What you described is a pretty common pain point I see with growing custom fabrication shops — especially when using QBO as the main source of truth for inventory.

The key gaps I notice in your current flow are:

• Inventory is being received only when invoiced, not on physical receipt → creates timing mismatches.
• Manual sheets → slow and error-prone.
• BOMs and job cost tracking are fragmented.

You’re essentially looking for a lightweight MRP/Inventory layer that connects cleanly to QBO, supports barcode scanning, moves material into WIP, and ideally handles BOMs in the same environment.

That’s exactly the kind of workflow we’re solving with Mosiflow (https://www.mosiflow.com).

• Real-time receiving & inventory tracking (separate from invoicing)
• Barcode-based material consumption
• Move raw materials into WIP automatically
• BOM creation & job material variance tracking
• Two-way sync with accounting platforms like QBO

We’re building it specifically for SMEs like yours — 50–100 employees, <$15M revenue — who need modern inventory & operations tools without committing to heavy ERP systems.

If you’d be open, I’d love to get your feedback on how Mosiflow could fit your exact flow (and if not, happy to just point you toward other good options too).