Wherefour
by Wherefour, Inc.
Batch manufacturing and traceability for food, beverage and other formula-driven producers, with one of the few vendor descriptions that explicitly mentions factoring lead times into what you need to buy.
Why it is classified this way
We call this a Batch / process manufacturing product. Built around recipes or formulas, batch runs, and lot genealogy. May or may not include full time-phased planning.
It is not labeled Full MRP because we have not verified that it accepts dated demand, sales orders, a forecast, or a master production schedule; nets that demand against stock on hand and orders already incoming; explodes requirements through at least one level of the bill of materials; and produces dated buy, make, transfer, release, or reschedule recommendations. That is a statement about the evidence we found, not a claim that the product is weak, see the capability table and the sources below.
The six Full MRP tests, and how Wherefour does on each (2 of 6)
- YesIt represents a bill of materials, recipe, or formula.Evidence: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)
- PartialIt accepts dated demand, sales orders, a forecast, or a master production schedule.Not established. Only partly shown: the evidence covers some of this but not all of it, so the test is not established.
- PartialIt nets that demand against stock on hand and orders already incoming.Not established. Backed only by a limited source (a vendor video from before 2023, source code, an old blog post or a single marketing line), which can fill the table but cannot pass this test.
- UnknownIt explodes requirements through at least one level of the bill of materials.Not established. No evidence found yet.
- YesIt uses lead times or required dates.Evidence: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)
- PartialIt produces dated buy, make, transfer, release, or reschedule recommendations.Not established. Backed only by a limited source (a vendor video from before 2023, source code, an old blog post or a single marketing line), which can fill the table but cannot pass this test.
These rules are applied identically to every product and enforced at build time, a record cannot be published as Full MRP unless all six pass with a source attached. Read the methodology.
Best for
- Food, beverage and cosmetics producers who must be able to run a recall in minutes
- Shops where expiry dates and lot genealogy are compliance requirements, not conveniences
- Buyers comfortable with a sales conversation to get a price
Not a fit when
- Anyone who needs to compare a published price before booking a call
- Solo makers. This is aimed at producers with real compliance obligations
- Discrete assembly shops; the whole design assumes formulas and batches
Pricing facts
What it costs to do manufacturing in this product.
No published price
This vendor does not publish pricing, so you cannot compare it against anything here without contacting them. We will not estimate a figure.
What moves the real bill
- No published price. You have to contact the vendor, which usually means a sales call.
Pricing detail
No price list, and the vendor is unusually direct about why: "We don't publish a price list because every operation is different. Every Wherefour plan is configured specifically for you, so you pay for what you use, not what you don't." Billing can be monthly, quarterly or annual with no long-term contract, and the pricing page mentions no setup or onboarding fee. Budget for a sales conversation before you can compare it against anything else here.
Price history
- Starter $299 (1 user), Producer $499 (5 users) and Manufacturer $999 (10 users) a month billed annually, or $349, $575 and $1,150 month to month. Archived page, July 24, 2019(opens in a new tab)
- Price list removed; the pricing page showed no figures. Archived page, December 3, 2020(opens in a new tab)
From copies of the vendor's pricing page kept by the Internet Archive.
Checked on September 19, 2026. Source: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab). Prices change. Check before you buy.
Manufacturing capability
19 of 25 fields resolved. "Unknown" means we have not found first-party evidence. It is not a No.
Planning
Working out what to buy or make, and when.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Accepts dated demandYou can tell it what is due and when, sales orders with dates, a forecast, or a production schedule. | Partial | The vendor says it determines what you need "now and in the future" from "all the activity in your business". Future demand is clearly an input; we have not verified that dated sales orders or a forecast drive it.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Nets against stock on handIt subtracts what you already have before telling you to buy more. | Yes | The MRP page says the plan weighs "stock on hand" against demand to show "what you may run out of". One sentence on the vendor's MRP marketing page (read 2026-09-18), with no documentation or screenshot behind it, so it fills the table but does not count toward the Full MRP label.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: Marketing page, read 2026(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Counts incoming ordersIt knows about purchase orders and production orders already placed, so it does not tell you to order twice. | Yes | The MRP page says the plan "considers ... open purchase orders": "A materials requirements plan considers all the data in your account, such as future sales, stock on hand, open purchase orders, production and supplier lead times, and customer orders to determine what you may run out of and when you need to reorder it.". One sentence on the vendor's MRP marketing page (read 2026-09-18), with no documentation or screenshot behind it, so it fills the table but does not count toward the Full MRP label.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: Marketing page, read 2026(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Uses lead timesIt works backwards from when you need something to when you must order or start it, using supplier and production lead times. | Yes | "Determine what material you need now and in the future quickly and easily, while factoring lead times, reorder points and all the activity in your business." Explicit, first-party, and rare in this market.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Produces dated buy/make suggestionsThe output is an actionable list with dates, order this much by this date, start this batch on this date. | Yes | The MRP page says the plan works out "when you need to reorder". One sentence on the vendor's MRP marketing page (read 2026-09-18), with no documentation or screenshot behind it, so it fills the table but does not count toward the Full MRP label.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: Marketing page, read 2026(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Capacity planningChecks whether your people and machines can do the work in the time available. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of work-center or resource capacity being compared against load.Know the answer? |
Production
Recipes, bills of materials, and running the work.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Bill of materialsA list of the parts and quantities needed to make one of something. | Yes | Formulas are the product structure and drive production runs.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Multi-level BOMSub-assemblies inside assemblies, a part that is itself made from other parts, nested as deep as you need. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of nested or multi-level bom structures, not just a flat component list.Know the answer? |
| Recipes & formulasBatch-style production by weight, volume, or percentage, including scaling a batch up or down. | Yes | "Build production runs, manage formulas, and trace every ingredient from intake to delivery."Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Work / manufacturing ordersA record authorising and tracking the making of a specific quantity. | Yes | Production runs are the manufacturing record, tied to formulas and lot consumption.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Routings & operationsThe ordered steps a product goes through, and which machine or station does each one. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of operation sequences or routings attached to production.Know the answer? |
| Shop-floor trackingOperators report progress, time, and completions as the work happens. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of a shop-floor, operator, or terminal interface for reporting production.Know the answer? |
| Quality controlsChecks, tests, holds, and non-conformance records tied to production or receiving. | Yes | "Custom QA tests linked to lots & runs". Quality results attach to the specific batch, which is what makes them useful in a recall.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
Inventory & traceability
Knowing what you hold and being able to trace it.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Batch & lot traceabilityWhich incoming material lots went into which finished batch, and where those finished goods went. | Yes | "Full forward-and-backward traceability with one click" and "real-time lot-level visibility across every location". The strongest traceability claim we found in this segment.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Expiry & shelf lifeBest-before dates on materials and finished goods, with warnings before they lapse. | Yes | "Automatic alerts for low stock, expiry, and reorders."Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Serial numbersUnique identifiers on individual units, for warranty or field service. | Partial | "Auto-generate lot codes, barcodes and serial numbers for new inventory." The public API also has a serial_number field on stock lots. Serials sit at stock-lot level; tracking each unit by its own serial is not documented.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com › Purchasing(opens in a new tab); wherefour-api-docs.herokuapp.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
Commerce & accounting
Costs, purchasing, storefronts, and the books.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Product costing & COGSWhat it costs you to make one, and the cost of the goods you sold. | Yes | "COGS tracking means that your true production costs are just a click away."Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| PurchasingRaising and tracking purchase orders to suppliers from inside the system. | Yes | Purchase orders can be created in one click for replenishment, and automatically for preferred suppliers.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Accounting connectionSends financial data to bookkeeping software, or includes its own general ledger. | Yes | The QuickBooks Online integration "handles automatic journal entries for COGS, production, invoices, and receiving inventory", and pulls customer and vendor records across so they are not keyed twice. QuickBooks Desktop is supported too: "Still running QB Desktop? No migration required. Wherefour syncs directly with Pro, Premier, and Enterprise editions."Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com › Quickbooks(opens in a new tab); wherefour.com › Integrations(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Ecommerce connectionPulls orders and pushes stock levels to a storefront or marketplace. | Yes | The vendor states: "Orders import automatically, inventory stays in sync, and pick-and-ship happens without anyone touching a spreadsheet." The integrations page follows this with Shopify order import and stock sync. Checked 2026-09-14.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com › Integrations(opens in a new tab)Question this |
Openness & your data
Getting data in, out, and away if you leave.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| APIA documented programming interface so other software can read and write your data. | Yes | "API documentation for the Wherefour ERP/traceability platform." The public OpenAPI docs include write endpoints such as Create Order, Add stock lot, Create Invoice and Update Customer. Access terms, such as which plans include the API, are not stated.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour-api-docs.herokuapp.com(opens in a new tab); wherefour.com(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| WebhooksThe system can notify other software the moment something changes. | Yes | The integrations page lists "Webhook support for real-time event triggers on inventory, orders, and production". That is a feature-list line rather than developer documentation.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com › Integrations(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| MCP supportA Model Context Protocol server, letting an AI assistant read or act on this data. Useful, but it has nothing to do with whether the product plans materials. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: a first-party mcp server, or documentation of one.Know the answer? |
| CSV exportYou can get your lists out as spreadsheet files. | Yes | "if you need it in a spreadsheet, export to Excel with one click." This is on the traceability page, so it covers traceability records at least.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: wherefour.com › Traceability(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Full data exportYou can take everything, including history and relationships, not just a few screens' worth of rows. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of a complete account export, database dump, or equivalent.Know the answer? |
Deployment, licensing and your data
- Deployment
- Cloud (hosted for you)
- Licensing
- Proprietary SaaS
- Team sizes
- 2–5 people, 6–20 people, 21–50 people
- Manufacturing styles
- Batch & recipe products, Continuous process
Jobs this product qualifies for
Derived from the capability table above, not hand-assigned.
Editorial notes and cautions
Things we would want a friend to know before buying.
- Wherefour's own wording about factoring lead times is one of the more direct MRP claims among the batch-focused products here. Its MRP page goes further, saying the plan considers open purchase orders and determines when you need to reorder. We still class it as Batch/process rather than Full MRP, because that is a marketing sentence and we have not seen documentation or a screenshot of the dated output.
- Quote-only pricing is a real cost. Budget time for a demo cycle, and ask specifically about seat counts and onboarding fees before comparing it with a published-price competitor.
Alternatives to Wherefour
An alternative is always an alternative for a reason. There is no universal replacement.
A small soap or candle maker who needs lots and COGS but has no regulator to answer to can start on Stocksmith's published plans from $99 a month; Wherefour does not publish prices.
Compared on BatchBoost's page, where we wrote: "Wherefour is a US food and beverage batch system that names lead times in its planning and connects to QuickBooks Online and Desktop today, where BatchBoost's accounting links are still coming."
Compared on Kerno's page, where we wrote: "Wherefour solves the same batch and compliance problem with a longer public track record and settled commercial terms, which is the trade against Kerno being free to try today."
Evidence and verification
Capability evidence spans the manufacturing, purchasing, traceability, integrations and QuickBooks pages, plus the public API docs; the pricing position is quoted from the vendor's own pricing page, which publishes no rates by design. The MRP page says: "A materials requirements plan considers all the data in your account, such as future sales, stock on hand, open purchase orders, production and supplier lead times, and customer orders to determine what you may run out of and when you need to reorder it." That is a marketing statement, so open-order netting and dated suggestions are left as they were until the output is seen. The manufacturing page describes formulas and variable yields rather than nested assemblies, so multi-level BOM support is left unresolved rather than inferred from recipe language. On 2026-09-20 the cannabis industry value was added to this record: the vendor publishes a "CANNABIS PROCESSING ERP" page selling the same product to licensed processors, so the record now appears on that industry page too. No capability value changed. On 2026-10-09 a documentation read for the six Full MRP tests found no public first-party documentation to settle them: the support.wherefour.com help center needs a login, the public API docs list only lead_time and reorder_point fields on inventory items, and the remaining planning wording sits on vendor blog posts ("Procurement and Purchasing", "Holiday Planning with Wherefour") that mention incoming purchase orders, sales forecasts and lead times but count only as limited sources, so no planning value changed.
Sources we checked (10)
wherefour.com
- Home page(opens in a new tab)
- Pricing(opens in a new tab)
- Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)
- Quickbooks(opens in a new tab)
- Integrations(opens in a new tab)
- Purchasing(opens in a new tab)
- Traceability(opens in a new tab)
- Marketing page, read 2026(opens in a new tab)
- Cannabis processing software(opens in a new tab)
wherefour-api-docs.herokuapp.com
What we still want to confirm
We publish our gaps rather than hiding them. If you can point us at a first-party page for any of these, we will update the record and credit the correction.
- Get a real quote with a billing basis and seat minimum. The pricing page says plans are configured per customer and publishes no price list, seat basis or minimum, so this needs a sales quote. Without one this record cannot be compared on price against anything else in the catalog.
- See the dated output of the materials requirements plan in a demo, a screenshot or a help-center article. The MRP page says the plan considers open purchase orders and lead times and determines when to reorder, but that is a marketing sentence, and the help center at support.wherefour.com is closed to the public (a Cloudflare check on the page, and its article API answers "Couldn't authenticate you" without a login). This decides whether open-order netting and dated action dates are recorded as yes, whether a planning run is shown to explode formulas into ingredient requirements, and so the Full MRP label.
- Confirm whether formulas nest to sub-assemblies. No public page describes it, and the API's formulas endpoint only lists the types "boms, kits, disassemblies", so this needs a demo.
Still unknown: capacity planning, multi-level bom, routings & operations, shop-floor tracking, mcp support, full data export.