Free offline production management software
Timeline Factory Manager is a free desktop app by Timeline Digital for small factories and workshops. Run work orders, enter made and rejected counts each day and print a production report, offline, on one Windows PC or Mac.
Version 1.0.0 · Free · Works offline
Production is one part of the app. Sales orders, stock, purchasing and delivery notes are in it too: see the Timeline Factory Manager product page, the features page for all 15 screens, or the wider free manufacturing software overview.
Who this is for
- A supervisor or office clerk enters the daily counts for the whole floor on one computer.
- You want to see how far each running job has got without walking the floor.
- You want made and rejected totals by product and by day, on paper or in a spreadsheet.
- You hand a printed job card to the floor for each job.
Not a fit if
- You need to schedule machines or shifts, or plan capacity.
- Operators must enter their own counts on tablets or their own computers.
- You need labour hours, labour cost or job costing.
- You need quality checks, batch numbers or traceability on each job.
Key facts
- App
- Timeline Factory Manager, version 1.0.0, published by Timeline Digital
- Price
- Free. No account and no sign-up.
- Runs on
- Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), or macOS 12 or newer, Apple silicon (M1 or later)
- Internet
- Not needed to use the app. You need it once to download the installer.
- Users
- One computer, one user
- Work order statuses
- Planned, In progress, Done, Cancelled
- Recorded each day
- Made and rejected units for every running work order
- Shop-floor printouts
- Job card and Material issue slip
How do you run a work order from start to finish?
A work order is an instruction to make a quantity of one product. It is planned until you click Start, in progress while you record made and rejected units each day, and done when you click Complete. A work order can also be cancelled, as long as no production has been recorded on it.
Create the work order
On a sales order, click Make work orders to create planned work orders for whatever the order still needs. Or add one yourself with New work order: product, quantity, planned start, due date and instructions for the floor.
Click Start
The status changes from planned to in progress and the materials from the bill of materials are reserved. If available stock is not enough, starting is refused and each short material is named.
Print the Job card and Material issue slip
Both print from the work order page, with your company name and logo, or save as PDF.
Enter made and rejected each day
Open Daily production, type the counts beside each running work order and click Save all.
Click Complete
Check the totals, add a final count if anything was made since the last entry, and confirm. The status becomes done.
What happens when a material is short, and how to order it, is on the free MRP software page. The free work order software page covers the work order record itself.
How do you record daily production?
Open Daily production. Every running work order is on one screen, each with a made box and a rejected box. Type the day's counts and click Save all. One person can enter the whole floor's output in a single pass.
Entries can be edited or deleted while the work order is running, so a wrong count is fixed where it was typed. Below the entry boxes is a list of recent entries with search and a date range. The dashboard has a Record production quick button.
Recording production shows progress on the dashboard and on the work order. Stock does not move yet. It moves when the work order is completed.
What happens when you complete a work order?
The Complete window shows the totals made and rejected so far and lets you add a final count for anything made since the last daily entry. Leave it at 0 if all production is recorded. The materials used, for everything made and rejected, are taken out of stock, and the good units are added to finished goods.
Reopening
Reopen undoes a completion so you can correct a mistake. It works while the goods from that work order are still in stock.
Cancelling
A work order with production recorded cannot be cancelled. Complete it instead, so the materials used are accounted for. Rejected units use materials too, which is why completion counts everything made and rejected.
After completion
The good units are in finished goods, ready for a delivery note. Stock itself is covered on the free manufacturing inventory software page.
Where do you see production progress?
On the dashboard, the first screen of the app. It shows units made in the last 7 days, with rejects, and a bar for each of the last 14 days. It counts the work orders that are planned and running, and lists what is in production now, with progress.
Next to that are lists of what is ready to deliver and what is due in the next 7 days or late. Each list shows up to 8 items and links to the full list. The Work orders list shows progress for every work order too.
What does the Production report show?
Made, rejected and reject rate by product, with a breakdown by day. You choose the period: this month, last month, the last 30 days, this year or any dates. The report can be printed, saved as a PDF from the print preview, or exported to CSV to open in a spreadsheet.
A reject rate usually means rejected units as a share of everything produced, good and rejected together. The report shows a reject rate for each product, so you can see which products lose the most to rejects over the period.
What goes to the shop floor on paper?
Two printouts, both from the work order page: a Job card and a Material issue slip. The job card shows the product, the quantity to make, the materials required and a daily production table. Both carry your company name, address, contact details, tax number and logo, on A4 or US Letter.
A preview window opens with Print and Save as PDF. The job card can also be printed from the row menu on the Work orders list. The daily production table on the job card is for writing counts by hand. Someone then types them into Daily production.
What do the production terms mean?
Four terms used on this page and in the app, each in one or two plain sentences.
- Work order
- An instruction to make a quantity of one product. In the app it is planned, in progress, done or cancelled.
- Job card
- The printed sheet that goes to the shop floor with a work order. It shows the product, the quantity to make, the materials required and a daily production table.
- Material issue slip
- A printed document from the work order page, used when materials are issued from the store for that job.
- Reject rate
- Rejected units as a share of everything produced, good and rejected together, is the usual meaning. The Production report shows a reject rate for each product.
How do I record production? Watch it.
Three of the 27 free video lessons cover the shop-floor side: recording daily production, completing a work order, and fixing mistakes by editing entries, reopening or cancelling. Click a lesson to play it here.
Lesson 17: Record daily production (1:05)
Made and rejected counts for every running work order.
Lesson 18: Complete a work order (0:57)
Use the materials and add good units to finished goods.
Lesson 19: Fix mistakes, reopen or cancel a work order (1:33)
Edit entries, reopen a completed work order or cancel one.
All 27 lessons with written steps · Watch the playlist on YouTube
What does the free edition not do?
It records what was made and rejected. It does not plan the floor. There is no machine or shift scheduling, no capacity planning, no operator tracking and no labour costing. The only place for operator notes is the printed job card, which is filled in by hand.
Not included in Timeline Factory Manager
- Several users, logins or permissions
- Use on more than one computer, or shared data over a network or the internet
- Online or browser access, a mobile app, or cloud backup
- Machine and shift planning, scheduling or capacity planning
- Job costing, labour costing or profit margins (material cost from the bill of materials is shown)
- Quality checks, batch or lot numbers, serial numbers or traceability
- Barcode or QR code scanning, label printing
- Several sites or warehouses, or stock locations
- Links to accounting software, invoicing, quotations, statements or payments
- Sending email from inside the app
- Multi-level bills of materials (sub-assemblies), routings and operations
- Languages other than English
What stays on your computer
Your factory data is kept in one data file on your own computer. The app works fully offline, has no account or sign-up, sends nothing over the internet and collects no usage data. It only opens your browser or email program when you click a Timeline Digital link.
Everything on that list, including shop-floor tablets for several users, scheduling and labour costing, is available as custom work from Timeline Digital, starting with a free pilot. Scope and terms are agreed after the pilot. Tell us how your shop floor reports today, or read about manufacturing ERP software and custom software development.
Custom version
Need Timeline Factory Manager across several sites, or built around how you work?
The free edition is an offline desktop app for a single site. When you need it across several sites, in the cloud, connected to your other systems or shaped around your own workflow, we build a custom version for you. The pilot is always free. We start with your most important modules, so you can judge the work before you commit.
How do you download and install it?
Download the Windows installer or the Mac disk image below and install it like any desktop app. First start is a short setup of three steps. Choose Explore with sample data to open a made-up furniture workshop with work orders already running, and try Daily production before you enter your own.
Windows
Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). The file is Timeline-Factory-Manager-1.0.0-windows-setup.exe, about 111 MB. Open it and follow the steps. No administrator password is needed. The installer is not code-signed, so Windows shows "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.
Mac
macOS 12 or newer, Apple silicon (M1 or later). The file is Timeline-Factory-Manager-1.0.0-mac-arm64.dmg, about 123 MB. Open it and drag the app into Applications. The app is not signed or notarized, so macOS warns the first time you open it. No Intel Mac download is published at present.
Version 1.0.0 · Free · Works offline
Full install steps and checksums are on the free manufacturing software for Windows page and the free manufacturing software for Mac page. The how to use page has every lesson with written steps.
Production management software questions
Is there free production management software that works offline?
Yes. Timeline Factory Manager is a free offline desktop app by Timeline Digital for Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and macOS 12 or newer, Apple silicon (M1 or later). It runs work orders, records made and rejected units each day, shows progress on a dashboard and prints a Production report. It is for one computer and one user. See the product page.
How do I record daily production?
In Timeline Factory Manager, open Daily production. Every running work order is listed on one screen with a made box and a rejected box. Type the day's counts and click Save all. The entries appear in the recent list, which you can search and filter by date range. Lesson 17 shows it in about a minute.
Can I correct a production entry after saving it?
Yes, while the work order is running. Timeline Factory Manager lets you edit or delete a daily production entry until the work order is completed. If you completed a work order by mistake, you can reopen it to correct it, as long as its goods are still in stock.
Can it print a daily production report?
Yes. The Production report in Timeline Factory Manager shows made, rejected and reject rate by product, with a breakdown by day, for this month, last month, the last 30 days, this year or any dates you choose. Click Print report to print it or save it as a PDF, or export it to CSV.
When does stock change: when I record production or when I complete?
When you complete. In Timeline Factory Manager, recording daily production updates progress on the dashboard and on the work order, but stock does not move. On completion the materials used, for everything made and rejected, are taken out of stock and the good units are added to finished goods.
Can I cancel a work order that has started?
Only if no production has been recorded on it. In Timeline Factory Manager a work order with production recorded cannot be cancelled. You complete it instead, so that the materials used are accounted for. A completed work order can be reopened while its goods are still in stock.
Does it schedule machines or shifts?
No. Timeline Factory Manager has no machine or shift planning, no scheduling and no capacity planning. A work order has a planned start and a due date that you enter, and the dashboard lists what is due in the next 7 days or late. Deciding what runs where and when stays with you.
Does it track operators or labour cost?
No. Timeline Factory Manager records made and rejected units per work order per day. It does not record who made them or how long it took, and it has no labour costing or job costing. The printed job card has a daily production table that the floor can fill in by hand.
Download the free production software
Install the app, load the sample data, and enter a day of made and rejected counts to see how it works. If you need scheduling, operator entry on tablets or labour costing, that is custom work: tell us how your shop floor reports today and we will say what we would pilot.
Version 1.0.0 · Free · Works offline
About this page
Published by Timeline Digital, the maker of Timeline Factory Manager. Every feature described here was checked against the user guide for version 1.0.0 of the app on . The screenshots show made-up sample companies. They are not real customers, and the names and amounts in them are invented.
Author
Usama Asif
CEO and CTO, Timeline Digital.
More about Timeline Factory Manager
Timeline Factory Manager
The product page: all 15 screens, screenshots and system requirements.
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The Windows installer, the checksum and the install steps.
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The Apple silicon disk image and how to open it the first time.
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27 short lessons, about 34 minutes in total.
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Every screen, from sales orders to backups.
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The work order record: product, quantity, dates and instructions.
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The material side: reserving, shortages, reorder levels and Order low stock.
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The overview: orders, materials, production, stock, purchasing and delivery.
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