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MRP tool: InvenTree, with invoicing and bookkeeping alongside it

Decided 2026-09-11 after a scout of InvenTree, ERPNext, Odoo Community and Dolibarr.

Why InvenTree

  • Built for electronics: parts with manufacturer/supplier parts and price breaks, stock by location with batch and serial, BOMs, build orders that consume stock and create serialised units, and test templates + per-serial test results in the free version — the one feature the Universal Tester integration depends on.
  • Light: ~1–2 GB RAM in Docker, fits the Plex box beside everything else.
  • REST API with tokens, plugin system, multi-user roles, KiCad/CSV BOM import.
  • Weekly releases, active project.

Why not the others

  • Odoo Community: the Quality module is enterprise-only, and full accounting needs community add-ons. Big, and the one feature we need most is paid.
  • ERPNext: does everything free, including quality inspection and real accounting, but it is a whole-company ERP — heavier to run and to learn, generic rather than electronics-shaped. It is the fallback if InvenTree's sales/invoicing side proves too thin as the company grows.
  • Dolibarr: no per-unit test results, not electronics-native.

What InvenTree does NOT do, and what covers it

  • Invoices: InvenTree has sales orders and shipments, not proper invoicing or payments. Our own render-doc template renders invoices and proposals from InvenTree's sales-order data, numbered by our ledger. If that ever feels thin, Invoice Ninja (self-hosted, free, API) slots in.
  • Accounting: none. Bookkeeping stays a separate decision (embeddedera-business: Firefly III self-hosted was the scout's pick; a CPA CSV at year end regardless).

Caveat on the scout

Its version/date figures looked stale (it quoted 2024 releases in 2026), so treat exact version numbers as unverified; the feature comparison matched the official docs.

See mrp for the plan and phases.