Scaling your CPG brand requires the right systems in place to support that growth. Without clear visibility into your operations, you risk stockouts, overproduction, lost profitability, and compliance issues.

If you’re still relying on spreadsheets and manual tracking, it’s time to upgrade your approach. Here’s how to bring clarity to your business and make smarter, data-driven decisions.

Sponsored by Kaizntree, which helps you track inventory, automate reporting, and optimize profitability. Investing in the right systems now will save you time, money, and stress down the road.

1. Align Sales Forecasts with Inventory Levels and Production

Running out of stock or overproducing can be costly. Many brands react to demand rather than proactively planning based on real data.

How to Improve:

• Use historical sales data to predict future demand and adjust production schedules accordingly.
• Factor in seasonality and promotions—big sales spikes can lead to stockouts if you’re not prepared.
• Integrate inventory tracking with sales platforms so stock levels adjust automatically with each order.

✔ Pro Tip: Track sell-through rates by retail channel to ensure you’re not over-allocating inventory to slow-moving accounts.

2. Calculate COGS by Inventory Lot in Real Time

If you’re not tracking costs per inventory lot, you might be underestimating your true cost of goods sold (COGS). Fluctuating ingredient costs, supplier price changes, and packaging variations can all impact profitability.

How to Improve:

• Assign costs to each inventory lot as materials are received, accounting for price fluctuations.
• Track ingredient costs separately from labor and overhead to see where expenses are creeping up.
• Use real-time COGS tracking tools to monitor profit margins per batch, rather than waiting until month-end accounting.

✔ Pro Tip: Set margin alerts—if your COGS exceeds a certain percentage of retail price, review your sourcing and pricing strategy.

3. Track Batches and Lots to Maintain Product Safety and Quality

Product recalls, compliance audits, and food safety regulations all require precise batch tracking. If you can’t trace ingredients and finished goods back to their source, you’re putting your brand at risk.

How to Improve:

• Label every batch and lot number at production to track where each product was sold.
• Keep digital records of ingredient sources so you can trace back to suppliers in case of quality issues.
• Implement a batch recall protocol—have a clear plan for pulling affected products quickly if needed.

✔ Pro Tip: Even if you’re small, set up a simple batch tracking system now. It’ll save you headaches as you scale and ensure compliance with retailers and regulators.

4. Monitor Profitability by SKU

Not all products are equally profitable. Some may have high sales but low margins, while others drive most of your profits. Without SKU-level profitability tracking, you’re making blind decisions.

How to Improve:

• Track revenue, COGS, and operating expenses by SKU to understand true profitability.
• Identify your most profitable SKUs and focus marketing efforts on them.
• Analyze retail vs. DTC margins—wholesale pricing might require different cost structures than direct-to-consumer sales.

✔ Pro Tip: Regularly cut underperforming SKUs to optimize your product mix. If a product isn’t profitable, either adjust pricing or discontinue it.

5. Set Up Automatic Reporting

Manual reporting is time-consuming and prone to errors. A lack of real-time insights makes it hard to react quickly to operational issues.

How to Improve:

• Automate inventory, sales, and COGS reporting so you always have up-to-date numbers.
• Schedule weekly profitability reports to track key financial metrics without manual updates.
• Use dashboards to monitor KPIs like sell-through rates, inventory turns, and production efficiency.

✔ Pro Tip: Set up alerts for critical business metrics—such as low stock levels or unexpected dips in profitability—so you can act fast.

Take Control of Your Operations

Scaling your CPG brand requires operational clarity. By aligning sales forecasts with inventory, tracking COGS in real time, ensuring product safety with batch tracking, monitoring SKU profitability, and automating reporting, you’ll build a strong foundation for sustainable growth.

Looking for the right tools to streamline your operations?

Kaizntree can help you track inventory, automate reporting, and optimize profitability. Investing in the right systems now will save you time, money, and stress down the road.

They offer personalized onboarding to get you set up in just 3 days and 25% off for a year.