QAD for Food & Beverage: Features, Benefits & Costs

QAD for Food & Beverage

QAD is a cloud-native (SaaS) ERP solution from QAD (Thoma Bravo) that provides food & beverage companies with the tools they need to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and drive growth. With capabilities spanning Financials, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Transportation Management, and more, QAD addresses the unique challenges facing today's food & beverage organizations.

Food & Beverage companies face increasing pressure around food safety and traceability requirements, perishable inventory management, complex regulatory compliance. QAD provides purpose-built functionality to help organizations overcome these challenges while maintaining compliance with standards such as FDA FSMA, HACCP, SQF/BRC certifications.

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Key Features and Modules for Food & Beverage

QAD offers a comprehensive set of features tailored for food & beverage operations:

1. Batch/lot tracking: QAD provides robust batch/lot tracking capabilities that help food & beverage organizations manage their batch/lot tracking processes more effectively, with real-time visibility and automation to reduce manual effort.

2. Recipe and formula management: QAD provides robust recipe and formula management capabilities that help food & beverage organizations manage their recipe and formula management processes more effectively, with real-time visibility and automation to reduce manual effort.

3. Quality control: QAD provides robust quality control capabilities that help food & beverage organizations manage their quality control processes more effectively, with real-time visibility and automation to reduce manual effort.

4. Shelf-life management: QAD provides robust shelf-life management capabilities that help food & beverage organizations manage their shelf-life management processes more effectively, with real-time visibility and automation to reduce manual effort.

5. Catch-weight processing: QAD provides robust catch-weight processing capabilities that help food & beverage organizations manage their catch-weight processing processes more effectively, with real-time visibility and automation to reduce manual effort.

Beyond these core modules, QAD offers purpose-built for global manufacturing, strong automotive and life sciences compliance, and adaptive architecture for agility to provide a complete solution for food & beverage businesses.

Benefits for Food & Beverage Companies

Implementing QAD can deliver significant benefits for food & beverage organizations:

1. Farm-to-fork traceability and recall readiness: QAD's integrated platform ensures that food & beverage companies can achieve farm-to-fork traceability and recall readiness, reducing inefficiencies and improving overall performance.

2. Optimized production scheduling for perishable goods: QAD's integrated platform ensures that food & beverage companies can achieve optimized production scheduling for perishable goods, reducing inefficiencies and improving overall performance.

3. Automated compliance with food safety standards: QAD's integrated platform ensures that food & beverage companies can achieve automated compliance with food safety standards, reducing inefficiencies and improving overall performance.

4. Reduced spoilage through shelf-life tracking: QAD's integrated platform ensures that food & beverage companies can achieve reduced spoilage through shelf-life tracking, reducing inefficiencies and improving overall performance.

5. Accurate catch-weight and variable-unit processing: QAD's integrated platform ensures that food & beverage companies can achieve accurate catch-weight and variable-unit processing, reducing inefficiencies and improving overall performance.

Ready to evaluate QAD for your food & beverage business? Get a personalized pricing estimate based on your specific requirements, or connect with a certified implementation partner who specializes in food & beverage.

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Implementation Considerations

When implementing QAD for a food & beverage organization, there are several important factors to consider:

• Timeline: A typical QAD implementation for food & beverage companies takes 3–12 months, depending on the scope of modules deployed and degree of customization required.

• Data migration: Food & Beverage organizations often have complex data structures spanning batch/lot tracking, recipe and formula management, quality control that must be carefully mapped and migrated to QAD.

• Regulatory compliance: With food & beverage regulations including FDA FSMA and HACCP, the implementation must ensure all compliance requirements are configured from day one.

• Change management: Training and change management are critical for adoption. QAD's modern interface and guided workflows can help ease the transition for end users.

• Integration requirements: Most food & beverage companies need QAD to integrate with existing systems. QAD supports this through open APIs and pre-built connectors, though integration complexity should be scoped early.

Pricing and Cost Considerations

QAD pricing for food & beverage companies requires custom quote, mid-to-enterprise pricing. The total cost of ownership depends on:

• User count and licensing: $150–$400/user/month for cloud subscriptions
• Modules selected: Food & Beverage-specific modules such as batch/lot tracking, recipe and formula management, quality control may require additional licensing
• Implementation services: Professional services for configuration, customization, data migration, and training
• Ongoing costs: Annual maintenance, support, and cloud hosting fees

For a detailed cost estimate tailored to your food & beverage requirements, get a custom QAD pricing quote.

Why Choose QAD for Food & Beverage?

QAD stands out as a strong ERP solution for food & beverage companies for several key reasons:

• Purpose-built for global manufacturing helps food & beverage organizations gain a competitive edge
• Strong automotive and life sciences compliance ensures smooth end-to-end operations
• Integrated supply chain collaboration supports growth and geographic expansion
• Industry-specific functionality for batch/lot tracking, recipe and formula management, quality control addresses the unique needs of food & beverage businesses
• Compliance with FDA FSMA and HACCP is built into the platform

Get Started with QAD for Food & Beverage

Ready to move forward? Here are your recommended next steps:

• Get QAD Pricing — Receive a personalized cost estimate based on your food & beverage requirements
• Compare QAD — See how QAD compares to other ERP solutions for food & beverage
• Define Your ERP Requirements — Use our free tool to build your food & beverage ERP requirements checklist

Frequently Asked Questions

What is QAD for Food & Beverage?

QAD for Food & Beverage is a cloud-native (SaaS) ERP solution designed to help food & beverage organizations manage their core business processes including batch/lot tracking, recipe and formula management, quality control, shelf-life management. It is developed by QAD (Thoma Bravo) and is widely used by food & beverage companies ranging from mid-size businesses to large enterprises.

How much does QAD cost for food & beverage companies?

QAD pricing for food & beverage organizations requires custom quote, mid-to-enterprise pricing. Total cost depends on the number of users, modules selected (such as batch/lot tracking and recipe and formula management), and implementation requirements. Get a personalized QAD quote for your food & beverage organization.

How long does it take to implement QAD in a food & beverage organization?

Implementation timelines for QAD in food & beverage typically range from 3 to 12 months, depending on the complexity of operations, number of modules, and extent of customization required. A phased approach is often recommended to reduce risk and accelerate time to value.

Does QAD support FDA FSMA compliance?

Yes, QAD includes features and configurations that support compliance with FDA FSMA, HACCP, SQF/BRC certifications. The platform provides audit trails, reporting tools, and process controls that help food & beverage organizations meet their regulatory obligations. Implementation partners can further customize compliance workflows to match specific requirements.

Can QAD integrate with other food & beverage systems?

QAD offers robust integration capabilities through APIs, middleware, and pre-built connectors that enable connectivity with other food & beverage systems including specialized batch/lot tracking software, quality control platforms, and third-party applications. This ensures food & beverage companies can maintain a connected technology ecosystem.

What are the main benefits of QAD for food & beverage companies?

The primary benefits of QAD for food & beverage companies include farm-to-fork traceability and recall readiness, optimized production scheduling for perishable goods, and automated compliance with food safety standards. The platform also provides purpose-built for global manufacturing and strong automotive and life sciences compliance to help food & beverage organizations improve operational efficiency and drive growth.