How We Helped Mid-America Manufacturer to Streamline All Processes in One Platform

Client:

Mid-America manufacturer

Industry:

Manufacturing

Core technologies:

Odoo 18 / Odoo.sh

Country:

USA

Client Overview

Mid-America Manufacturing produces precision metal assemblies for clients across the United States. Its back office relied on QuickBooks, Excel, and lengthy email chains, with vendor invoices arriving as PDFs and entered manually. As the business expanded to two warehouses and more than 200 SKUs, control eroded: costs became opaque, month-end reports conflicted, and multi-state sales tax exposure grew.

The company sought a single platform to unify finance, inventory, procurement, manufacturing, and reporting. Leadership required precise inventory valuation and product costing, along with automated bank synchronization and accelerated reconciliations. They aimed to digitize vendor bills with structured approval workflows, gain access to advanced analytical reporting and budgeting tools, and ensure accurate compliance with multi-state sales tax regulations.

How Glorium Technologies Helped

Glorium Technologies delivered a four-month, phased Odoo implementation with structured change management and role-based training, ensuring minimal downtime and uninterrupted operations during go-live.

In Weeks 1 and 2, the team conducted discovery, audited data, mapped the chart of accounts, and set success metrics. In Weeks 3 through 6, the team configured Accounting, Inventory, Sales, and Purchasing, loaded data, and connected bank feeds. In Weeks 7 through 10, the team finalized costing, Bills of Materials, OCR, analytics, and budgets. In Weeks 11 and 12, the team integrated AvaTax, trained users, ran UAT, executed cutover, and provided hypercare.

Why They Chose Glorium Technologies

The client partnered with Glorium Technologies for our:

Deep experience in manufacturing and project-driven businesses
Phased implementation approach focused on quick wins
Expertise in integrating Odoo with existing tools
Commitment to long-term scalability and growth

Solution

1. Data Migration

Exported customers, vendors, chart of accounts, open AR/AP, and balances from QuickBooks.
Mapped the chart of accounts to Odoo.
Imported historical transactions to preserve prior-year financial reporting.

2. Inventory Valuation and Costing

Configured FIFO for manufactured components and AVCO for standard stocked items.
Linked Bills of Materials to each assembly to capture component usage.
Automated stock moves and COGS postings upon order release, enabling consistent, auditable costing.

3. Banking and Reconciliation

Connected Odoo directly to bank feeds.
Applied matching rules for batch vendor payments and grouped customer receipts.
Replaced manual matching with automated reconciliation, accelerating month-end close.

4. Vendor Bill Digitization

Ingested invoices with OCR, extracting vendor, date, totals, and line items.
Attached source PDFs to each bill record.
Enforced threshold-based approval workflows for higher-value invoices, tightening AP controls and cycle time.

5. Reporting, Analytics, and Budgeting

Used Analytic Accounting to track costs by job, warehouse, and product line.
Set budgets per product line and warehouse; monitored actuals monthly.
Delivered live executive dashboards: Sales vs. Bills vs. Payments, COGS by product family, and Inventory turnover by warehouse, shifting decisions to current, reliable data.

6. Sales Tax Compliance

Integrated Avalara AvaTax with Odoo Sales to automatically calculate state and local taxes on quotes and invoices.
Improved filing accuracy and reduced audit exposure.

7. Unified Operating Platform

Consolidated sales, procurement, inventory, manufacturing, accounting, and reporting in Odoo.
Eliminated duplicate entry and spreadsheet drift.
Provided a single, real-time dashboard for receivables, payables, stock levels, and production status.

Results

Unified System for All Processes: Odoo’s modular design consolidated accounting, inventory, purchasing, and sales into a single dashboard. Reduced manual data entry by 70%, allowing the finance team to focus on strategic tasks rather than routine updates.

Automated Inventory Valuation and Costing Methods: Replaced QuickBooks’ manual adjustments, saving the team 15 hours weekly and improving accuracy in financial statements.

Bank Synchronization and Automated Reconciliation for Batch and Group Payments: Cut reconciliation time from days to minutes and reduced errors by 90%, as seen in similar Odoo implementations for mid-size firms.

Vendor Bill Digitization: Eliminated manual entry for over 200 monthly bills, boosting efficiency.

Analytical Accounting and Budget Planning: Allocate budgets more accurately, reducing overruns by 25% in the first quarter post-migration.

Avalara AvaTax Integration: Real-time address validation and filing ensured accuracy, saving $10,000 annually in compliance penalties and manual audits, a common win in U.S.-based Odoo deployments.

Additional enhancements included:

Multi-User Collaboration and Security: Role-based access for 50+ users, with audit trails for compliance.
Mobile Accessibility: Finance teams access reports via Odoo’s mobile app, improving on-site decision-making.
Scalability for Growth: Odoo’s open-source flexibility allowed easy addition of CRM and project management modules without extra costs.
Cost Savings: Annual software expenses dropped by 60% compared to QuickBooks, with no need for third-party add-ons.