How to Run Material Requirements Planning

Per-work-order explosions hide plant-wide shortages

Planners open each work order BOM explosion separately and mentally net against stock, missing aggregate shortages until the week of production.

Open purchase orders and already-issued materials are easy to double-count or ignore in spreadsheets.

Raising buy lists outside ERP creates duplicate procurement tables and weak audit trails.

Why this happens

• No multi-work-order netting report.
• On-hand and open PO are checked in separate screens.
• Issued material is not subtracted from gross need.
• Requisitions are typed manually from printed explosions.

Biznsbook addresses this through MRP-lite netting, BOM explosion across work orders, convert to purchase requisition when Manufacturing and Inventory are enabled; Accounting adds WIP and cost postings when your chart and system accounts are configured.

Finance teams lose days each month reconciling versions that should never have diverged. Naming Biznsbook screens as the system of record — and closing periods when agreed — prevents silent edits that auditors flag immediately.

Step-by-step: Run Material Requirements Planning

Built for production planners, shop-floor supervisors, and operations managers running BOM-driven work orders with MES-lite capture, OEE, and inventory integration.

1. Plan work orders in the horizon. Create Planned or Released work orders with planned start dates inside the period you will net.
2. Keep BOMs active. Ensure each work order uses an active BOM so explosion returns current component quantities.
3. Open Material Requirements. Go to Manufacturing → Planning → Material Requirements and start a new run with horizon from and to dates.
4. Execute the MRP-lite run. Biznsbook explodes BOMs, sums by item, snapshots on-hand and open PO, subtracts issued qty, and stores net requirement lines.
5. Filter to shortages. Focus the grid on Net Requirement greater than zero and review earliest needed-by dates.
6. Convert lines to requisitions. Convert shortage lines to purchase requisitions through the existing Inventory requisition pipeline — no parallel PR table.
7. Review and action the run. Mark runs reviewed or actioned after buyers take ownership of converted requisitions.

Review results after the first full weekly cycle. Adjust roles, mappings, or approvals where the same exception repeats.

Screen-level flows live in the Help Center. This guide focuses on the business process; help articles cover click-by-click navigation.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Mistake 1: No multi-work-order netting report. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in OEE dashboard or stock card variance reports.
• Mistake 2: On-hand and open PO are checked in separate screens. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in OEE dashboard or stock card variance reports.
• Mistake 3: Issued material is not subtracted from gross need. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in OEE dashboard or stock card variance reports.
• Mistake 4: Requisitions are typed manually from printed explosions. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in OEE dashboard or stock card variance reports.

Track recurring exceptions in month-end notes; each should map to a control above.

Best practices that hold up as you scale

• Plan work orders in the horizon — Create Planned or Released work orders with planned start dates inside the period you will net.
• Keep BOMs active — Ensure each work order uses an active BOM so explosion returns current component quantities.
• Open Material Requirements — Go to Manufacturing → Planning → Material Requirements and start a new run with horizon from and to dates.
• Execute the MRP-lite run — Biznsbook explodes BOMs, sums by item, snapshots on-hand and open PO, subtracts issued qty, and stores net requirement lines.
• Filter to shortages — Focus the grid on Net Requirement greater than zero and review earliest needed-by dates.

Teams that capture output on the shop-floor terminal, clock operations, and review OEE daily keep planned schedules and MRP-lite nets grounded in real production.

How Biznsbook supports this workflow

MRP-lite netting is documented in Biznsbook Manufacturing capabilities. Use it as part of a controlled finance process — posting, review, and period close — not as an isolated export. When Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Taxation, Expense, or Finance Management modules are enabled, related documents can post through the central accounting posting service with double-entry validation.

BOM explosion across work orders is documented in Biznsbook Manufacturing capabilities. Use it as part of a controlled finance process — posting, review, and period close — not as an isolated export. When Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Taxation, Expense, or Finance Management modules are enabled, related documents can post through the central accounting posting service with double-entry validation.

convert to purchase requisition is documented in Biznsbook Manufacturing capabilities. Use it as part of a controlled finance process — posting, review, and period close — not as an isolated export. When Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Taxation, Expense, or Finance Management modules are enabled, related documents can post through the central accounting posting service with double-entry validation.

Manufacturing permissions separate BOM maintenance, work order release, production entry, quality inspection, reports, and scheduling. Inventory is required for items, warehouses, and stock mutations.

Suggested implementation timeline

1. Week 1: Document current process gaps and configure MRP-lite netting with finance owner sign-off.
2. Weeks 2–3: Pilot on one month or one entity; post all test transactions through Biznsbook; freeze parallel spreadsheet journals.
3. Week 4: Run first trial balance or report tie-out; fix mapping and permission issues.
4. Month 2–3: Roll out to full team; add approvals and period close cadence from this guide.
5. Ongoing: Monthly review using horizon tip and leadership dashboard.

Related guides and help articles

Pair this guide with production orders, production efficiency, and production schedules.

Help Center: create a BOM, run work orders, QC inspection. Hubs: MES guides, manufacturing ERP. Industry: manufacturing ERP.

Metrics to track monthly

• Shop-floor terminal sessions completed same shift
• Operation time logs vs BOM standard variance
• OEE by workstation (availability, performance, quality)
• Scheduling board load % over 100%
• MRP-lite net requirements converted to requisitions
• Genealogy where-used / where-from recall drills

Start with three metrics; trend direction matters more than a single point-in-time snapshot.

Spreadsheet / manual books vs integrated ERP

Compare typical manual finance work with Biznsbook MRP-lite netting and related capabilities.

Horizon tip

Run weekly for the next two to four weeks of Planned and Released orders, convert only confirmed shortages, and leave Sufficient lines alone to avoid noise for purchasing.

Document this in your finance SOP and revisit each quarter as transaction volume or entity structure changes.

Frequently asked questions

How this differs by industry