Top 5 Software for Breweries
As a brewery owner, you probably already know the critical role that technology plays in brewing the perfect pint.
Tech and beer go hand-in-hand these days, and having the right tech tools in place can make or break the efficiency of the business.
From managing inventory and tracking sales to optimizing brewing processes and keeping customers coming back for more, technology is the secret ingredient that keeps the beer (and profit) flowing.
As experienced brewery accountants, we know a thing or two about the best software for breweries.
Here is our top 5 list of software for breweries that you should consider:
Best Accounting Software for Breweries: Xero
If you’re a regular reader of the U-Nique Accounting blog, this first award will be no surprise. We LOVE Xero. We wrote a 5-part series about how much we love it, which you can catch up on here.
If you’re currently using QuickBooks Online for your brewery, it’s time to stop.
No, seriously. Your profit margins could depend on it.
Xero Accounting lets you customize reports to account for the 13-month calendar that you should be using in your brewery.
Additionally, it can handle your four different business models: manufacturing, distribution, retail, and hospitality.
With Xero, you can organize your costs by prime costs, food and beverage costs, labor costs, controllable costs, and uncontrollable costs. You can run gross and profit margin ratios based on the various verticals of your business, which isn’t possible with other software (unless you fork out thousands of dollars!)
Best Cash Flow Forecasting Software for Breweries: Futrli
When it comes to financial forecasting, Futrli is one of the best tools out there for breweries. With Futrli, you can get a real-time view of your cash flow, allowing you to make more informed decisions about managing your finances.
What sets Futrli apart is its ability to help you create scenarios, such as “what if we expand our taproom?” or “what if we invest in new equipment?” With this tool, you can quickly see the potential impact of different decisions on your bottom line.
Additionally, one of the reasons we made the switch to Futrli is because of its ability to customize the accounting period, which is particularly useful for breweries that use the 13-month calendar. With Futrli, you can easily set up your accounting period to match your brewery’s unique calendar, ensuring that your financial reports are accurate and aligned with your production cycles.
Futrli also integrates with Xero, making it easy to import your financial data and get started right away. Another big thumbs-up from us!
With its intuitive interface and powerful reporting capabilities, Futrli has become an invaluable tool for our brewery owners.
Best Payroll Software for Breweries: Gusto
Let’s be honest, managing payroll can be a headache for any business. But at least with Gusto, things can be a little easier for you and your brewery team.
Why do we love Gusto? Well, it takes the stress out of payroll by automating payments, handling tax filings, and managing deductions like a boss. This gives you more time to focus on what you do best – brewing amazing beer.
Additionally, Gusto isn’t just about payroll. It also helps you set up employee benefits like health insurance and retirement plans. Your team will love the simplicity, and you’ll love having everything in one place.
Best Accounts Payable Software (+ More!) for Breweries: MarginEdge
When you’re running a brewery, keeping track of bills and payments can be a real chore. Luckily, there’s an App for that! Errr, software we mean.
At U-Nique Accounting, we’ve taken all of our clients over to MarginEdge because it’s just that good.
For our brewery clients, it has replaced tools such as Dext (for receipt scanning) and Plooto (for accounts payable), and added invaluable features such as recipe costing and inventory tracking.
Here’s a list of reasons why we recommend using MarginEdge in your business:
- It was built for restaurants and breweries! While most accounting software is built for accountants, MarginEdge was built by restaurant owners, for restaurant owners. And it works equally well for breweries and other small businesses as well!
- You can easily scan bills, forward receipts, and pay vendors
- It easily integrates with your POS System, Xero Accounting System, and more!
- It gives you the ability to do recipe costing. This one is a game-changer! Because it integrates with your POS system, as you sell things throughout the week, MarginEdge will know what has sold and what raw ingredients have gone into the recipe. You can get recipe costing down to an exact science!
- You can analyze spending in a few clicks, and know exactly where costs are going week-to-week.
- It’s cost-friendly. No matter how many bills you have to pay each month, MarginEdge costs a simple flat fee every month. Don’t worry about the bill inflating!
Best Online Bank for Breweries: Relay Financial
Finally, the last software on our list is not technically software, but it is an App! And a really great bank.
We love Relay Financial for a plethora of reasons, which we wrote about in more detail here.
But for starters, it’s designed specifically for small businesses.
Here are a few perks:
- You can create up to 20 individual checking accounts to organize expenses, income, and cash reserves (you can create a digital envelope or Profit First system!)
- You can easily create physical or virtual cards with designated spending limits. For example, you can create a Marketing card that’s only used for marketing expenses.
- There is no criteria for business size in order to open an account
- No monthly account fees
- No overdraft fees
- Free ACH payments! That’s right… stop being charged with every supplier payment!
- They integrate easily with Xero, QuickBooks, Gusto, and more
Relay Financial is such a great option for breweries and is ideal for any small businesses with 1 to 100 employees.
Best POS & Inventory Tracking Software: The one that…
You like!
No, really.
Whether it’s Ekos, Square, or another POS or inventory tracking software, we prefer our brewery clients to work with the one they like… as long as it integrates easily with other software.
And this is a big “as long as”.
As accountants, we’re not too concerned about which inventory tracking software you use.
However, we DO care that it integrates seamlessly with the rest of your systems and software.
Life is too short (and days are too busy) to worry about manually entering data or having inaccurate data across systems.
As a business owner, integration and automation are your best friends.
If you’re wondering if your current setup is a good fit for the rest of the software we’ve mentioned on this list, we’ll be happy to help advise. Just keep scrolling to the bottom of this blog and book a complimentary call with one of our accountants.
Need Help Implementing New Software in Your Brewery?
When it comes to implementing new technology in your brewery, there’s one crucial thing to keep in mind: all your brewery software should integrate and “talk” to each other.
There’s no point in having disconnected technology that requires you to manually enter data or make duplicate entries.
It’s one of the most important things we help our brewery clients with as soon as they sign on.
So, how can you remove the manual work in your business and ensure that your financial data is accurate and streamlined?
If you’d like help implementing new software at your brewery, or have a question about your existing tech stack, you can book a complimentary call with our accountants anytime.
We’re here to help!
Use our calendar to book a time here.
What software do you love for your brewery? We’d love to hear.
Until next time!
