Why You’re Never too Small for an ERP, Ep. 52

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Almost every shop owner I talk to has told themselves the same story at some point: we are too small for a real ERP, so we will keep running the business on the old system and a pile of Excel spreadsheets. On this episode, I wanted to kill that myth, because the cost of believing it shows up in underpriced jobs, broken handoffs, and a value chain that quietly leaks money from quote to cash.

To dig in, I brought in Jon Hughes, a CFO consultant and principal at CLA, and Brian Schoonover, corporate controller and acting CFO at Turfco, a third-generation manufacturer in Minneapolis. Brian is right in the middle of replacing a system that was implemented back in 1989, so he is living this decision in real time, and Jon sees the pattern across dozens of shops.

We get into the question I hear constantly: am I too small for an ERP? Both of them land on fiction. The point is not that a two-spindle side hustle needs enterprise software tomorrow, it is that the moment you decide to scale, a system built around getting product out the door becomes one of the best investments you can make. Accounting should be the non-event at the end, not the thing the whole system was designed around.

We also spend real time on build versus buy in the age of AI. Everybody has a story about vibe coding an ERP or an instant quoting tool over a weekend. It is impressive, but you give up industry best practices, and you take on security and vulnerability risk you can’t even see. My take is simple: keep your core data secure and built on best practices, then point AI at that data to do the heavy lifting. I used it to crunch a thousand work orders down to the twelve that actually needed my attention.

Then we walk through the part that scares people most, selection and implementation. Brian shares how he built his own RFP, made vendors sell themselves to every department, and started the demo at the back of the building instead of the accounting office. And we both get honest about change management, the ROI math, and the surprise that the real resistance often comes from the front office, not the shop floor.

What’s Covered in this Episode

• (1:00) Meet the guests: Jon Hughes of CLA and Brian Schoonover of Turfco
• (4:08) Buying Hill Manufacturing in 2018 and inheriting a homegrown Access and Excel system
• (5:55) Turfco’s system from 1989 and the transition to an ERP
• (8:21) ERP is not an accounting system: the QuickBooks misconception
• (10:34) How CLA helps manufacturers tap into millions in revenue and cost savings
• (11:12) Selling an ERP change to ownership when they are happy with what they have
• (15:11) Mike’s broken Excel quoting template and the underpriced jobs it caused
• (17:29) Fact or fiction: I am too small to have an ERP, and why both guests say fiction
• (20:33) Acumatica, NetSuite, and Intacct: strip the labels and they are the same class of software
• (22:14) ProShop ERP paid for itself in weeks with per-user pricing. Book a demo at ProShopERP.com
• (23:50) Vibe coding and the security considerations of a homegrown, AI-built system
• (30:38) Using AI on top of a secure ERP to crunch a thousand work orders down to the twelve that matter
• (32:57) Brian’s selection process: building an RFP, starting at the back of the building, and narrowing to four
• (39:49) Check out the Job Shops Workshop and Networking Reception at IMTS
• (42:15) Implementation at the halfway point, and mapping what each department actually does
• (45:43) The ROI math: save an hour per person per month and the SaaS pays for itself
• (51:03) The biggest surprise: the real resistance came from the front office, not the shop floor

Resources Mentioned

• CLAConnect
• ProShopERP
• IMTS
• Acumatica
• Learn more about Brian’s company, Turfco, at Turfco.com

Connect with Jon Hughes and Brian Schoonover

• Connect with Jon Hughes by email at Jon.hughes@claconnect.com or find him on LinkedIn
• Connect with Brian Schoonover by email at bschoonover@turfco.com or find him on LinkedIn
• Explore manufacturing resources from CLA at CLAConnect.com