Materials and components in one record
Every raw material, component, and finished good carries its own record: quantity on hand, location, supplier, cost, and lead time. The materials side of MRP starts with knowing what you actually have.
Use case
MRP software
You found out you were short a component the morning the line needed it, and the PO that would have covered it was still sitting in someone's head. Material requirements planning exists to stop exactly that: work out what you need, how many, and when to order it, before a shortage stops production.
Definition
MRP software
MRP, material requirements planning, is the method for turning what you plan to build into what you need to buy and when. Classic MRP software explodes a bill of materials, nets it against stock on hand and open POs, and times the orders so materials land before the build. Full MRP and ERP wrap that in production scheduling, work orders, and capacity planning, and they take months to roll out. Most small manufacturers do not need that much machinery. They need to know which raw materials and components are running low across their locations, how long each supplier really takes, and which POs to cut this week. Order3 is lightweight MRP for that team. It plans materials and purchasing from live stock, reorder rules, and measured lead times, then drafts the POs for a human to approve. It is not a shop-floor scheduling system, and for this team that is the point.
Built by Cameron Priest, who co-founded TradeGecko (acquired by Intuit) and has spent over a decade building software for the people who run physical stock.
Capabilities
What the workflow covers
Demand-driven reorder points
Set the level where each material needs reordering, by item and by location. Order3 watches stock against those levels and flags what is heading for a shortage before the line feels it.
Supplier lead times that match reality
Record the real days each supplier takes, including the slow ones. Reorder timing uses the lead time you measured, not the optimistic number on the quote.
PO drafts with the reasoning attached
When a material crosses its reorder point, Order3 drafts the purchase order and shows why: the stock level, the usage, the supplier, the lead time. Someone reviews and approves before it goes out.
Materials across every location
Raw stock in the main store, components staged at the line, parts on a service van. Count and plan per location instead of one global number that hides where the shortage is.
Lot and receiving records
Receive against the PO, capture lot and supplier on the way in, and keep the movement history. When a batch is questioned later, the trail is already there.
How it works
From floor action to approved record
- Step 01
Load materials and locations
Import raw materials, components, and finished goods as a spreadsheet, or add them with photos. Define where stock lives: stores, staging, production zones.
- Step 02
Set reorder rules and lead times
Give each material a reorder point and a supplier lead time. This is the planning layer that decides what gets ordered and when.
- Step 03
Let Order3 flag and draft
As stock moves, Order3 flags materials heading for a shortage and drafts the POs to cover them, with the reasoning attached for review.
- Step 04
Approve, receive, reconcile
Approve the drafts that are right, receive against the PO, and watch the records update. Pull a materials-on-hand or shortage report without rebuilding it in Excel.
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Start free, no credit cardWorkflow artifact
The record a team can inspect
A useful mrp workflow leaves an item, location, owner, next action, and approval trail behind it.
Order3 record
MRP review
Trigger
Materials and components in one record
Every raw material, component, and finished good carries its own record: quantity on hand, location, supplier, cost, and lead time. The materials side of MRP starts with knowing what you actually have.
Evidence
Load materials and locations
Import raw materials, components, and finished goods as a spreadsheet, or add them with photos. Define where stock lives: stores, staging, production zones.
Next action
Set reorder rules and lead times
Give each material a reorder point and a supplier lead time. This is the planning layer that decides what gets ordered and when.
Control
Approve, receive, reconcile
Approve the drafts that are right, receive against the PO, and watch the records update. Pull a materials-on-hand or shortage report without rebuilding it in Excel.
Who runs this
Do you need full MRP, or lightweight MRP?
Full MRP earns its complexity when you build multi-level assemblies, schedule finite capacity on machines, and route work orders across a shop floor. If that is you, look at a dedicated MRP or ERP system and budget months to implement it. Lightweight MRP fits the much larger group of small manufacturers whose real problem is materials and purchasing: knowing what components are low, how long suppliers take, and which POs to cut. The honest test is whether your bottleneck is scheduling the build or sourcing the materials. Order3 solves the second, and it solves it in days rather than a quarter.
Fit checklist
Use Order3 when the workflow needs these controls
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Materials and components in one record
Every raw material, component, and finished good carries its own record: quantity on hand, location, supplier, cost, and lead time. The materials side of MRP starts with knowing what you actually have.
-
Demand-driven reorder points
Set the level where each material needs reordering, by item and by location. Order3 watches stock against those levels and flags what is heading for a shortage before the line feels it.
-
Supplier lead times that match reality
Record the real days each supplier takes, including the slow ones. Reorder timing uses the lead time you measured, not the optimistic number on the quote.
-
PO drafts with the reasoning attached
When a material crosses its reorder point, Order3 drafts the purchase order and shows why: the stock level, the usage, the supplier, the lead time. Someone reviews and approves before it goes out.
How it works in Order3
How material requirements planning works in Order3
Order3 starts from the live stock record instead of a forecast nobody trusts. Each material has a reorder point and a supplier lead time. As receiving, consumption, and transfers hit the record, Order3 compares stock against those rules and surfaces what is heading for a shortage. It drafts the purchase order to cover the gap and shows the reasoning, then waits for a person to approve. Receiving closes the loop against the PO, and the movement history makes any later variance traceable. That is the materials-planning core of MRP, running on records your team already keeps.
Feature
Purchasing Agent
Eight items are below reorder point. Two purchase orders are already inbound. The agent prepares a draft with quantities, supplier context, and the calculation behind each line. Nothing goes to a supplier until a person approves it.
Feature
Low-stock alerts
Most low-stock alerts are noise. This one shows up with the lead time factored in, the right owner attached, and a next action one click away. Hand off to the purchasing agent for a draft, request a transfer from another location, or dismiss with a documented reason. Dashboards that nobody opens twice were not the goal.
Feature
Multi-location tracking
Multi-location tracking means you can answer 'where is it' without calling someone. One workspace holds stock across warehouses, retail shops, trucks, jobsites, stockrooms, zones, and bins. Each keeps its own balance. Transfers between locations are first-class events, not adjustments hidden inside a global total.
Feature
AI approvals and activity history
Who approved that reorder? When? What did the agent's original draft look like before it was edited? The activity log answers all three from a single search. Every draft, edit, approval, scan, transfer, and integration sync writes to one read-only stream. The entries can never be modified, only added.
How to choose
What Order3 is not
Order3 does not schedule production, route work orders, plan machine capacity, or explode multi-level nested bills of materials. It does not replace a full ERP for a plant running complex assemblies. What it replaces is the spreadsheet and the guesswork on the materials and purchasing side, with a live record, reorder rules, and approved POs. If you outgrow it and need full scheduling later, the clean inventory and supplier data you build in Order3 is exactly what that system will want to import.
Free tools
Try the math before you commit
Related guides
Read before you switch
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Guide
Reorder points explained: formula, examples, and how to set them
A reorder point is the inventory level that triggers a replenishment order before you stock out. Formula: ROP = (Average Daily Usage × Lead Time in Days) + Safety Stock. Set it for the items where shortages cost a job, a customer, or a margin. Ignore it for the long tail until you have usage data.
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Guide
The safety stock formula: how to calculate it, with worked examples
Safety stock is the buffer inventory you hold above expected demand to absorb usage spikes and supplier delays. The simplest formula: Safety Stock = (Maximum Daily Usage × Maximum Lead Time) − (Average Daily Usage × Average Lead Time). A more precise version uses a Z-score and demand variability. Most small teams should start with the simple one and graduate when the data earns it.
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Guide
What is vendor managed inventory (VMI)?
In vendor managed inventory (VMI), the supplier watches the stock they sell you and decides when to replenish it, instead of waiting for you to notice you're low and cut a PO. It can stop the stockouts that come from nobody owning the count. It can also go quietly wrong when the supplier is working off numbers you can't see and can't check.
MRP software FAQ
What is MRP software?
MRP (material requirements planning) software works out what materials you need to buy and when, based on what you plan to build, what you have in stock, and what is already on order. It nets demand against supply so materials arrive in time for production without tying up cash in overstock.
What is the difference between MRP and ERP?
MRP is the materials and purchasing planning piece. ERP is the wider system that wraps MRP together with accounting, HR, sales, and scheduling on one platform. MRP answers what to order and when; ERP runs the whole business. Order3 covers the MRP materials layer and connects to QuickBooks or Xero for the finance side.
Is Order3 a full MRP system?
No, and it does not pretend to be. Order3 is lightweight MRP: it plans materials and purchasing from live stock, reorder rules, and supplier lead times, and drafts POs for approval. It does not do production scheduling, work-order routing, or multi-level BOM explosion. If you need those, you need a dedicated MRP or ERP.
What is the best MRP software for a small business?
It depends on your bottleneck. If you need finite-capacity scheduling and work orders, look at a dedicated MRP or ERP and plan a long rollout. If your real problem is running short on materials and keeping purchasing under control, lightweight tools like Order3 cost less and set up in days rather than months.
Does Order3 handle bills of materials?
Order3 supports kits and bundles, which cover single-level assemblies: a finished item made of a defined set of components. It does not explode deep multi-level BOM trees the way a full MRP does. For straightforward builds, kits are enough. For nested assembly trees, you need dedicated MRP.
How is MRP different from inventory management software?
Inventory management tells you what you have and where. MRP adds the planning layer that uses demand, lead times, and stock to decide what to order and when. Order3 does both, which is why small manufacturers run it as lightweight MRP instead of bolting a separate planner onto a basic inventory tool.
Adjacent use cases
Try MRP in Order3.
Start with the SKUs, locations, and counts behind the problem. Bring in expert help when the workflow needs integrations, approvals, or agent policy.