Component tracking and production scheduling

> Cost: Freemium. Katana is free for up to 30 products (SKUs) with all features, unlimited users and the API. Beyond that you need Advantage, a custom annual contract (by quote); traceability, the shop floor app and the AI connector are listed under it.

Honest note: Rule-based manufacturing software, not AI. The 60%, 50% and 30% figures are Katana-published without a baseline, and the story gives the 30% to "system integrations" in general. The Xero sync is manual per order: you click Invoice or Bill, it does not post everything by itself.

Prerequisites

• A Katana account (the free plan works for a pilot of up to 30 SKUs).
• Your product recipes (what goes into each item and how much), current stock counts, and supplier lead times.

Step-by-step setup

Step 1. Load your data and run both systems for a month. Import your products, materials and suppliers by spreadsheet (Katana's import templates), count stock, and enter opening balances. Keep your old system running in parallel until a stock count matches.

Step 2. Set up locations. Go to Settings → Locations → + Add new row, enter the name, legal name and address and tick Make, Sell and/or Buy. Move stock between them with + Create → Stock transfer (or Stock → Inventory → select items → Transfer stock), and stock updates at both ends.

Step 3. Build each product as a recipe. Open Items, open the product card and add its recipe (bill of materials: every material or sub-product and the quantity) and its operations (the manufacturing steps, with production time). Break the process into steps per product, so each step knows what it uses. A sub-product with its own recipe can be an ingredient of the finished product, and Katana can create manufacturing orders for those sub-products automatically.

Step 4. Connect Xero. In Katana open Integrations Marketplace, find Xero, click Connect, sign in to Xero and click Allow access. Then Katana's four-step setup: pick the default status for invoices and bills it creates (Draft, Submitted for approval or Approved); tick whether to sync sales orders, purchase orders or both and choose the Xero revenue and cost accounts; map every Katana tax rate to a Xero tax rate; choose whether to import Xero customers and suppliers; click Done. A new Invoice column appears on the Sell screen and a Bill column on the Buy screen. Only one accounting integration can be connected at a time.

Step 5. Run the master schedule. Open Make → Schedule. Every manufacturing order sits in one list, top = highest priority. Drag an order up or down and Katana instantly re-reserves materials and recalculates production deadlines. The Ingredients column shows In stock, Expected or Not available for each order, so a shortfall is visible before you start. Click Not available to see which material is missing. This reservation by priority is what Katana calls auto-booking: nothing is tied to one order, higher-ranked orders just claim material first.

Step 6. Hand out the work. On Make → Tasks, tasks are listed by resource and operator; set Assigned To (or bulk Assign to) so each person sees theirs. Operators complete tasks in the Shop Floor App, a mobile-friendly web app. Katana's pricing page lists the shop floor app under Advantage, so check your plan.

Easier: let your AI do it

Katana has an official MCP server, a secure plug that lets an AI chat like Claude or ChatGPT read and update your Katana data with your permission. Katana's pricing page lists it under Advantage.

1. The account owner has access by default. To give someone else access, open your profile → Team → pick the user → Admin tab → switch on Access to MCP.
2. In Claude, open Customize → Connectors, click +, then Add custom connector. Name it Katana, paste https://mcp.katanamrp.com (no slash at the end), click Add, then Connect and sign in to Katana. It also works with ChatGPT.
3. Ask things like "Which materials will run short for this week's manufacturing orders?" It can read, create and update records, but it can't delete anything.

What success looks like

You can answer "where is this part and how many" in seconds, and production plans and accounting use the same orders.

Common issues & fixes

• Imported stock looks wrong: run old and new systems side by side for a short time and reconcile with a stock count before you switch off the old one.
• A tax rate is missing in Xero: during setup map every Katana tax rate to a Xero rate, or add a row.
• You switched accounting tools: Katana connects one accounting integration at a time; disconnect before connecting another.

Optional: Maintenance

• Monthly: count a sample of parts per location and fix differences with stock adjustments.

Copy-paste prompt

Use this with any AI chat. It helps you plan your location list and counting routine.

I manufacture [PRODUCT] and keep parts at these places: [LIST]. Help me design a simple stock-count routine: which locations to count, how often, who counts, how to record differences, and a one-page checklist. Keep it under 250 words and do not invent numbers.

Sources

• Case: Katana case study (power-quality device maker). Credit: the maker's production manager (vendor-published).
• Katana pricing
• Katana MCP overview
• Katana Help: Connect Katana to Claude (MCP)
• Katana Help: How to connect Xero to Katana
• Katana Help: How to create locations
• Katana Help: Understanding product recipes (BOMs)
• Katana Help: Make screen (Schedule)
• Katana Help: Assigning tasks to shop floor operators