Inventory management software: standalone app or ERP?

A standalone inventory app fits a product business with one location, no lot or serial tracking, and books that already close in QuickBooks or Xero. A second warehouse, batch tracking, or freight that belongs in inventory value is where that app starts to need a second system. As of October 2026, Zoho Inventory Standard is USD 29 per organization per month on annual billing (500 orders, 3 users, 2 locations). Business Central Essentials is USD 80 per user per month in the US and CAD 108.50 in Canada, and it already includes finance. Odoo Inventory by itself is USD 0 until a second app is installed.

The rest of this page prices that fork. List prices below are the October 2026 vendor lists. They move, and several vendors bill per organization while Odoo and Business Central bill per user. Compare a year of subscriptions plus the work to open the books, using your own site count and order volume.

When a standalone inventory app is enough

Use two questions. How hard is the stock (sites, lots or serials, landed cost, manufacturing)? How many systems have to agree before finance can close (an inventory app plus accounting, or one ERP database)?

A cloud inventory app is the smaller buy when all of these are true for the next year:

1. Stock lives in one location, or in two locations that only need a quantity on hand.
2. You do not need serial, batch, or expiry control to ship or to recall.
3. Freight, duty, and brokerage can stay as expenses in the accounting file. They do not have to land on the item and flow into cost of goods.
4. Order, user, and item counts sit inside a plan on the public price list, with room for a busy quarter.
5. The accounting product you already pay for can stay, and the sync only has to push summaries.

The ERP inventory module wins when two or more of those fail. Business Central posts freight and duty onto inventory value and then into cost of goods. Odoo includes Inventory and Accounting on Standard and Custom once you leave the one-app plan. You still pay for users and for implementation. Stock and the ledger then share one database, so a shipment and its cost post together.

How the same company lands on either side

• One site, no lots, item and user counts inside a small plan, accounting sync optional (Published list, October 2026: Sortly Advanced USD 49 per month (500 unique items, 2 users). Year one on annual billing is USD 24 per month, billed at USD 288 · Read: App is enough if QuickBooks Online can wait. That sync starts on Sortly Premium)
• QuickBooks Online sync for a catalog and stock counts (Published list, October 2026: Sortly Premium USD 299 per month (5,000 unique items, 8 users), or USD 149 per month in year one (USD 1,788 for the year) · Read: You are paying the top self-serve tier for the connector)
• Up to 500 orders a month, 3 users, 2 locations, no serials (Published list, October 2026: Zoho Inventory Standard USD 29 per organization per month, billed annually · Read: Serial and batch tracking start on Premium at USD 79)
• Serial or batch, up to 4 locations and 3,000 orders a month (Published list, October 2026: Zoho Premium USD 79 per organization per month, 5 users, 500 bins per location · Read: Extra locations are USD 10 each. Advanced warehousing is USD 124.17)
• One warehouse with batch and expiry, accounting in Xero or QuickBooks Online (Published list, October 2026: Cin7 Core Standard USD 349 per month, 5 users, 6,000 sales orders a year · Read: Standard warehouse management is one warehouse location. Advanced multi-warehouse rules are excluded on this plan)
• Several warehouses, with pick rules still to design (Published list, October 2026: Cin7 Core Pro USD 599 per month (10 users, 24,000 orders a year). Advanced warehouse management is an add-on here and included on Advanced at USD 1,199 · Read: Budget the tier that includes the warehouse rules you will enforce)
• Unlimited warehouses, no lot traceability yet (Published list, October 2026: Fishbowl Growth USD 429 per month billed annually, 5 users · Read: Lot and forward or backward traceability start on the Scale plan, USD 729 (10 users). Essentials at USD 229 is 2 users and excludes manufacturing)
• Make-to-stock or light assembly, one stock location (Published list, October 2026: Katana Core from USD 299 per month, unlimited users and SKUs, one location included · Read: Traceability is USD 249 per month. Warehouse management is USD 149. Manufacturing management is USD 199)
• Inventory only, unlimited users, nothing else installed (Published list, October 2026: Odoo One App Free USD 0 on Odoo Online · Read: Installing another app moves the database to Standard. Accounting is that moment)
• Stock, purchasing, and the ledger in one database, no manufacturing (Published list, October 2026: Business Central Essentials USD 80 per user per month (US, paid yearly) or CAD 108.50 (Canada, plus tax) · Read: Premium (USD 110 or CAD 149.20) adds service management and manufacturing. Do not assume it is required for warehouses alone)

For one site and no lots, Zoho Standard or Sortly Advanced is usually the coherent buy. Two warehouses plus freight that should change margin is already ERP territory, even if this month's order count would fit a USD 29 plan.

What cloud inventory apps charge as of October 2026

These are organization or account prices, not per-user ERP prices. Taxes are excluded on the pages that say so. Annual Zoho figures are the ones to budget. A NerdWallet roundup updated 9 July 2026 still lists Zoho tiers at USD 39, USD 99, USD 159, and USD 299 per month. Zoho's own annual list in October 2026 is USD 29, USD 79, USD 129, and USD 249. Use the vendor page for a quote.

Zoho Inventory, billed per organization

• Free (Annual price: USD 0 · Caps that change the buy: 50 orders, 1 user, 1 location)
• Standard (Annual price: USD 29 per month · Caps that change the buy: 500 orders a month, 3 users, 2 locations)
• Premium (Annual price: USD 79 per month · Caps that change the buy: 3,000 orders, 5 users, 4 locations, 500 bins per location, serial and batch tracking)
• Plus (Annual price: USD 129 per month · Caps that change the buy: 7,500 orders, 10 users, 6 locations)
• Enterprise (Annual price: USD 249 per month · Caps that change the buy: 15,000 orders, 10 users, 10 locations, 5,000 bins per location)

Annual add-ons, per organization per month: users USD 7.50, 500 extra orders USD 7.50, locations USD 10, advanced warehousing USD 124.17. The page offers a 14-day trial and says there is no contract. Prices exclude local taxes. Zoho's currency selector can show other currencies. The list above is the USD list. Ask for a CAD quote. Do not convert these dollars yourself.

Assume annual billing, one organization, October 2026 list prices. You have 8 people who log in, batch tracking, and 4 locations.

• Premium already includes 5 users, 4 locations, and serial or batch tracking, at USD 79.
• Three extra users are 3 times USD 7.50, which is USD 22.50.
• The seat-and-tracking total is USD 101.50 per month, or USD 1,218 for the year.
• If you also need the advanced warehousing add-on, add USD 124.17. The year becomes USD 79 plus USD 22.50 plus USD 124.17, times 12, which is USD 2,708.04.

That year still does not include QuickBooks, Xero, or a person to reconcile them. Premium's order cap is 3,000 a month. Past that, order blocks are USD 7.50 per 500 orders, or you step up to Plus at USD 129 before add-ons.

Sortly, billed by unique items and users

• Free (Monthly list: USD 0 · Year-one annual offer: USD 0 · What you get: 100 unique items, 1 user)
• Advanced (Monthly list: USD 49 · Year-one annual offer: USD 24 per month, billed USD 288 · What you get: 500 items, 2 users)
• Ultra (Monthly list: USD 149 · Year-one annual offer: USD 74 per month, billed USD 888 · What you get: 2,000 items, 5 users, purchase orders)
• Premium (Monthly list: USD 299 · Year-one annual offer: USD 149 per month, billed USD 1,788 · What you get: 5,000 items, 8 users, QuickBooks Online integration)

After year one, yearly plans keep a 20% discount. Enterprise is quote-only from 10,000 unique items and 12 users, and it includes API access and webhooks. NerdWallet's July 2026 page matches these monthly Sortly amounts and notes that QuickBooks integration requires Premium.

Sortly is a catalog and stock-count tool with a hard item ceiling. A retailer that crosses 2,000 unique items loses Ultra and lands on Premium if QuickBooks Online has to see the stock. Purchase orders appear at Ultra, so a shop that buys from suppliers and only has Advanced still places those orders somewhere else.

Cin7 Core, Fishbowl, and Katana

Cin7 publishes Standard at USD 349 per month (5 users, 6,000 sales orders a year, 2 ecommerce or app integrations), Pro at USD 599 (10 users, 24,000 orders a year, 4 integrations, MRP included), and Advanced at USD 1,199 (15 users, 120,000 orders a year, 6 integrations). Taxes are excluded. Omni is quote-only and lists 8 users. The accounting integrations named on the plan table are Xero or QuickBooks Online. Batch and expiration tracking and standard assembly are included from Standard. API, the B2B portal, and POS are add-ons.

Read Cin7's warehouse line before the location line. Standard warehouse management supports one warehouse location. Advanced warehouse management, which Cin7 describes as multiple warehouse locations and FIFO or FEFO pick enforcement, is excluded on Standard, an add-on on Pro, and included on Advanced. Unlimited inventory locations on the Standard marketing line is a different claim from that warehouse-management limit. If you run two buildings with enforced pick rules, budget Pro plus the add-on, or Advanced at USD 1,199 per month (USD 14,388 for a year of software alone).

Fishbowl cloud plans, USD, billed annually: Essentials USD 229 per month (2 users, QuickBooks Online and Xero sync, reorder points, mobile barcode, no manufacturing), Growth USD 429 (5 users, pick, receive, and ship, automated reordering, multichannel, unlimited warehouses), Scale USD 729 (10 users, lot and forward or backward traceability). Advanced Manufacturing starts at USD 675 per month and Advanced Warehouse at USD 595, both quoted by users and deployment. The manufacturing plan lists job, labor, and landed costing plus lot and batch traceability. A customer on Fishbowl's pricing page says "We've seen an 18% decrease in overall inventory costs since starting to use Fishbowl." That figure is the customer's statement on Fishbowl's page. Check it against your own items before you put a savings rate in a budget.

Katana Core starts at USD 299 per month with unlimited users and unlimited SKUs. One inventory location is included. Extra locations are usage. The Free plan allows 30 SKUs and unlimited users and locations, with a 15-day window to test unlimited SKUs. On Core, traceability (batch and serial) is USD 249 per month, warehouse management is USD 149, and manufacturing management is USD 199. A buyer who needs all three add-ons is at USD 299 plus USD 249 plus USD 149 plus USD 199, which is USD 896 per month before extra locations, or USD 10,752 for the year. Katana says a typical implementation is within six weeks. Advantage is custom. One customer on that pricing page says "Katana allowed us to consolidate everything into one platform. We know what our inventory is at the central hub, and it pushes out to every other location." Read it as a multi-site manufacturing story, then ask how extra locations are metered on Core, because the list includes one.

What Odoo and Business Central charge when finance is included

Both products bill per user. A five-person warehouse and a 40-person company do not share a single organization fee.

Odoo: free until the second app

As of October 2026 the Odoo pricing page shows two live amounts for each paid plan, plus older amounts still struck through. The footnote says the discount is valid for 12 months for the initial users ordered. Budget both live amounts, and apply that discount only to the initial users.

• One App Free (Live amounts (USD per user per month): USD 0 · What changes: One app, unlimited users, Odoo Online. Dependent apps that the chosen app needs are included)
• Standard (Live amounts (USD per user per month): USD 31.10 and USD 38.90 · Still shown, struck through: USD 24.90 and USD 31.10 · What changes: All apps, including Inventory and Accounting. Odoo Online only)
• Custom (Live amounts (USD per user per month): USD 61.00 and USD 76.20 · Still shown, struck through: USD 49.00 and USD 61.10 · What changes: Adds Odoo.sh, on-premise, Studio, multi-company, and external API. Odoo.sh hosting is extra)
• Light User (Live amounts (USD per user per month): USD 8.90 · What changes: Includes Inventory Barcode Operator, time off, expenses, and the other personal apps listed on the price page, plus readonly Knowledge. An advisor quotes it. Checkout does not sell it)

Installing an additional app moves a free database to Standard. Adding companies or Studio moves it to Custom. Implementation is not included in the subscription. Companies under 50 employees are pointed to Success Packs. Above 50 employees, Odoo points buyers to a partner.

Assume 8 Standard users, all full users, initial order, discount still inside 12 months. The two live monthly totals are 8 times USD 31.10, which is USD 248.80, and 8 times USD 38.90, which is USD 311.20. A year at those rates is USD 2,985.60 or USD 3,734.40 before any pack. Four barcode-only people at the published Light User amount add 4 times USD 8.90, which is USD 35.60 per month, if an advisor will sell those seats at list. Confirm the barcode scope on the quote. The Light User description includes Inventory Barcode Operator. It does not say those seats replace a buyer, a controller, or an inventory planner.

The Inventory app page says the product supports serial numbers, lots, packaging, reservation strategies, cycle counting, multi-warehouse and multi-company lookup, min-max, make-to-order, and master production schedule replenishment, plus wave, cluster, and batch picking. Valuation can be perpetual or periodic, and it supports FIFO, average price, LIFO, and standard price. The same page says the first app is free forever with unlimited users. One customer there says "Odoo Inventory replaced our legacy spreadsheets which were unable to keep up with our growing business." Another says "The biggest benefits we realized were saving time by using a simpler system, and greater overall accessibility to our inventory." Those are vendor-published comments. The operational point is narrower: the free plan holds inventory features until Accounting, or any second app, is installed. Our Odoo Inventory module guide walks through what that app covers, and the inventory valuation methods page is the one to read before you pick FIFO or average on a live database.

Have the freight workflow shown on a receipt from your own file. The inventory marketing page confirms valuation methods. Watch a freight bill hit a posted receipt and see whether on-hand value and cost of goods both move.

Business Central: finance is already in the license

US list prices, paid yearly, from Microsoft's US pricing page: Essentials USD 80 per user per month, Premium USD 110, Team Members USD 8. Essentials is described as finance, sales, and operations, with Copilot included. Premium adds service management and manufacturing. Team Members is limited read, approval, and selected create or update. A 30-day trial is free. Microsoft says displayed prices are informational and the checkout price can differ by currency, country, and region.

Canada list prices, paid yearly, plus applicable tax, from the Canada pricing page: Essentials CAD 108.50 per user per month, Premium CAD 149.20, Team Members CAD 10.90.

Assume 6 Essentials users and 4 Team Members, paid yearly, October 2026 list, before any partner services.

• United States: 6 times USD 80 is USD 480, plus 4 times USD 8 is USD 32, so USD 512 per month and USD 6,144 per year.
• Canada: 6 times CAD 108.50 is CAD 651, plus 4 times CAD 10.90 is CAD 43.60, so CAD 694.60 per month and CAD 8,335.20 per year, plus tax.

Count a Team Member only after you read the limited-rights description against that person's job. A picker who must create warehouse entries all day may need Essentials. Premium's published addition is service management and manufacturing. A distributor that does not run the shop floor can price Essentials and then prove item tracking and item charges in a trial. We implement that path as a Business Central rollout, phased around the workflows you post each week.

Item tracking covers serial, lot, and package numbers on inbound and outbound documents, transfer orders, opening balances, and reclassification journals. The page was updated 17 June 2026. The mobile app can scan 1D and 2D barcodes into item-tracking fields.

Where standalone plans break

Published caps are what force the second project.

Locations

Zoho Standard includes 2 locations, Premium 4, Plus 6, Enterprise 10, and each extra location is USD 10 per month on annual billing. Katana Core includes one location and bills the rest as usage. Cin7's advanced multi-warehouse management waits until Pro (as an add-on) or Advanced (included). Fishbowl Growth lists unlimited warehouses at USD 429 per month, and lot traceability waits until Scale. If you have opened a second building, write down whether that building needs bins, pick enforcement, and lots. Those three show up on different tiers.

Lots, serials, and expiry

Zoho places serial and batch tracking on Premium at USD 79. The USD 29 Standard plan lists orders, users, and locations, and it stops there. Sortly's public tiers are organized by unique item count. Cin7 includes batch and expiration tracking from Standard, then charges more when pick enforcement across warehouses (FIFO or FEFO) enters the design. Fishbowl lots start on the Scale plan, USD 729 per month. Katana traceability is a USD 249 add-on on top of Core. Odoo and Business Central include lot and serial behavior in the product descriptions above, so the constraint is licenses and setup hours.

Landed cost that reaches the ledger

Business Central is the product whose public docs show freight and duty reaching inventory value. Item charges put freight, customs duty, insurance, and handling onto that value. Charges can be split equally, by amount, by weight, or by volume, including onto a later invoice against a posted receipt. Posting creates a value entry. It does not create a new item ledger entry. If the item was already sold, Adjust Cost - Item Entries must be run before cost of goods picks up the extra charge. On standard-cost items the charge posts as a purchase variance and does not change the standard unit cost. That page was updated 21 July 2026.

Fishbowl's Advanced Manufacturing plan is the standalone list that names landed costing, and it starts at USD 675 per month as a separate product from Inventory Essentials, Growth, and Scale. Essentials at USD 229 covers the QuickBooks sync. Landed cost on that price list is the manufacturing plan.

Manufacturing

Price a manufacturing plan on purpose. Cin7 Pro includes MRP at USD 599 per month. Katana's manufacturing add-on is USD 199 on top of Core. Fishbowl Advanced Manufacturing starts at USD 675 and is quoted by users and deployment. Business Central Premium is USD 110 per user per month in the US, or CAD 149.20 in Canada, and the published addition over Essentials is service management and manufacturing. Odoo Standard already includes all apps, so manufacturing users pay the same per-user amounts as inventory users. The extra cost shows up in Success Pack hours.

Retail counters and POS

NerdWallet's roundup treats Square and Lightspeed as inventory that lives inside a point-of-sale product, beside pure inventory apps. That is a third path when the till catalog is the stock record. Once purchase orders, a second location, or QuickBooks Online enter the requirement, the priced evidence is Sortly and Zoho: purchase orders on Sortly Ultra, QuickBooks Online on Sortly Premium, and a second Zoho location already inside Standard's cap of two.

What you type twice when accounting stays separate

Cin7's published accounting path is Xero or QuickBooks Online. Sortly's QuickBooks Online integration starts on Premium. Fishbowl sells QuickBooks Online and Xero sync from Essentials upward, and the books still live in those products. The subscription you see on the inventory page is the stock system. The ledger is a second contract, a second login, and a second month-end.

These are the movements teams re-key or re-check when the sync is partial:

1. Vendor bills versus item receipts. The bill hits accounts payable. The receipt hits quantity. Freight on the bill often sits in an expense account while the inventory app still holds the item at vendor price.
2. Customer invoices versus shipments. Revenue can post without the shipment relieving stock, or the shipment can relieve stock before the invoice exists. Someone clears the difference in a spreadsheet.
3. Adjustments and cycle counts. A quantity change in the app needs a journal in the accounting file if the connector does not post one. Miss it and the balance sheet inventory account drifts from the warehouse.
4. Landed cost. Duty and freight paid later stay off the item, so margin by SKU and cash diverge. In Business Central the value entry sits in the same product as the receipt, and cost of goods updates after Adjust Cost - Item Entries when the goods have already shipped.
5. Items and prices. A new SKU created in the inventory app and a matching item in QuickBooks are two records. Renames, units of measure, and tax codes drift.

Odoo removes that split only after you leave One App Free. Standard and Custom include Accounting and Inventory together. Until that install, a free inventory database has the same double-entry shape as any other stock app: quantities in Odoo, journals somewhere else.

Assume a 25-person wholesaler, 4 Zoho Premium users, annual list, and a bookkeeper who spends 6 hours a month tying receipts to bills. Software is USD 79 per month, USD 948 for the year. The 6 hours are payroll on top of that subscription. If those hours exist because freight never reaches the item, Business Central Essentials for 4 users is 4 times USD 80, which is USD 320 per month and USD 3,840 per year in the US, or 4 times CAD 108.50, which is CAD 434 per month and CAD 5,208 per year in Canada, plus tax. The ERP license year is larger, and it includes a value entry for the freight bill. Multiply the 6 hours by a loaded rate and compare that total with USD 3,840, or with CAD 5,208 plus tax.

What sits on top of the subscription

The monthly fee is the license. Opening balances, items, locations, and training are a separate purchase on every product in this set.

Odoo Success Packs for new customers, with 15% off the first pack, list at USD 493 (Starter, 4 hours), USD 3,060 (Basic, 25 hours), USD 5,950 (Standard, 50 hours), USD 10,625 (Custom, 100 hours), and USD 21,250 (Pro, 200 hours). Once that first-pack discount is used, the same hour blocks list at USD 580 (4 hours), USD 3,600 (25 hours), USD 7,000 (50 hours), USD 12,500 (100 hours), and USD 25,000 (200 hours). The estimator includes a Logistics scope (Procurements, Inventory). The Pro pack is 200 hours at USD 21,250 for new customers. Odoo says 80% of projects in that estimator scope go to production in 200 hours or less, and labels the figure as its own. Odoo also claims a 98% implementation success rate with a pack versus 65% without, and labels that figure as its own. A 4-hour Starter is a different engagement from a logistics go-live.

Put the pack next to the license. Eight Standard users at the two live rates cost USD 2,985.60 or USD 3,734.40 for a year. A new-customer Standard pack is USD 5,950 for 50 hours. The first-year cash outlay at list is USD 8,935.60 or USD 9,684.40. Those totals use Standard, so they leave out Odoo.sh. Custom users pay the higher per-user amounts, and Odoo.sh hosting is extra. Companies above 50 employees are directed to a partner, so a 60-person manufacturer should ask for a named team and an hour estimate. The pack menu is written for the under-50 band.

Fishbowl says an implementation package is required with purchase. It includes data migration excluding history, and a 6 to 8 week training certification. The package price is not on the pricing page. Budget the cloud plan (Growth at USD 429 per month is USD 5,148 for a year, billed annually) and ask for the package in writing before you compare Fishbowl with a license-only ERP quote.

Katana's pricing page says Core onboarding is USD 2,000 in one table and included in another. Keep both in the file you send to finance. Katana says a typical implementation falls within six weeks. If onboarding is USD 2,000, Core plus traceability is USD 299 plus USD 249, times 12, plus USD 2,000, which is USD 8,576 in year one before extra locations. If onboarding is included, drop the USD 2,000. Do not average the two claims.

Business Central services are not on the Microsoft price list. The pages above are licenses. Any year-one total that contains only USD 80 or CAD 108.50 is a license total. Ask each bidder to separate licenses, data load, and training. On a bounded inventory and ledger scope, we plan the first usable phase to finish in 8 to 12 weeks. Manufacturing, multi-company, or a messy item master moves that planning window.

What a later move costs in data and overlap

Buying the app now and the ERP eighteen months later is a second project. Price each part of the move as its own line in the bid. A single migration row hides the parts that take the time.

Ask each bidder to price these lines on their own:

1. Opening item quantities and costs, by location, as of a cutoff date you both sign.
2. Open purchase orders and open sales orders. History of closed orders is optional and should be its own line. Fishbowl's required package already excludes history.
3. Lot, serial, and expiry balances. If the old app never stored them, the ERP cannot invent them. You will start tracking on the next receipt.
4. Open vendor bills that still need to land on inventory. Business Central can assign an item charge to an already posted receipt. Someone still has to decide which receipts receive which freight bills.
5. The chart of accounts mapping: inventory asset, receipts not invoiced, cost of goods, and variance. This is the piece a file export does not finish.
6. A parallel count. One weekend of cycle counts on the A items, with the old app frozen, is the check that opening quantities match a physical count.

Odoo under 50 employees can attach that work to a Success Pack: 25, 50, 100, or 200 hours at the new-customer prices above. The Standard pack is 50 hours at USD 5,950 for new customers. Odoo says 80% of that logistics scope go to production in 200 hours or less, and labels the figure as its own. Get an hour estimate for a messy catalog against the Custom pack (100 hours, USD 10,625) or the Pro pack (200 hours, USD 21,250). Above 50 employees, Odoo directs buyers to a partner for Success Packs. Take the same line items to the implementer you choose, and ask for a named team, hours, and database export terms.

On Business Central, item tracking supports opening balances with serial, lot, and package numbers. That helps the lot line. It does not set the day rate. Opening-balance effort depends on item count, duplicate descriptions, and units of measure. The quote must show the day rate and the item count.

The licenses overlap while you count and cut over. A year of Zoho Premium at USD 79 is USD 948. A year of Cin7 Standard at USD 349 is USD 4,188. A year of Fishbowl Growth at USD 429 is USD 5,148, plus the required package. You pay that year, and you pay the first year of Odoo or Business Central when you move. Ask each bidder how many months of dual subscription the count and cutover need. If you already need lots or landed cost, the old subscription can run a full extra year before the new system posts a single receipt.

How a 20 to 100 person product company should choose

Decide in this order.

1. Write the operational test in numbers. Count locations, monthly orders, unique items, and whether lots, serials, or expiry change a shipment. Note whether freight and duty should change item value.
2. Put the test on the cap table. If Zoho Standard's 500 orders, 3 users, and 2 locations cover you, and you have no lots, stay there and review at renewal. If you need QuickBooks Online inside Sortly, you are already on Premium. If you need Cin7's multi-warehouse pick rules, you are on Pro plus an add-on or on Advanced.
3. Add the accounting product. If Xero or QuickBooks Online remains the ledger, add that subscription and the hours you re-key. If those hours come from freight, margin, or a second warehouse, price Odoo Standard for the user count you will log in (both live per-user amounts) or Business Central Essentials (USD 80 or CAD 108.50).
4. Add implementation as its own number. Odoo packs are published. Fishbowl's package is required and unpublished. Katana's onboarding figure disagrees with itself. Business Central services are quoted. A quote with a single monthly fee is not comparable to a quote with licenses plus a 50-hour pack.
5. Name the people. For any ERP bid, ask who configures inventory, who loads opening balances, and how many hours each role has. References should be companies of a similar size with more than one location if that is your case. Keep the database and the customizations in your name.
6. Phase the first release. Inventory quantities, purchasing, and the inventory accounts are a complete first phase for many distributors. Manufacturing, a web store, and a second company can wait. Odoo points companies under 50 employees at Success Packs and larger companies at a partner. Ask for the phase plan, the named people, and the hours either way.

We do this work on both Odoo and Business Central for product companies in the US and Canada. The supply chain implementation page is the overview of how stock, purchasing, and the ledger move in phases. If you already know the product, the Odoo implementation approach shows how a rollout is cut into releases you can run the business on.

Bring the fit-check answers, last month's order count, and a freight bill that did not make it onto an item. We will tell you which path matches that evidence, and what the first phase should leave out.

How Flectic can help

Flectic implements Dynamics 365 for companies on Microsoft 365 that need inventory and finance on one ledger, including teams that have outgrown QuickBooks or Sage. At Microsoft's 2026 list prices, which are separate from Flectic fees, Business Central Essentials is $80 per user a month and Premium is $110. Compare that total with your current subscription, then review the Dynamics 365 implementation and Book a free discovery call with Flectic.

Sources

• Odoo Pricing, Odoo, October 2026
• Odoo Success Packs, Odoo, October 2026
• Inventory management software, Odoo, October 2026
• Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing (US), Microsoft, October 2026
• Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing (Canada), Microsoft, October 2026
• Track items with serial, lot, and package numbers, Microsoft Learn, June 2026
• Use item charges to account for extra trade costs, Microsoft Learn, July 2026
• Zoho Inventory pricing, Zoho, October 2026
• Cin7 Pricing, Cin7, October 2026
• Sortly pricing, Sortly, October 2026
• Katana pricing, Katana, October 2026
• Fishbowl pricing, Fishbowl, October 2026
• Best Inventory Management Software of 2026, NerdWallet, July 2026