Connecting Pennylane to an ERP for Production and Inventory Management : Piston
Pennylane has become the go-to accounting and financial management tool for French SMBs. But Pennylane does not handle manufacturing orders, bills of materials, or inventory. To run a production or distribution business, you need an ERP connected to Pennylane. That is exactly what Piston enables: production, purchasing, and inventory run in Piston, accounting stays in Pennylane, and the two systems exchange data without re-entry.
What does Pennylane cover, and where does it stop?
Pennylane covers general accounting, invoicing, expense reports, cash flow, and VAT filings. That is its scope, and it does it very well.
What Pennylane does not cover is operations:
no manufacturing orders or bills of materials (BOM)
no real-time inventory tracking, no multi-warehouse management
no lot or serial number traceability
no purchase planning or material requirements calculation
no receiving, shipping, or stock counts
As a result, many industrial companies use Pennylane for accounting and spreadsheets for everything else. That is the gap an ERP fills.
Why connect Pennylane to an ERP?
Without a connection between your operations tool and your accounting tool, every document exists twice. The consequences: double entry, errors, and slow closings.
Zero re-entry: sales invoices issued in the ERP land in Pennylane automatically.
Reliable matching: supplier invoices are checked against purchase orders and receipts before being passed to accounting.
Accurate inventory valuation: your stock value reflects real movements, not a month-end estimate.
Faster closings: your accountant works on data that is already matched and coded.
How does the integration between Piston and Pennylane work?
Piston is an ERP built for manufacturing and distribution SMBs. Connected to Pennylane, it keeps financial flows in sync between the two tools:
Sales invoices: issued from Piston based on orders and deliveries, then pushed to Pennylane with the right account coding.
Supplier invoices: Piston matches them to the purchase order and the receipt, then sends them to Pennylane once approved.
Payments and statuses: payments recorded on the accounting side update invoice statuses in Piston.
Master data: customers and suppliers stay aligned across both tools.
Accounting keeps its tool, your accountant keeps their habits, and operations teams work in a single system.
What you run in Piston once Pennylane is connected
Production management
Manufacturing orders and multi-level bills of materials
Material requirements calculation and purchase triggering
Full lot traceability, from raw material to delivered product
Real production cost tracking
Inventory management
Real-time stock across all your warehouses
FEFO and FIFO management for date-sensitive products
Receiving, shipping, and cycle counts
Inventory valuation consistent with your accounting
Pennylane alone or Pennylane + Piston: the comparison
Need | Pennylane alone | Pennylane + Piston |
|---|---|---|
Invoicing and accounting | Yes | Yes, accounting stays in Pennylane |
Real-time inventory | No | Yes |
Manufacturing orders and BOMs | No | Yes |
Lot traceability | No | Yes |
Purchasing and requirements planning | No | Yes |
Invoice, order, and receipt matching | Manual | Automatic |
Explore Itsalga connected operations case, ERP integration for manufacturers, and real-time inventory beyond Pennylane.
Frequently asked questions
Can Pennylane manage inventory or production?
No. Pennylane is an accounting and financial management tool. It offers no real-time inventory, no manufacturing orders, and no lot traceability. Those functions belong to an ERP like Piston, which connects to Pennylane.
Which ERP can you connect to Pennylane?
Piston integrates with Pennylane for manufacturing and distribution SMBs: Piston manages orders, purchasing, production, and inventory, and passes accounting documents to Pennylane.
Do you have to leave Pennylane to adopt an ERP?
No. You keep Pennylane for accounting. Piston replaces the spreadsheets and scattered management tools, not your accounting software.
Does my accountant need to change how they work?
No. They keep working in Pennylane. The difference is that documents arrive already matched and coded, which speeds up closings.
How long does implementation take?
A Piston deployment takes a few weeks, Pennylane connection included, where a traditional ERP project takes months.
Using Pennylane and still managing production or inventory in spreadsheets? Book a Piston demo to see the integration live.
