Katana Cloud Inventory Reviews & Product Details

Loads of new features that make the overall package so much better. The recent real time ingredient picker was a needed feature that delivered well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Pricing has really gotten a bit harsher. Considering that my early critiques were about having more users. We now have unlimited users, but the pricing model is focused on add-ons and per order. While this is good for scalability, the base cost is still a bit high for smaller manufacturing companies. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The software is very intuitive, even during our onboarding process when we were still very new to the system, we were able to practice with the system, and it took almost no time at all for our team to get the hang of it. Also, every employee that we have spoken to thus far has been extremely kind and helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Honestly, there isn't much we don't like about Katana, the system is way better than what we we're using before. I would say the only things that are a bit bothersome is that there are some functions that I'm not sure Katana has. All of them are very small functions though, like the ability to add Net 45 days on Invoices for example. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use Katana Cloud Inventory to track inventory for my fermentation business. It's extremely intuitive and user-friendly, which is really important for us because our team is diverse, with many people who are not used to complex software. It's nice that Katana is easy to train staff on, ensuring that our inventory is accurately tracked and kept up to date. With Ash's help, the initial setup was fairly easy, and even though it took a lot of effort, it was worth it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I think Katana is over-built for our needs. It might be nice to grow into, though. I also think stock adjustments, stocktakes, and stock data uploads are confusing to decide what to use when. We linked it to QuickBooks, but I don't like it. Packing slips and invoices used to include our logo and were flashier, but I haven't figured out how to do that on katana yet. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really like that Katana Cloud Inventory works well for manufacturing, which is essential for our needs. The multi-level BOMs are very helpful to us because we have complex manufacturing processes. I also appreciate the insights feature, which is quite useful for analyzing past data and making forecasts for future ordering and production. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I would like there to be a better system for auto-assembly products. Currently, auto-assembly is only available for kits, not for individual products. The purchase orders (POs) could be improved in multiple ways: you should be able to select the tax code for all items at once, instead of going through them one by one; when ordering cases, it should show the case size and the total amount, rather than just the number of cases, requiring a click into the UoM field; most importantly, you should be able to apply a discount to the total PO and have it be distributed, similarly to applying shipping costs to the whole PO. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like how detailed Katana Cloud Inventory is when it comes to product recipes and inventory tracking. It's nice having everything in one place, from materials to packaging to the final product, which has automated our system and helped prevent us from running out of materials during projects. This prevents us from having to stop production unexpectedly and saves us money. After using Katana Cloud Inventory for about a month, our process is much smoother. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are many things that could be improved. While the production side of Katana is fairly seamless, the sales side has many issues that slow our team down and make it difficult to stay organized. Sorting products is a big problem that we run into with the limited fields Katana provides. In Shopify, we can sort products by type, vendor, category, name, etc., and have a clearer picture of inventory. In Katana, we are limited to sorting by name or SKU, and it's hard to filter out external vendor products or products that we're out of stock for. Additionally, it's hard to create transfers since we're not able to have advanced filters. We have to scroll and scroll through hundreds of products to be able to find and select what we need. Even if we are sorting by SKU, there are other products that show up, creating clutter in the list. Another issue is not having product sync with Shopify until an item is sold. We frequently move product between locations, and this makes our inventory show as out of stock until it's sold. It would be nice to have a more streamlined inventory sync with Shopify, especially since if the inventory doesn't immediately show up, it may appear as out of stock on our online store, keeping customers from purchasing it. Another issue is not being able to bulk edit within Katana. I understand that there are many data export options, but this creates many additional steps to download, edit, and import, all while making sure not to accidentally edit something I didn't mean to. It would be easier and more streamlined to edit within Katana directly and not have many excel sheets to sort through. Overall, user experience could be greatly improved for easier and quicker workflows. Using similar workflows to Shopify would make the integration a lot smoother and reduce the learning curve for our sales teams. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the simplicity of using Katana Cloud Inventory. It's very well thought out. The PO system is very nice, and I appreciate that we can use inventory and quotes all in one place, which makes it a lot easier. It keeps everything organized and integrates with QuickBooks so our inventory is managed correctly. The initial setup was extremely easy, albeit time-consuming. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The customer relations portion of the platform. There is no way to send those quotes through Katana making it harder to track. I also do not like that there are so many add ons that are not included and cost significant amounts. For instance, scanning the items and having to pay for the feature. If we need extra material we have to change that in Katana manually, would be nice to pull what we need in real time. I feel like add ons should not cost the same as the entire subscription. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that Katana Cloud Inventory syncs between Shopify and our QuickBooks. It's helpful for us because it gives us one place that's the point of truth for our inventory, so we don't have to keep multiple systems updated. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The syncing between QuickBooks doesn't quite work as well as we'd like it to. It would also be great if it could sync between Gusto to better track our labor costs. We do have a pretty manual step where we have to reconcile our payroll with the manufacturing orders that actually came through in that period. Honestly, it was pretty challenging, and I'm glad I have a pretty technical background because there was a lot of uploading spreadsheets and maneuvering the data around to get it how Katana wanted it to be. So it took a few months, but we had an excellent experience with our onboarding adviser. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Primary focus for our team was to get off spreadsheets - and while we still use them (hard not to in business) Katana has reduced the number by more than half, significantly saving time and allowing us to redirect energy to growth. The built in native integrations, and support team are key to best performance and ensuring reasonable pricing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The one downside I would mention about Katana is the lack of a 'at a glance' dashboard - to see what is and isn't in stock at the moment. Though, to date, the team has been very responsive, and are quick to develop API apps to assist when needed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really like the ease of use, which is a huge benefit for our team, making it easy to understand and maintain for new users. I also appreciate Katana Cloud Inventory's inventory planning, especially the expected and calculated stock features, which make inventory planning easier and allow our whole team to see when materials are expected to arrive. The initial setup was fairly easy, which was a plus for us. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We would like to see better location and bin management, or at least the ability to sync with our WMS for better location tracking. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that all info can be automatically transferred from other platforms so I don't have to do a lot of manual entry and that the platform is easy to learn and understand. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I wish it was a little more user friendly in terms of being able to navigate, but mostly the biggest issue I have is when a sales order is packed with inventory from more than one lot/batch number, it doesn't seem to be able to pack that correctly and will get stuck after the first lot is assigned and then get stuck being able to pack all the products. I also wish I could adjust things without having to adjust the inventory period after it's closed. I think an inventory period should be an option and not automatic. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.