MARS MRP for QuickBooks

MARS is an acronym for Material and Assembly Requirements Scheduling. This is an add-on module that runs with QuickBooks.

The MARS Module enhances your QuickBooks accounting software with an MRP reporting capability that supports your manufacturing purchasing and scheduling needs. MARS reports tell you how much raw material you need to buy and when in an easy-to-read time-phased columnar format. MARS auto generates purchase orders and creates supplier schedules. You can edit and print the POs within QuickBooks. MARS provides an indented bill-of-material report with cost roll-up.

Developed in Dexterity, C#, XML and Visual Studio .NET, MARS has been tested and certified by VeriTest, a leading software testing company. MARS is an ideal reporting tool for the automotive, food processing, chemical processing, and other repetitive manufacturers driven by a make-to-order or finish-to-order environment.

MARS distinguishes itself from other MRP solutions by using data from the following records in QuickBooks:

• Build Assemblies
• Sales Orders
• Inventory Items
• Purchase Orders

So you don’t need to maintain other, outdated, manufacturing tables that provide limited value for the added cost of maintenance.

The core logic of the MARS Module is an algorithm driven by customer orders, invoices, quotes and back orders within the Sales Order Processing (SOP) Module:

1. MARS extracts the quantity ordered and requested ship date for each finished part or product, and time phases that information into user-defined intervals of days, weeks, months, etc.. The requested ship date is used to derive a production start date. MARS computes the production start date as follows:
   
   production start date = requested ship date - production lead time - ship lead time per finished good item number - ship lead time per customer address location



2. It then explodes through each finished good’s bill-of-material to derive gross purchase or assembly requirements for the raw material and components that make up the finished good (finished part or product).



3. MARS then checks the quantity-on-hand and open purchase orders of the respective raw material and components. Net Requirements are computed from requirements that exceed the sum of the quantity-on-hand and projected purchase receipts.

Unlike other MRP reporting applications, there is very little setup. You will have MARS up and running in minutes.

And MARS works. To quote one customer, “Resource planning and scheduling was extermely tedious prior to MARS. With automatic PO generation and 10 weeks out planning, we’ve reduced a full time office job to five hours a week, with fewer errors!” - Tim Doelman, Manager, HRP Manufacturing, Boise, Idaho.