ERP requirements for Indian manufacturers and traders

Tools

• Build your requirements list

  Five answers about your business: what it does, its turnover, whether Tally stays, whether it is a company, and which departments to cover. Out comes the list that applies, to print or open in Excel. Nothing leaves your browser.

• ERP requirements checklist

  All 71 requirements, each with why it matters, what to make a vendor show, what good looks like in a live system, and the law where one applies. Free under CC BY 4.0, also as JSON.

• ERP requirements template in Excel

  The checklist as an RFP and a vendor scorecard: set priorities, collect each vendor's answers, and the sheet scores them.

What makes this list different

• Every line has a test. The same test serves as the vendor demo script and as the acceptance test before go-live.
• Indian law, quoted. The audit trail, e-invoicing, the 30-day reporting limit, e-way bills, MSME payment terms and data protection, each quoted from the official text and checked by script.
• Figures from live systems. Where a line says what good looks like, the number comes from a system Ahrom Labs runs, and is published on its service page.
• Honest about gaps. Where Ahrom Labs hasn't built something yet (an e-invoice portal connection, for one), the line says so.

Guides

• Indian compliance requirements for an ERP: audit trail, e-invoice, e-way bill, MSME, TDS

  An ERP used in India has to meet rules the business is bound by: an audit trail that can't be switched off for companies keeping books in software (from 1 April 2023), e-invoices above ₹5 crore turnover, reporting to the portal within 30 days at ₹10 crore and above, e-way bills above ₹50,000, MSME payment limits of 45 days, TDS on purchases above ₹50 lakh for larger buyers, and safeguards for personal data.

• ERP vendor demo script: what to make every vendor show you

  Don't let an ERP vendor run their own demo. Bring your own data, give them a list of tests, and watch them do each one: change an entry and show the audit trail, reserve stock and try to ship it elsewhere, post an invoice to Tally and delete it there. A yes you didn't see demonstrated is a partly.

• Moving from Tally to an ERP: what to migrate and how to check it

  Decide first whether Tally stays as the books or goes. Then move masters, opening balances, outstanding bills, stock with its batches, and the history people actually look up, each checked against its source: count the rows, hold anything that matches two records for a person, and tag every import so it can be removed as a batch. Keep the audit trail unbroken through the switch.

• ERP contract checklist: code ownership, licence, AMC and your data

  Before a custom ERP is built, settle in writing who owns the code, what the licence covers and for how long, what the annual maintenance contract includes and costs, how changes are priced, how fast support answers, and how your data comes out at any time. Both ownership models are fair if they are stated.

• Is your business ready for an ERP? A 10-question self-check

  A business is ready for an ERP when someone owns each process, the masters are clean enough to load, the owner will decide disputes between departments, and people will record work where it happens. Ten questions, each with what to fix first if the answer is no.

• ERP selection matrix for India: Tally, ERPNext, Odoo, SAP Business One or custom

  TallyPrime, ERPNext, Odoo and SAP Business One all handle Indian e-invoicing in some form; they differ in how they're licensed, where they run, and how far they bend to your process. A custom system fits the process exactly but has to be built. Score them against your own requirements, weighted by your priorities, not against a vendor's feature list.

• ERP implementation plan: phases from mapping the business to go-live

  A custom ERP goes live in phases, each in use before the next starts: a short modeling phase that maps the business and ends with a dated, fixed-price plan; then the records that must be right; then the daily work of each department; then reports and AI. Data migration is its own scoped piece of work, and the requirements' tests are the acceptance tests for each phase.

• ERP for small manufacturers in India: the requirements that matter most

  A small Indian manufacturer needs an ERP that works from its existing Excel BOMs, tracks material down to the plate or batch it cuts from, sets stock aside for each order, costs jobs from what was actually used, and keeps the GST books or posts cleanly into Tally. Above ₹5 crore turnover add e-invoicing; as a company, an audit trail.

• ERP for trading and distribution businesses in India: what to require

  A trading or distribution business needs stock tracked by the unit it picks and ships, reserved against each customer order so nothing is sold twice, moved by scanning across stores, purchase documents read in without retyping, and invoices that reach Tally or the GST books automatically. Above ₹5 crore, e-invoices; at ₹10 crore and above, the 30-day limit and TDS on large purchases.

• ERP for interior design firms and fit-out businesses: what to require

  An interior design or fit-out business needs quotations built from a BOQ, projects that show what each is waiting on, vendor and freight charges checked against agreed rates, labour logged against each job and payroll computed from attendance, and, where there are sister companies, each invoicing on its own letterhead and GSTIN from one system.

Requirements by department

• Sales and CRM 6 requirements. What should an ERP do for sales?
• Purchase 7 requirements. What should an ERP do for purchasing?
• Stores and inventory 6 requirements. How detailed should ERP stock tracking be?
• Production and BOM 5 requirements. What does a manufacturer need from an ERP on the shop floor?
• Quality and traceability 3 requirements. How should an ERP handle test certificates and traceability?
• Dispatch and logistics 3 requirements. What should an ERP do at dispatch?
• Accounts and GST 12 requirements. Does an Indian ERP need to do the accounting itself?
• Payroll and people 3 requirements. What should an ERP do for payroll?
• Customer and supplier portals 3 requirements. Do customers and suppliers need access to the ERP?
• Reporting and AI 4 requirements. What should ERP reports and AI be able to do?
• Integrations 7 requirements. Which systems should an Indian ERP connect to?
• Reliability, access and support 8 requirements. What do ERP buyers forget to ask for?
• Contract and ownership 4 requirements. What should an ERP contract settle before the build?