from bathroom fixtures to custom horse saddles to granite headstones.
Key features:
- Self-service order status lookup (by order number, email, or customer account)
- Automatic status updates pulled from your internal systems
- Freight carrier integration (FedEx, UPS, and others) for live shipping tracking
- Embedded directly on your existing website
- Simple admin panel for your team to manage order data
Customer and Dealer Portals
For businesses with regular, high-volume customers or dealer networks, a full customer portal goes beyond order tracking. It becomes the primary interface between your business and your best customers. And it cuts down on the back-and-forth that wastes everyone’s time.
What a customer portal can do:
- Let customers place orders directly without calling or emailing
- Show real-time inventory availability
- Provide access to invoices, statements, and payment history
- Accept online payments via Stripe
- Share documents, price lists, and product specifications
- Reduce inbound customer support requests significantly
Clients We’ve Helped
Here are a few examples of some of the manufacturing clients we have helped grow their business with custom software solutions. We’ve written detailed case studies for several if you wish to learn even more about each individual project.
The Folks Creative Printers
A large commercial printer in Ohio was managing tens of thousands of SKUs and still taking orders by phone, email, and fax. We built a full ERP system from order entry through production, inventory, shipping, and billing. Plus, a customer portal that let their largest customers place orders directly online, tied into the ERP in real time.
American Veteran Contracting Solutions
AVCS manufactures granite and marble headstones for families of U.S. veterans. We built a customer-facing delivery tracker that takes data from an internal spreadsheet, imports it into a custom admin panel, and provides a simple embed for their existing GoDaddy website.
Longevity Acrylics
A Canadian manufacturer of bathroom products was spending too many staff hours answering customer calls about order status. We built a simple customer order tracker that imports data from their accounting software and lets customers look up their own order status on the company’s existing website.
SK Equine Products
SK Equine manufactures high-end custom horse saddles with variable production timelines. We built an order entry and tracking system that helps their team manage production internally and keeps customers informed of their saddle’s progress from start to finish. All while eliminating constant back-and-forth email.
Why Custom Software?
Off-the-shelf software makes you fit into its workflow.
Custom software fits into yours.
Every manufacturing operation is different. The way you track a job through production, manage your inventory, and communicate with customers is specific to your business. Generic ERP platforms require expensive configurations, workarounds, and often ongoing consulting to get close to what you need. Even then, they rarely get there completely.
Custom software starts with how your business actually works and builds from there.
You own it.
Custom software is an asset, not a subscription. Once built, there are no per-seat licensing fees, no annual renewals, no price increases.
It grows with you.
When your business changes because of new products, new processes, or new customers, your software can change with it. We build systems designed to be extended.
Is Custom Manufacturing Software Right for You?
You might be ready for a custom solution if:
- You’re managing production, inventory, or orders through Excel spreadsheets
- Your staff spends significant time answering order status questions from customers
- You’re using multiple disconnected systems that don’t share data automatically
- Your current software doesn’t quite fit the way your manufacturing process works
- You’ve looked at commercial ERP options and been put off by cost, complexity, or ongoing fees
Get a Free Consultation
Tell us about your manufacturing operation and the problems you’re trying to solve. We’ll let you know how we can help and what a realistic solution might look like.
We typically respond within 1 business day. Link Software LLC has been building custom software for manufacturing businesses since 2005. Learn more about us.