Turning Manufacturing On
Manufacturing is a paid module. It needs Inventory. Accounting is optional: production is recorded and costed with or without it. This chapter covers switching it on and giving your team the right access.
- Production managers, finance teams and shop floor supervisors
- Updated
In this guide
2.1 Requirements
| Module | Needed? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Core | Always on | Team, roles and permissions |
| Inventory | Required | Products, units, locations, material lots and stock movements |
| Accounting | Optional | Production journals, job deposits and invoices, month-end factory costs, excise journals |
| Procurement | Optional | Sending the buy list for approval, and purchase orders for outsourced steps |
| Payroll | Optional | Paying approved piece counts |
| POS | Optional | Till sales of made products, traced by batch |
| HR | Optional | HR employees appear in the list of people who can log work |
If Inventory is switched off, Manufacturing pages do not open.
2.2 Adding the Module
The business owner adds Manufacturing from the business's Billing page:
- Open Billing and choose Add Modules
- Select Manufacturing
- Review the quote. Dependencies are added automatically, so Inventory is added and priced with Manufacturing if you do not have it yet
- Confirm. During a trial the module is added straight away. Otherwise SikaBooks creates an invoice, which may be prorated for the rest of your billing period, and the module is activated once it is paid
The standard list price of Manufacturing is GH₵199 a month or GH₵1,990 a year, with no introductory offer. Inventory is priced separately when it is added as a dependency. Billing shows the full price for your business before you confirm.
2.3 Roles and Permissions
Manufacturing has no built-in role. The business owner grants access under Team > Roles: edit or create a role, then tick the permissions below. Give each person only the tasks they carry out.
| Permission label | Code | What it allows |
|---|---|---|
| Access Manufacturing workspace | module.manufacturing.access |
Open Manufacturing at all |
| View recipes, production orders and batch trace | manufacturing.view |
Every Manufacturing page. Needed with all the permissions below |
| Create and version recipes | manufacturing.recipes.manage |
New recipes and new versions |
| Approve and reject recipe versions | manufacturing.recipes.approve |
Review submitted versions and choose their effective release date; does not grant recipe editing |
| Create, plan and cancel production orders | manufacturing.orders.manage |
New orders, Plan batch, Cancel order, Create production orders from What to make |
| Issue materials, log time and record output | manufacturing.orders.work |
Start production, material issues and returns, timers, work logs, output, and every phone action |
| Finish production batches | manufacturing.orders.finish |
Finish batch, Finish recorded batch and Retry posting |
| View production costs and margins | manufacturing.costs.view |
Costs, rates, margins, Reports, batch cost, Month end and costing rates in Settings |
| Record batch quality checks | manufacturing.quality.check |
Recording check results; cure-ready notifications |
| Release batches from quality hold | manufacturing.quality.release |
Release for sale, Keep on hold, Reject the batch |
| Manage batch recalls | manufacturing.recalls.manage |
Starting and running recalls |
| Manage manufacturing jobs | manufacturing.jobs.manage |
Creating and running customer jobs |
| Close manufacturing months | manufacturing.month_end.close |
Closing and reopening a month (with cost permission) |
| Manage manufacturing excise | manufacturing.excise.manage |
Excise products, returns and stamps |
| Approve production piece counts for Payroll | manufacturing.piece_rates.approve |
Approving piece counts into a pay run |
| Take finished batches apart | manufacturing.disassembly.manage |
Take apart |
| Manage manufacturing settings | manufacturing.settings.manage |
Manufacturing Settings |
| View work-centre schedules | manufacturing.capacity.view |
Day, week and list schedules |
| Assign and schedule production capacity | manufacturing.capacity.schedule |
Audited order assignments, preview, reserve and future reschedule |
| Manage work centres and calendars | manufacturing.capacity.manage |
Centre capacity, working intervals and downtime |
Viewing production records does not show costs. A shop floor worker usually needs only the first two permissions plus Issue materials, log time and record output.
Some actions also need permissions from other modules. A job deposit needs invoice creation, invoice issue and payment permissions in Accounting. Sending the buy list needs Procurement requisition create and submit permissions.
2.4 Separation of Duties for Quality Release
A person who recorded output or logged work on an order can never release that order's batches from quality hold. This includes work logged against their linked Payroll or HR employee record, and timers they were part of. The rule still applies after a role change, and it applies to the business owner too.
When you tick both Issue materials, log time and record output and Release batches from quality hold on one role, the role form shows a Segregation of Duties Warnings box for Production work + quality release. You can still save the role; the warning helps you design roles, and the per-batch rule is what blocks the release.
The same independence applies to piece counts: see 14) Piece Rates and Payroll.
2.5 If You Turn Manufacturing Off Later
Turning Manufacturing off keeps every production record. Material held for orders and jobs, output awaiting final costing, and quarantined batches stay protected in Inventory, so the till and invoices still cannot sell them. An Inventory product page still shows its Manufacturing history with Manufacturing is disabled. Existing production records are kept.