How to compare operations software for food and drink brands

Compare food and drink operations software on the jobs your team does every week. Can it read POs in any format, match each customer's codes and prices, track batches and use-by dates, cost recipes at actual lot cost, connect to retailer EDI and your 3PL, and invoice in Xero from what you shipped? And how fast can you go live?

Weighing up Pesto vs Unleashed, Pesto vs Cin7, Pesto vs Katana, or Pesto vs a generic ERP such as NetSuite, Business Central or Sage 200? Each is capable software. What matters is how it handles the jobs below, so run the same ten checks against every option, including ours.

Last updated: 16 October 2026

What should a food brand check before choosing an ERP?

Generic feature lists won't tell you much. These ten checks will. Take them into every demo, including ours.

1
Reads POs in any format
Ask the vendor: "Show me a PDF, a spreadsheet and an email order going in, live."
How Pesto does it
Reads PDF, Excel, CSV, TXT, JPG and PNG, forwarded emails, pasted threads, Shopify and EDI. You review each order beside the original.
2
Customer-specific product codes and prices
Ask the vendor: "Can it match lines by my customer's own codes and check their agreed price?"
How Pesto does it
Matches by each customer's own product code, fills missing prices from their price list and flags mismatches.
3
Cases, units and weight
Ask the vendor: "Can one customer order in cases and another in units?"
How Pesto does it
Set the ordering mode per customer: cases, units or weight. Invoice in units or cases.
4
Batch, use-by, FEFO and minimum shelf life per customer
Ask the vendor: "Will it stop me sending a short-dated batch to a retailer with a 70% shelf-life rule?"
How Pesto does it
Batch and lot tracking, FEFO or FIFO, and minimum shelf-life rules per customer set to allow, warn or block.
5
BOM with wastage, packaging and co-packer fees
Ask the vendor: "Where do co-packer fees and the inputs my co-packer buys sit in my recipe?"
How Pesto does it
BOM lanes for direct materials, bought-in, shadow materials and services like co-man fees, with wastage % per line.
6
Costs at actual lot cost
Ask the vendor: "Is my margin based on a standard cost or what I actually paid for that batch?"
How Pesto does it
Gross margin uses the actual lot cost of the stock allocated to each dispatched line.
7
UK retailer EDI
Ask the vendor: "Which EDI hubs do you connect to, and which retailers come through them?"
How Pesto does it
Your retailer's EDI system (e.g. XEDI, TrueCommerce, Supply Lens), carrying orders from Ocado and other UK retailers.
8
3PL routing
Ask the vendor: "Can different customers' orders go to different warehouses automatically?"
How Pesto does it
Routing rules by source, customer type, customer or product to your 3PL's system (e.g. Mintsoft, Pimento, Hive).
9
Xero invoicing from dispatched quantity
Ask the vendor: "Does the invoice use what I ordered or what I actually shipped?"
How Pesto does it
Xero invoices from dispatched quantity at the order price, automatically on dispatch if you want.
10
Time to go live
Ask the vendor: "When will my first real order go through, and who does the setup?"
How Pesto does it
Weeks, not months, with our team setting up your products, customers and price lists.

If a vendor answers "yes, with configuration", ask who configures it and how long it takes.

How does Pesto compare with the tools you're weighing up?

For Unleashed, Cin7, Katana or a generic ERP, take the ten checks above into the demo and ask each vendor the questions in the table. For spreadsheets, we've done the comparison.

Pesto vs Excel Spreadsheets are already open on everyone's laptop, and everyone knows how they work. But field audits found errors in 94% of the spreadsheets studied (Panko, 2015), and no spreadsheet reads a PO for you. When does it make sense to move off? Facts checked 16 October 2026.

Still on spreadsheets? → Read the outgrowing spreadsheets guide or → try the ROI calculator.

Where does Pesto fit for my type of brand?

Pesto works differently depending on how you make your products. See the pages for brands that make their own, brands that use co-packers and brands that buy finished goods. See how order management and COGS & margins work, or read what customers say.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best ERP for a UK food and drink brand?

The one that handles your orders, batches and costs without months of configuration. Use the ten checks above: PO reading, customer codes and prices, cases vs units, batch and shelf life, BOM costing, actual lot cost, EDI, 3PL routing, Xero invoicing and time to go live.

When should a food brand stop using spreadsheets?

Usually when orders arrive from several channels, a retailer asks for batch codes and use-by dates on the delivery note, or someone spends their evenings reconciling stock with Xero. → Outgrowing spreadsheets guide

How do you keep these comparisons fair?

We date-stamp every competitor fact, link to the source on each compare page and re-check them regularly. If something's out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.

See Pesto running on your own orders.

Bring a real PO, your messiest one. We'll show you what Pesto does with it in 30 minutes.

Book a demo