Fuse Manufacturing
Consultant Documents · 04 of 05 · Ideal client

Who this is for, and who it isn't

A qualification guide for the first conversation — the shape of a client Fuse fits, the ones that need care, and the ones to walk away from before anybody writes a proposal.

The shape

In one sentence

A company that makes physical things, keeps its books in Intacct, and has people on a factory floor who should never be given an Intacct login.

If all three are true, the conversation is worth having. If the middle one is not true, there is no conversation — Fuse exists to sit beside Intacct, and has no purpose without it.

Reading the room

Signals

Strong fit
  • Production is recorded after the fact — on paper, on a whiteboard, or in a spreadsheet keyed in later by someone who was not on the floor.
  • Bills of materials already exist, even informally. The recipes are known; they are just not enforced anywhere.
  • Stock is held in more than one place, and moves between them during a normal week.
  • There is work in progress that nobody can value mid-month without asking someone.
  • The finance team is protective of Intacct and has already refused to hand out logins to the factory.
  • Somebody has said the words “we bought material we already had” in the last quarter.
  • A physical count produces surprises, and the surprises are argued about rather than explained.
  • The client has started looking at manufacturing ERP, and finance is quietly dreading it.
Workable, but scope it properly
  • Lot or serial traceability is mandatory. Fully supported and built in from the start, but it changes the shape of every movement, so counters and operators need real training, not a demo.
  • Bin-level tracking in Intacct. Supported, but the client's Intacct bin configuration has to be clean before transfers of those items will post. Audit it before committing to a date.
  • Receiving, counting or dispatch is wanted on day one. Each is a tier three build. Perfectly reasonable to sell — but quote it as development, not configuration.
  • Heavy subcontracting. Material out and finished work back is a build, and the value while it is away needs a decision from the client's accountant first.
  • Multi-entity. Fuse is one instance per Intacct company. A group running several companies runs several instances, which is a commercial conversation before it is a technical one.
  • Very high transaction volume. Every movement is a live gateway call. Worth sizing against the client's actual daily count rather than assuming.
Not a fit
  • They want one system of record. Fuse's entire premise is two systems with one owner of the truth. A client who wants everything in one place wants a different product.
  • They want to move the books off Intacct. There is nothing here for them, and saying so early protects the relationship.
  • Process manufacturing with co-products. A run that yields several valuable outputs is refused today rather than guessed at. It is buildable, but it is not a today answer.
  • Distribution only, no production. Much of the value is in the making. Without it, the case is thinner and honestly made thinner.
  • Nobody owns the project internally. Fuse configures itself from Intacct, but it cannot decide how a client wants to run their floor. That still needs a person.
First call

Eight questions that qualify a manufacturer

These are ordered so the disqualifying ones come first. Each is answerable by an operations person without preparation.

  1. How does a finished item get from the factory into Intacct today, and who does it?Names the gap and the person currently filling it.
  2. How long after production actually happens does the system know about it?Hours is a nice-to-have. Days or weeks is a live problem with a cost attached.
  3. If I asked for your stock figure right now, would you trust it enough to sell against?The answer is usually a pause, and the pause is the sale.
  4. How many places do you hold stock, and how often does it move between them?Sizes the transfer volume and tells you whether bins matter.
  5. Do your bills of materials exist anywhere the system can read?Determines whether implementation starts with data entry or configuration.
  6. Who receives goods today, and where do they stand when they do it?Establishes whether receipting stays in Intacct or becomes a tier three build.
  7. Do you need to trace a batch back to the materials that went into it?Turns lot and serial tracking from an assumption into a decision.
  8. How many people would need to record something, and would you give any of them an Intacct login?Sizes the user count and confirms the premise of the whole product in one answer.
Pace

What makes an implementation fast

Fuse reads its own configuration out of Intacct, so the usual setup work largely disappears. What is left is the client's own house in order:

Clean item and warehouse data in Intacct
Fuse mirrors what is there. It does not tidy it, and a mess mirrors faithfully.
Bills of materials that reflect what is actually made
The single largest variable. A client with maintained recipes moves quickly; a client whose recipes live in three people's heads has a project before the project.
Tracking flags decided before the first movement
Lot, serial and bin settings cannot be changed once stock has moved against an item. Decide once, early.
An operations owner who can make decisions
Where WIP sits, who confirms a run, what needs approval. Small decisions, but nobody else can make them.
In one line

If finance is defending Intacct and operations is running on paper, the client is already living the problem Fuse solves.

They are usually relieved to hear the books do not have to move.