Food and beverage manufacturing software. Know where every lot went.
Follow every lot from the pallet at your dock to the case on a customer's truck, with expiry dates, recipes and costs on one live record. A recall drill or an audit becomes a search, not a scramble.
Receiving in one place, recipes in another, lot numbers in a third
Most food and beverage makers run receiving on paper, production on a spreadsheet and the books in QuickBooks. That holds until an auditor, a retailer or a recall asks a question that crosses all three.
Recall drills turn into archaeology
A supplier flags a lot, and someone matches receiving sheets, batch logs and shipping records by hand to find what it reached. Once kits and variety packs are in the mix, the trail usually ends at the pallet.
Costs move faster than the spreadsheet
Supplier prices shift, yields drift and the books catch up weeks later, so the true cost of a batch shows up at month end, after the margin is already gone.
First expired, first out depends on who is on shift
Expiry dates live on labels and in people's heads. Without stock ranked by date, older lots get buried and perishable ingredients age out before anyone notices.
One record for every lot, from the dock to the customer
Sutton's food and beverage manufacturing software ties purchasing, receiving, recipes, production runs and shipping to the same lot record, so traceability, expiry and cost all come from one place.
Capture the lot at the dock
Scan the label on every pallet at receiving, and the lot, date and weight land in inventory without retyping.
Run batches with guardrails
Operators log each step and critical control point on the floor, and production stops when ingredients are short unless a supervisor overrides it with a reason.
Move the oldest stock first
Expiry dates travel with every lot, so planners and pickers see what has to move first.
Trace in both directions
Start from a supplier lot and see every batch and customer it touched, or start from a complaint and walk back to the ingredients.
What a food plant leans on every day
Lot traceability, batch records, scheduling and batch costing, built around the way your plant already runs and changed whenever the process changes.
Recall and trace in both directions
Start from a supplier lot and see every batch, finished lot and customer it reached, or start from a complaint and walk back to the ingredients. Run the drill before an auditor does.
- Follow any lot forward to customers or back to suppliers
- See the full genealogy of a finished lot in one view
- Run a mock recall and pull the audit packet for any lot, with supplier, batch, check, release and shipment records
- Trace kits and variety packs down to the lots inside them
Batch records with the checks built in
Critical control point checks, allergen changeovers and label verification sit on the work order, so the proof travels with the lot. A failed check puts the lot on hold, blocking picking and shipping until a supervisor releases it and says why.
- Pass or fail checks with tolerances on every step
- Allergen changeover and line clearance recorded before the run starts
- Certificates of analysis attached to each ingredient and carried through every lot
- Supervisor release with a reason and signature, with an audit trail of who did what and when
Change the schedule, see what breaks first
Move a run, take a line down or delay an ingredient and see which orders slip, which ship dates are at risk and which lots could age out, before anything changes on the floor.
- What if scenarios for a line down, a late ingredient or a rush order
- Before and after timeline for every affected run
- Orders and ship dates at risk, with the reason
- Allergen order and shelf life respected in the new sequence
Real cost per batch
As food costing software, Sutton shows what each batch actually cost, ingredient by ingredient, against what the recipe said it should. When a supplier price moves, the margin effect shows up the same day, not at month end.
- Planned versus actual cost for every ingredient
- Yield and scrap captured by run
- Cost per case updated as prices change
- Cost of goods posted to QuickBooks as batches complete
The details that matter on a food and beverage floor
Sutton is food inventory software and food ERP software in one, running recipes, batches and shipments with the lot record carried through every step.
Capability title
One-line capability description from the CMS list.
- Lot and expiry tracking Record supplier lots and expiry dates on every ingredient and packaging item at receiving.
- Scan to receive Scan the label on each pallet to capture lot, date and weight, with units converted for you.
- First expired, first out Rank stock by expiry so pickers and planners follow FEFO and use the oldest lots first.
- Rework and substitutions Substitute approved ingredient lots and record rework, with genealogy kept intact through blended and split batches.
- Recipes and versions Manage recipes and sub recipes as versioned multi level BOMs with ingredient costs that stay current.
- Batch scheduling Plan runs around demand, ingredient supply, line capacity and allergen order.
- Critical control point checks Log pass or fail checks with tolerances on the floor, with sign offs by role and a full audit trail, on tablets, in English or Spanish.
- Allergen controls Flag allergens on items and record changeovers and purges before the next run.
- Yield and scrap Capture actual yield, scrap and reason codes by run, apply yield factors as recipes scale, and require supervisor sign off on large losses.
- Audit packet per lot Pull supplier, receiving, batch, check, release and shipment records for any lot in one place.
- Forward and backward traceability Trace any lot to its suppliers or to the customers who received it, kits included, and run a mock recall any time. Records at receiving, transformation and shipping support FSMA 204 traceability.
- Quality holds Place a lot on hold to block picking, allocation and shipping until a supervisor releases it with a reason.
- Costing and COGS Capture ingredient, labor and packaging cost per batch and post cost of goods to QuickBooks as batches complete.
- Co packing and private label Run contract jobs alongside your own brands with separate formulas and costing.
- Customer portal and COAs Let retailers and distributors place orders and pull lot numbers and certificates of analysis, which attach to each ingredient and follow it through every lot.
- Integrations Sync with Shopify, Amazon, ShipStation, QuickBooks, Xero and your quality system.
As a beverage company who both produces our own products and contract manufactures our brands, it was very important to find a unified platform to support assembly, sourcing, and end-to-end traceability for all products and processes. After looking at several software options, we ultimately decided Sutton was the best mix of usability and functionality.
Everything you need to run your operations with Sutton.
One platform for inventory, production and purchasing, with Studio to build your own apps and Intelligence to show you what needs attention.
Run every operation from one system
Inventory, purchasing, production and sales orders share the same live data, so every team works from one source of truth.
Build your own apps in plain English
Describe the screen, report or automation you need and Studio builds it on your live data in minutes. Prefer a hand? Our team builds it with you.
See what needs attention before it costs you
Sutton Intelligence turns your live operations data into insights, so you can spot shortages, delays and margin issues early.
Yes.
Three critical materials are projected to run out within the next seven days:
I recommend reordering all three items now to avoid production delays.
Based on current demand, open orders, and supplier lead times, you should order:
No more implementation.
Just onboarding.
Sutton's onboarding agent reformats your data, configures your system, and gets you live. A real human is always a call away. And if something is missing, describe it in plain English and it exists inside the product in minutes.
Hi Siddharth,
How can I help you today?
AI agents reformat your data, map your fields, make bulk edits, and configure the system. What used to take weeks of manual work happens automatically. You review and confirm.
What would you recommend for purchase approvals?
For your operation, I’d add a manager review step only for high-value orders. It keeps things moving without losing control.
Sounds good. How soon can we test it?
I can have the updated workflow ready tomorrow, then we’ll test it with your team and move toward launch.
Map your locations, workflows, and rules. Sutton is configured around how your operation actually runs — no rigid templates.
Rafael Santos
Smartphone Case / Blue
Smartphone Case / Green
Smartphone Case / Red
Microfiber lining / Red
Microfiber lining / Purple
ABS Colorant Additive / BlueABS Colorant Additive / Purple
Polypropylene Parts / BluePolypropylene Regrind / Blue
Phone case box
Mold Release AgentCreate a portal where franchise locations can order approved items and track deliveries.
Got it. I’ll set up a dedicated ordering portal for your franchise locations.
Done. Franchise Orders has been added to the navigation bar and is ready for review.
Missing something? Describe what you need in plain English and it exists inside the product in minutes. Or let our team build it for you. Either way, the feature no other vendor could deliver is live in days, not months.
Questions? Answers.
Your most frequently asked questions, all in one place. If you don’t see what you need, reach out to us.
Food manufacturing software runs the production side of a food plant: ingredients, recipes, batches, expiry dates, lots and cost, so every item is traceable from supplier to customer. Sutton does this in one system. Each receipt, batch and shipment updates the same lot record, so you can see what you have, where it is, what it cost and where it went. Recipes, schedules and quality checks sit on that same record instead of in separate spreadsheets.
As food traceability software, Sutton captures every supplier lot at receiving and carries it through each batch to the finished lots and customers it reached. Trace forward from a lot to every customer shipment, or backward from a complaint to every ingredient lot. Kits, variety packs and blended batches stay linked to the lots inside them, and each lot's supplier documents and certificates of analysis follow it through production.
Sutton keeps the records those programs ask for on every lot: receiving details, critical control point checks, allergen changeovers, sign offs by role, audit trails and mock recall results. For FSMA 204 traceability, lot codes and records at receiving, transformation and shipping sit on the same lot record and can be pulled together for any lot. Sutton is set up around your plant's own procedures, so your quality team decides what must be recorded and the evidence is there when an auditor asks. For the baseline requirements behind it, see our guide to good manufacturing practices in the food industry.
Sutton schedules batches around demand, ingredient supply and line capacity, then puts the recipe on a work order with expected weights and tolerances. Operators log steps, yields and critical control point checks on a tablet, and a failed check or a short ingredient holds the batch until a supervisor releases it and records why. Every batch keeps its lots, checks and sign offs, so the batch record is complete when the run ends.
Sutton manages recipes and sub recipes as versioned, multi level BOMs, so a new version applies to future runs and past batches keep the version they used. Ingredient costs stay current as supplier prices change, and yield is tracked per run, so a recipe change shows its effect on cost the same day. Operators work from the active version, which keeps every batch tied to the recipe it was actually made with.
Sutton records an expiry date on every lot at receiving and ranks stock by it, so pickers and planners see which lots have to move first. Lots nearing expiry are flagged before they age out, and expired or quality held lots are blocked from picking and shipping. The date stays with the lot through production, so first expired, first out works for ingredients and finished goods alike.
Sutton captures ingredient, labor and packaging cost on each batch from the recipe, the lots actually used and the yield you record, then compares it with the planned cost. When a supplier price moves, the planned cost of every affected recipe updates, so margin changes show up the same day. Cost of goods posts to QuickBooks as batches complete, so month end starts from real numbers.
Yes. Sutton syncs with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, NetSuite and Sage Intacct, so you keep your accounting where it is and costs and invoices flow between the two without double entry. It also connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon and ShipStation for orders and shipping, and an open API and webhooks connect anything else.
Yes. Sutton runs contract jobs next to your own brands, with separate formulas, costing and lot records for each customer. Every customer's lots stay traceable on their own, and supplier certificates attach to each ingredient and follow it through every lot of product it goes into.
Most food and beverage makers go live in about two to eight weeks, depending on how many items, recipes and sites move over. Sutton's onboarding team walks you through the system and sets it up around your plant, including migration from spreadsheets, and operators learn from video training with ongoing support after go live.
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