Frequently asked questions

Food traceability software records the identity, quantity, source and destination of every lot you receive, make and ship, so a batch can be followed forward to every customer and backward to every ingredient. In practice that means a lot number applied at goods in, carried through production, and printed on the case, pallet and delivery note. The value is answering within the hour when a supplier notification lands on a Tuesday afternoon, with an answer that holds up when a customer or auditor checks it.

Honestly, it depends on what your operation actually needs, and anyone who names one system before asking is selling, not advising. The questions worth asking are whether it handles lot and batch traceability natively, whether it supports FEFO picking and catch-weight goods, whether recipes carry yield and loss factors, and whether the vendor or partner has actually configured it for a food or beverage operation before. Odoo covers all of that natively at most processing volumes, which is why it is our most frequent recommendation and where our bench runs deepest. Sage, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics and ERPNext are the other systems we deliver, and a neutral second opinion is reasonable before you commit. That is what an ERP consultant engagement is for if you want one first.

FSMA 204, the FDA Food Traceability Rule, asks businesses handling foods on the Food Traceability List to keep Key Data Elements at each Critical Tracking Event and hand them over as an electronic sortable spreadsheet within 24 hours of a request. A properly configured system holds that data and exports it in that shape. Compliance itself stays your program, so we configure the system to support your HACCP, FSMA and food safety process rather than claiming to make you compliant. In scoping we map your lot codes and critical tracking events, then build the records and export around them.

Yes. Lot and serial tracking is native to Odoo’s inventory and manufacturing apps, covering receipt, production, and shipment in one chain. That gives you one-up, one-back traceability and the ability to pull every affected batch and customer in a single query. The recall procedure itself, and the judgment calls inside it, stay with your QA team.

Allergens are declared on the item specification, so every recipe inherits the allergen profile of its ingredients and a supplier or formulation change flags every finished product it touches. Allergen runs can be sequenced after allergen free runs, with sanitation scheduled as part of the changeover instead of remembered. On the label side, artwork is tied to the product revision, so the approved label prints, and the nutrition panel is calculated from the recipe rather than retyped.

Yes. Expiry dates are tracked at the lot level, and picking rules can enforce first-expired-first-out instead of first-in-first-out, which matters most when a newer lot physically sits in front of an older one on the shelf. Catch-weight items get handled the same way, priced and shipped on actual weight rather than a nominal unit.

Yes. Each lot carries its production date and its removal, best before or expiry date, and anything made from that lot inherits the rule. Picking can be set to first expired first out so the warehouse ships the oldest saleable stock, and short dated lots stop reaching customers who need long life. Date codes and lot codes print from the record the traceability report reads. Stock approaching its date appears while it can still be sold, instead of surfacing as a month end write off.

Two separate bills, kept honest and separate. Our fee covers implementation and configuration: recipes, lot rules, allergen data, integrations, and training, agreed in writing after a workflow review, with no hourly billing. Odoo’s own licensing is paid directly to Odoo, from $31.10 per user per month on the Standard plan, US, billed yearly. The full breakdown is on our Odoo pricing page.

Yes. Catch weight products are ordered as a case or a piece but priced on actual weight. The system holds both units on the same line, captures the measured weight at pick or pack, and invoices from that weight, which removes the credit notes born of billing one weight and shipping another, and keeps inventory valued on what actually left the building. Meat, poultry, seafood, cheese and produce operations usually need this on day one, so confirm it during scoping rather than after go-live.

It runs in phases rather than to a fixed calendar promise: workflow review, traceability and recipe mapping, staged migration, floor training, then a phased go-live. You get a written timeline after the workflow review, once we know how many product lines, recipes, and locations are actually involved.

Two separate costs, and most quotes blur them. The platform license is paid to the vendor: on Odoo, around $31.10 per user per month for Standard and around $61.00 for Custom on the United States list, billed yearly. The implementation is the project itself, quoted as a fixed fee against a written scope, with no hourly billing including for data migration. Industry estimates commonly place a mid sized implementation in the tens of thousands of dollars depending on sites, integrations and data quality. Treat that as an industry range, and expect our figure in writing after a scoping session.

Yes. Formula-style bills of materials carry yield and loss factors, so a batch’s real cost reflects what actually comes out the other end, not what the recipe card assumes. That number feeds directly into landed cost and margin reporting.

Yes, in one system rather than two connected ones. Production, lot genealogy, and quality checks run on the manufacturing side, while route and wholesale selling, pricing, and fulfillment run on the distribution side, both reading from the same inventory and lot records.