The office competes with the floor
Quoting, purchasing, and invoicing land on the same people running the machines, so one always waits on the other. Whichever loses that week is the one that costs you later.
Industries, Manufacturing
Keep the floor running. We'll run the office.
For laser cutting, fabrication, and precision machining shops, the back office competes with production for the same people. We take quoting support, order to cash, purchasing, and the books, so the floor stays on the floor.
Where the time goes
Quotes built on last year's costs
Quoting sits in a spreadsheet, time sits somewhere else, and the invoice lands in accounting. Nobody closes the loop between what a job was quoted at and what it actually cost, so the same underpriced work keeps coming back.
The system says one thing, the floor says another
Inventory drifts until the number on screen stops meaning anything. People start trusting a walk to the rack over the system, and once that happens the system is decoration.
Rework never reaches the books
The part eventually ships, so the second run of labor and machine time disappears into normal production. The job looks fine on paper and the capacity is gone regardless.
Invoices that cannot be matched
An invoice arrives, receiving was never logged properly, and somebody walks the floor to work out what actually turned up. Multiply that across a month of purchase orders.
An ERP bought and half used
The system went in, the floor kept its paper and spreadsheets, and now you're paying for software while running the shop the old way beside it. This is the most common thing we walk into.
What we run for you
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Order to cash, run properly
Order entry, job setup, invoicing, and collections handled on a set cycle, so cash stops waiting on whoever had a spare hour.
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Job costing that closes the loop
Quoted cost against actual cost, job by job, so you find out which work is worth taking before you quote the next one like it.
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Purchasing and the three way match
Purchase orders, receiving records, and invoices matched before anything gets paid, with discrepancies chased rather than absorbed.
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Inventory that matches the rack
Cycle counting run as a routine with the variances investigated, so the number on screen earns back its credibility.
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The books, current and shop aware
Bookkeeping, payroll, and reporting kept current by people who understand work in progress, scrap, and why a standard cost variance might be noise.
We already know your stack
Most shops we meet aren't missing software. They bought it, got halfway through the rollout, and went back to spreadsheets for the parts that didn't fit. Our team already works in these systems, so we come in, finish the setup properly, bring it to how the industry actually runs it, and then staff it continuously rather than learning on your jobs.
- Shop ERP and MRP Job routing, work orders, and costing configured so the system reflects how your shop really runs, instead of the demo it was bought from.
- Accounting, with or beside the ERP Plenty of shops run a real accounting package next to a lighter MRP tool. We keep both in step so the two never tell different stories.
- Inventory and bills of material BOM accuracy, revision control, and cycle counting handled as ongoing routine rather than an annual panic.
- Shop floor data capture Labor and machine time booked against the right job, because every cost number downstream depends on that one thing being right.
- Quality and document control The documentation an ISO or customer audit expects kept current, so preparing for an audit is a review rather than a scramble.
- EDI and customer portals Customer mandated formats, acknowledgements, and shipping notices handled on time, so a chargeback never arrives for a paperwork miss.
What changes
- Quotes priced on what the work actually costs.
- Inventory numbers the floor is willing to trust.
- Invoices out and cash in without waiting on a spare hour.
- The software you already bought, finally doing its job.
- Audit documentation ready without a scramble.
- The office running without pulling anyone off a machine.
What owners ask about laser and precision manufacturing
Do you work on site?
No. Everything we do happens remotely, inside your own systems. Nobody from us is on the floor. What we take is the office work that competes with production for the same people: quoting support, purchasing, order entry, invoicing, inventory records and the books. We do meet you in person when it makes sense, but the work itself runs in your systems.
Will you work in our ERP, or try to sell us a new one?
We work in what you have. Most shops we meet bought a capable system and use a fraction of it, so the first job is usually making that system do what it was bought for. If it genuinely can't do what you need, we'll say so, but that's the rare case rather than the opening pitch.
Who prices the quote?
You do. We build the cost basis underneath it: material, machine time, labor, outside processes, and the rework that never makes it into the standard. The price itself is yours to set. If the cost basis shows a job is losing money, you hear that from us before it's quoted again, not at year end.
What happens in the first thirty days?
Day one, the agreement is signed and access is set up. In the first week we look at your open orders, your purchasing, your inventory accuracy and how quoted cost compares with actual on recent jobs, then hand you a one page baseline. Weeks two to four we take order entry, purchasing and invoicing, and write the procedure for each. At thirty days you see the baseline against the current numbers and decide what we take next.
What will you never do?
We don't make production decisions and we don't sign off on quality. Scheduling the floor, accepting a part and approving a first article are yours. We don't change a bill of material without your say so. We keep the records straight, and we tell you when what the system says and what the floor says have drifted apart.
Want the office handled?
Book a call and we'll look at your quoting, purchasing, and books, and where we would start.
Book a call
Or write to hello@pptcgroup.com
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We reply within one business day with a written list of what we'd fix.
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