This "README" is an "everyting including the kitchen sink" file. It is intended to keep general notes of anything we can think of putting to paper.
Trying to explain what ForgeOps is and does is a hard one, but the best way to put it is this:
Operationally-aware, accounting-correct business management for small manufacturers.
ForgeOps is a business management platform specifically designed for small manufacturers, particularly those in the 3D printing space. It combines operational management with accounting principles to provide a comprehensive solution for running a manufacturing business. However it does this by being "operationally-aware" and "accounting-correct": We don't overwhelm the user with accounting jargon or processes, we automate everything and hide complexity behind business processes.
That being said: ForgeOps will also aim to "educate" users by explaining why certain processes are important from an accounting perspective. For example: When a user creates a Purchase Order, we can explain that this is important because it creates a liability for the company and ensures that we have proper documentation for tax and audit purposes. We also aim to show the impact that each Business Event will have on the overall financial health of the company.
Remember: The end user for ForgeOps is simply a person running a small 3D printing business out of their garage. They have no inherent concept of Accounting Principles, Business Practices, Procurement workflows... Our target audience have a mindset of:
I have a 3D printer, I want to make stuff and I want to sell it.
They will most likely want to ask questions like:
What can I do to increase profits?
Where did all my money go? What did I spend it on?
What are my tax responsibilities for this year?
These are simple but valid questions, and the answers are always more nuanced than a simple one-liner.
ForgeOps aims to bridge that gap by providing a simple, easy-to-use platform that automates the complex stuff and provides insights into the business.
Here is the list of key features that we aim to include in the initial release of ForgeOps. Note that these are technical and explicit and is NOT what they are labeled as in the system.
- Purchasing and Procurement: Increase our materials and supplies through approval workflows, purchase orders, and vendor management.
- Inventory Management: Track all materials, supplies, and finished goods in a centralized inventory system.
- Production Management: Manage the entire production process from job creation to scheduling and tracking.
- Sales Management: Handle customer orders, invoicing, and payment processing.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Manage customer information, sales leads, and interactions.
- Marketing Tools: Basic tools for managing social media and email campaigns.
- Document Management: Generate and manage financial reports and invoices.
- Various Administration Tools: User management, system settings, and audit logs.
A big key feature that we will introduce is Sales Tax tracking. Note that we are NOT reporting sales taxes, we are NOT enforcing sales remittance, and we are NOT automating any tax related operations. The Administrator on the Customer end will configure the regions to which they sell and ensure the tax rules are up to date. (ForgeOps will seed initial data for Canadian and US sales taxes and attempt to keep them up to date as far as possible)
They will also indicate whether or not they are currently exempt from remitting these various sales taxes to their relevant agencies.
When a Sale happens, ForgeOps will look at the shipping address, determine the tax jurisdiction, and apply the relevant sales taxes to the invoice if applicable. At the end of the year, the customer has a complete record of all sales taxes collected and can remit them accordingly.
If the Customer is exempt from remitting sales taxes, ForgeOps will still track Sales Taxes when purchases are made, but not for any sales. (IE: This will be an Expense account)
All of the data contained within the ForgeOps database is owned by the customer who created it. ForgeOps Inc. does not claim any ownership over customer data and only owns the data that was seeded into the database upon creation.
ForgeOps Inc. retains customer data for as long as the customer maintains an active subscription to the ForgeOps service. If a customer cancels their subscription, ForgeOps Inc. will retain their data for a period of 30 days after the cancellation date. After this period, all customer data will be permanently deleted from the ForgeOps database.
Should the customer wish to reactivate their subscription within the 30-day period, their data will be restored and made accessible once again.
Should the customer wish to permanently delete their data prior to the end of the 30-day retention period, they may do so by contacting ForgeOps Inc. support.
ForgeOps Inc. performs regular backups of the ForgeOps database to ensure data integrity and availability. Backups are retained for a period of 90 days and are stored in a secure location. Note that ForgeOps will not be able to accept any liability for data loss or corruption that occurs outside of our backup retention period.
ForgeOps Inc. takes data security seriously and implements industry-standard security measures to protect customer data. This includes encryption of data in transit and at rest, regular security audits, and access controls to limit who can access customer data.
In order to improve our services and provide better insights to our customers, ForgeOps Inc. may use aggregated and anonymized customer data for business intelligence and analytics purposes. This data will not contain any personally identifiable information and will be used solely for the purpose of improving the ForgeOps platform.
A simple example of this: Three different and unrelated ForgeOps customers ordered the same supplies from the same supplier and received the same batch number, and all of them are reporting an issue with the material. ForgeOps can identify this trend and notify all affected customers of a potential issue with the supplier or material batch, or could potentially even notify the supplier directly.
While the generalized term "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) is often used to describe a wide range of technologies and techniques, ForgeOps Inc. specifically refers to the use of machine learning algorithms and natural language processing techniques to provide advanced features and capabilities within the ForgeOps platform.
In the future, ForgeOps Inc. may implement AI features that utilize customer data to provide personalized recommendations, automate tasks, and improve overall user experience. Any use of customer data for AI purposes will be done in accordance with the Data Ownership and Data Security policies outlined above and will require explicit consent from the customer.
ForgeOps Inc. will be offering three pricing tiers: Free, Professional and Enterprise. Please see below the restrictions of each pricing tier.
The Free Tier of ForgeOps is designed for individuals and small businesses who are just starting out and have limited needs. The Free Tier is limited to individuals who have a single 3D printer and is 100% feature complete with the following exceptions:
- Free Tier customers will be limited to a maximum of 3 registered users on their Forge. This includes both Administrators and regular users.
- These customers will also only be able to register ONE 3D printer in the system. This is to ensure that the Free Tier is used by individuals and small businesses who are just starting out and do not have complex production needs.
- Customers on the Free Tier will not be able to customize when their reports are generated. All reports will be generated at the end of a given financial period, (typically on the last day of the month) at midnight, Central Eastern Time. (GMT -5) Customers should be aware of this and expect potential delays in report availability and be aware of general system responsiveness during this time.
- Customers on the Free Tier will not have access to any future AI features that may be implemented. Note that their data will not be used for AI purposes either, unless they explicitly upgrade to a paid tier and provide consent.
- Customers on the Free Tier will have limited access to customer support. They will be able to create bug tickets, but will not be assigned to a Support Representative and will rely on community support and documentation for assistance.
- Free Tier Customers will all share in the available resource pool and no performance guarantees can be provided or offered.
The Professional Tier of ForgeOps is designed for small to medium-sized businesses who require more advanced features and capabilities. As with the Free Tier, "ForgeOps Professional" will be 100% feature complete with the following exceptions:
- Customers on the Free or Professional Tiers will not be able to customize accounting events and will rely on ForgeOps internally defined accounting events for all business processes.
- Customers on a Professional Subscription will have access to AI features as they are implemented, however they will be using a shared AI pool. In other words: AI responsiveness will be impacted based on the number of concurrent users on the entire platform, not only their Forge.
- Lastly, Professional Tier customers will still only have access to Standard, automated Accounting.
Enterprise Tier (Starting from $100 per month per seat / user, pricing to be determined based on individual customer agreements)
Enterprise tier customers will also have 100% feature completeness, however they will have the following additional benefits:
- Dedicated hosting resources including database, application server, and AI processing power. This will ensure that Enterprise customers have the best possible performance and responsiveness for their Forge and their users.
- Customizable accounting events and workflows. Enterprise customers will be able to work with ForgeOps Inc. to define custom accounting events and workflows that meet their specific business needs. Note that Accounting Principles will still be applied, but the customer will have more control over how these events are triggered and processed.
- Custom reporting capabilities. Enterprise customers will be able to work with ForgeOps Inc. to define custom reports that meet their specific business needs.
- Dedicated customer support. Enterprise customers will have access to a dedicated Support Representative who will work with them to resolve any issues or concerns they may have.
- Priority access to new features and capabilities. Enterprise customers will be given priority access to new features and capabilities as they are implemented on the ForgeOps platform.
- Custom feature development. Enterprise customers will have the option to work with ForgeOps Inc. to develop custom features and capabilities that meet their specific business needs. Note that this will be subject to additional fees and timelines and will only be considered if this functionality can be generalized and offered to all customers in the future. PLEASE NOTE: ForgeOps will NOT be building any custom code for ANY customer, ever. All features must be generalizable and offered to all customers in order for the effort involved to be financially viable!
- Involvement in feature prioritization. Enterprise customers will have the opportunity to provide input and feedback on the prioritization of new features and capabilities for the ForgeOps platform.
The market currently has no direct competitors that offer the same combination of features and capabilities as ForgeOps. However, there are several companies that offer similar solutions in the business management and manufacturing space. Some of these competitors include QuickBooks, Xero, Odoo, NetSuite, Shopify, Acumatica, Microsoft Dynamics and SAP B1. Each of them is strong in one or more particular areas, however none of them offer "best in class" for all features of ForgeOps. Specifically:
- Not a single one of these tools provide Contextual Accounting as described by ForgeOps. (Contextual Accounting attempts to explain the Financial impacts of Business Events to the end-user. For example: When you make a quick cash sale of an item, did you know that we are creating at least four journal entries? Raw Materials > Finished Goods for Production; Revenue > Accounts Receivable; Sales Tax > Accounts Receivable; Finished Goods > Cost of Goods Sold; and finally Accounts Receivable > Cash)
- None of them provide a true Business Event Model. The "Business Event Model" is a core concept of ForgeOps and is what allows us to automate complex accounting processes behind simple user actions. For example: When a user creates a Purchase Order, we automatically create the necessary accounting entries to reflect the liability created by the purchase. Buying a roll of filament from Amazon is a click and forget to the person, but in the Business World we want to know: Who wanted to buy it? Who approved it? Who was it purchased from? How much did it cost? When was it received? Where was it used? ... I think you get the point. :)
- The only non-jargon UX platform here is Shopify, however they lack Accounting capabilities. Non-jargon UX is crucial to ForgeOps' success. Regular people don't understand what "Accounts Receivable" or "Cost of Goods Sold" means, so why are we trying to force them to learn it? Instead, we hide the complexity behind simple workflows and processes that make sense to the end user.
In short: ForgeOps is unique in its approach to combining operational management with accounting principles in a way that is accessible and easy to use for small manufacturers. There is simply no other platform that offers the same level of integration and automation for small manufacturing businesses.
Oh, and the price is pretty competitive too! :)
Supplies & Purchases
- Procurement: Purchasing workflow consisting of "Requisitions", "Purchase Orders", "Vendors", and "Items".
- Raw Materials: Filament management, spool tracking, and material consumption.
- Operational Supplies: Things like gloves, tape, and other consumables. Both Raw Materials and Operational Supplies are tracked in Inventory, but we split them here for visibility purposes. Under the hood, it's essentially Assets (Materials) and Expenses. (Supplies)
- Inventory: Inventory management for all items including Raw Materials, Operational Supplies, and Finished Goods. Anything and everything going into or coming out of Production.
- Assets: Asset management for all physical items owned by the company including 3D printers, computers, furniture, etc. Why here? Technically forms part of "Supplies": Necessary to run the business.
Production
- Products: Define the entire product, including the Bill of Materials (BOM) and routing steps.
- Jobs: Production jobs to manufacture products. Jobs pull from Inventory and consume Raw Materials and Operational Supplies.
- Schedule: Schedule and calendar view of all production jobs.
- Utilization Reports: Indicate which machines are used more than others, what the maintenance costs are, and help identify bottlenecks in production.
- Production Analysis: Assist the user in identifying potential inefficiencies in the production process, such as delays, resource allocation issues, or quality control problems.
Sales, Products & Licenses
- Physical Goods: Tangible item sales. This is also where customer orders will live or initiate.
- Services: Selling services such as design work, consulting, or training.
- Subscriptions: Subscription sales such as "Patreon" or "MakerWorld". These are recurring revenue products.
- Digital Licenses: Licensing our designs or digital assets for manufacturing and sale by others. This can also include contracts, agreements, etc...
Customers / CRM (We need to decide on a "label" for this...)
- Customers: A complete list of all customers, either B2B or B2C. This should include as much information as we can possibly find for the customer: Contacts, Tax information, etc...
- Sales Leads: Identify potential sales opportunities and track them through the sales pipeline.
- Activities: All contact with customers including calls, emails, meetings, etc...
- Notes: General notes about customers, interactions, or anything else relevant that cannot be classified or tracked anywhere else in the platform.
- Cross Selling: Identify opportunities to sell additional products or services to existing customers based on their purchase history and preferences.
Marketing
- Social Media Campaigns: Manage and track social media marketing campaigns across various platforms. This includes setting up posts for various platforms and schedules on when to post and how frequently. Basically "post dating" social media posts.
- Email Campaigns: Create, manage, and analyze email marketing campaigns. This includes designing email templates, segmenting email lists, scheduling email sends, and tracking open and click-through rates.
- Customer Engagement: The outcomes of all the various campaigns and marketing efforts. This includes tracking metrics such as customer interactions, conversions, and overall engagement levels to assess the effectiveness of marketing strategies.
Documents
- Financial Reports: Comprehensive financial statements including income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements to provide insights into the company's financial health. This will be the only place where Accounting is truly visible in the application and will likely only be used by CA's at the end of the financial year.
- Sales / Purchase Invoices: A quick lookup area for any and all invoices generated by the system, either Sales or Purchase.
Administration
- Forge Settings: General application settings including company information, currency settings, and other global configurations. (Each "Tenant" has their own "Forge": A URL that they can access the application at, eg: "https://guttergames.forgeops.ca")
- Supply Types: Administration of what type of Supplies we have in the system including Raw Materials and Operational Supplies. This needs to live in the Administration category as we don't want "regular users" modifying these values or entities.
- Social Media Accounts: List, configure and enable various social media integration points. We would also require customers to register for their own API keys, but this might be a V2 feature...
- Sales Regions and Tax Jurisdictions: Determines where we sell and what the various tax jurisdictions are. This is important for tax calculation purposes. We will seed the data we have for Canada and the US, however other regions might require more investigation.
- Sales Channels: Administration of various sales channels including online stores, physical locations, and third-party marketplaces. (Etsy, Amazon, etc...)
- Product Features: Administration of which modules are enabled for this Forge. For example: If the customer does not wish to make use of Procurement, the entire workflow for purchasing is disabled and purchases become a simple "data entry" task instead of a full-blown workflow.
- Users and Roles: Add, modify, and manage user accounts and their associated roles and permissions within the application.
- Audit Logs: Comprehensive logs of all user activities and system events for security, reporting and possibly compliance purposes.
