# Is a dedicated ETO ERP worth the cost for a 20 to 50 person custom fabrication shop?

Is a dedicated ETO ERP worth the cost for a 20 to 50-person custom fabrication shop?

This is a genuine question, not a setup for vendor talking points. At this size, the real alternative is usually some combination of QuickBooks, spreadsheets, a job tracker, and a lot of institutional knowledge sitting in people's heads. The question is where that breaks down badly enough that a dedicated system actually pays for itself.

  1. Total ETO: Reviewers at this scale describe what changed after implementation: BOM releases that do not require manual re-entry, job costing visible in real time rather than at project close, and the ability to accurately price future jobs using historical data. The integration with QuickBooks for AR and AP means you are not replacing financial workflows entirely, just adding what QuickBooks cannot do. At what level of job complexity or volume does the spreadsheet approach become genuinely expensive rather than merely annoying?
  2. Syspro: One long-term reviewer described building a master schedule with full job visibility and WIP floor location tracking, which is the kind of real-time operational picture that spreadsheets fundamentally cannot provide when multiple jobs are moving simultaneously. The Business Objects automation layer is described as what let one manufacturing operation scale significantly without proportionally adding headcount. Does that kind of automation capability justify the investment at 20 to 50 people, or does it become more relevant once you are past that threshold?
  3. Rootstock Cloud ERP: One reviewer described paper production records and spreadsheets being replaced by a single source of truth, with data entry time cut meaningfully in the first month after go-live. The cloud architecture removes on-premise infrastructure cost and complexity. For a small shop where nobody wants to be managing servers, that matters practically. Does the value change significantly depending on whether you are already a Salesforce shop?
  4. Kinetic (Epicor): Covers small to mid-sized manufacturers, with reviewers noting that job tracking, purchasing, and supply-demand coordination are handled in one place. The implementation investment is the variable that reviewers consistently flag as determining whether the ROI timeline is fast or slow. What should a shop realistically budget for implementation relative to its annual licensing costs?

For shops that made this specific switch, was there a job that finally broke the spreadsheet system and forced the decision?

##### Post Metadata - Posted at: 28 days ago - Author title: Writer - Net upvotes: 1 ## Comments ### Comment 1 <p>At 20 to 50 people the honest case for a dedicated ERP usually isn't efficiency, it's that right now the quote logic, the job status, and "what this build actually needs" all live in one or two people's heads. The system's real payoff is making that knowledge survive a vacation, a resignation, or a retirement, so the thing to weigh isn't headcount or volume, it's what happens to your shop the week your estimator is out during a big bid and nobody else can reconstruct the numbers.</p> ##### Comment Metadata - Posted at: 28 days ago - Author title: Tech Consultant ## Related discussions - [How well does Trello scale into a larger team?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/1-how-well-does-trello-scale-into-a-larger-team) - Posted at: over 13 years ago - Comments: 6 - [Can we please add a new section](https://www.g2.com/discussions/2-can-we-please-add-a-new-section) - Posted at: over 13 years ago - Comments: 0 - [Quantifiable benefits from implementing your CRM](https://www.g2.com/discussions/quantifiable-benefits-from-implementing-your-crm) - Posted at: about 13 years ago - Comments: 4