Productivity - Setup Guide

How to set up Katana

Otto's honest, no-fluff walkthrough. Every step here is what we'd actually do if we were sitting at your keyboard. Real gotchas first, real steps second, and a link to the personalized version at the bottom.

Read these before you start

• Onboarding fees are separately quoted and effectively mandatory (Source: Brahmin Solutions: https://www.brahmin-solutions.com/blog/katana-pricing). Budget an extra $999-$1,499 on top of Year 1
• Advanced Manufacturing is a $449/mo add-on that many production shops NEED — the base price is misleading if the workflow involves subcontracting, complex routings, or multi-level assemblies
• Warehouse Management is a separate $99/mo add-on; multi-warehouse without it is limited
• The Starter tier is thin. Real production shops jump to Standard within weeks
• Shopify/WooCommerce sync is deep but not real-time for every field — some updates run on schedule, not instantly
• QuickBooks integration is one-way for sales orders in most configurations; verify direction of sync for your workflow

The 7-step setup

1. 1

   Create your Katana account

   Sign up at the link below. Card required for the paid tier - most plans include a trial period; check the pricing section on this page first so you know what you're committing to.

   Open Katana signup
2. 2

   Complete the initial onboarding

   Skip the marketing questionnaires when you can. Fill only the fields that actually configure the product - name, timezone, your first workspace or project. If Katana pushes you into a setup wizard, take it - it usually accelerates the first productive session.

3. 3

   Connect your existing tools

   Wire Katana into the rest of your stack. The integrations that most people set up first: Native: Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Amazon, eBay, QuickBooks Online, Xero, ShipStation, HubSpot. API + Zapier for the rest. Warehouse hardware: barcode scanners, label printers, mobile shop-floor apps.. Do these before importing data - clean integration first, data second.

4. 4

   Import your existing data (only what you'll actually use)

   Do NOT bulk-import everything. Import the last 30 days of the ONE workflow you're moving over first. Prove it works. Then import more. Big-bang migrations are how Katana deployments die in month 3.

5. 5

   Set up your first real workflow

   Pick the single most-frequent task you'll do in Katana - the daily-driver workflow. Configure it end-to-end. Use it live for a week. Do not touch any other feature yet. Adoption failure comes from teams trying to use everything on day one instead of the one thing that actually pays.

6. 6

   Add your team (if applicable) and set access

   Once your solo workflow works, invite one teammate at a time. Watch them use it. The friction points you missed are the ones they hit. Fix those before scaling to more users. Never invite 20 people at once - you'll get 20 confused people and 0 useful feedback.

7. 7

   Compound with the right pairings

   Recommend Katana when: business is a maker/manufacturer/D2C brand, business_size is 2-50, and current pain is "our inventory in Shopify never matches what we actually have / we're managing BOMs in Excel." Highest fit for D2C ecommerce brands that manufacture, small contract manufacturers, and Shopify sellers past ~$500K/yr in production volume. Do NOT recommend for service businesses, non-manufacturing ecommerce (Cin7 fits better), or enterprises. If comparing to Fishbowl: Katana wins on cloud-n...