ERP requirements builder: your checklist in five answers
Tell it what kind of business you run, your turnover, whether Tally stays, and which departments the system must cover. It picks the requirements that apply from 71, including the GST and company-law rules your turnover brings in, ready to print or open in Excel and send to vendors. It runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Pujan Motiwala · Statutory rules checked against the official texts on
65 requirements apply.
Send this to Ahrom LabsSales and CRM
Must Every enquiry has one current stage and a dated history from first contact to order, visible to everyone who works on it.
Test: Open an enquiry from last quarter and show every call, quotation and stage change on it, with who did each and when.
Must Quotations are generated as PDFs in the company's own format, with revisions numbered and kept, from the same items and rates the order will use.
Test: Revise a quotation twice and show all three versions, then convert the accepted one into an order without retyping a line.
Should History from the old CRM and spreadsheets is imported and checked row by row; a row that can't be matched to exactly one customer is held for a person, not guessed.
Test: Ask how many rows of your old data would be imported, how many held for review, and how a held row is resolved.
Should Follow-ups are planned with a date and an owner, and overdue ones are listed for each salesperson and their manager.
Test: Show this week's due and overdue follow-ups for one salesperson, as their manager sees them.
Should Win/loss, funnel, order and payment reports are computed from the enquiry, order and payment records themselves, not from a separate spreadsheet.
Test: Pick one figure on the funnel report and drill down to the records that make it up.
Could Where the group has more than one company, each quotation and invoice is issued under the company chosen for it, with that company's letterhead, logo and GSTIN, from one shared customer list.
Test: Raise one invoice for each company to the same customer and show both letterheads and GSTINs.
Purchase
Must Shortfalls against orders and bills of materials become purchase requests automatically, after stock and usable remnants are counted.
Test: Release an order that needs more than is in stock and show the purchase request it creates, net of what's available.
Must Every supplier bill is matched against its purchase order and the goods receipt before it is approved for payment; differences in quantity or rate are flagged.
Test: Receive less than was ordered, enter the supplier's bill for the full quantity, and show the mismatch flagged before approval.
Must Suppliers registered as micro or small enterprises are marked, and each of their bills shows its due date under the MSMED Act, with overdue bills listed before the year closes.
Test: Mark a supplier as a micro enterprise, enter a bill, and show its due date and the list of MSME bills nearing or past it.
Law: MSMED Act, 2006, section 15 (with Income-tax Act, 2025, section 37(2)(g))
Should Each supplier receives a private link by email or WhatsApp to enter rates and delivery dates, with no account to create.
Test: Send an RFQ to two suppliers, enter their rates on the links, and compare the quotes side by side.
Should Choosing a supplier's quote drafts the purchase order with the quoted rates and dates, without retyping.
Test: Accept one supplier quote and open the purchase order it drafts.
Should Every vendor and freight charge is compared with its agreed reference rate, and anything above it is flagged for a person.
Test: Enter a freight trip above the agreed rate and show where it is flagged and who sees it.
Should Year-end reports list MSME amounts paid after the section 15 time limit separately, so the accountant can treat them correctly in the tax computation.
Test: Show the year-end list of MSME bills paid late, with bill date, acceptance date and payment date.
Law: Income-tax Act, 2025, section 37(2)(g) (formerly section 43B(h) of the 1961 Act)
Stores and inventory
Must Stock is tracked by each physical unit that is picked and shipped (a reel, a box, a plate), each with its own number and label, not only as a total quantity.
Test: Receive two reels of the same part with different quantities and show each as its own unit with its own label.
Must Stock is reserved against each customer order line; a reserved unit shows as reserved when scanned, and shipping it elsewhere needs a manager's override.
Test: Reserve a unit for one order, then try to ship it on another and show the block and the override.
Must Stock balances are worked out from the movements themselves, not kept as a separate running total that can drift.
Test: Show the movements behind one item's balance and that they add up to it exactly.
Should Stock moves in, out and between stores by scanning with a phone camera or scanner, not by typing codes.
Test: Move three units between stores by scanning them with a phone, then show the move in both stores' records.
Should Stock is held in more than one store or site, including a partner's, and every move between them is logged unit by unit.
Test: Show stock for one item split across two stores, and the log of the last move between them.
Should Stock entries made by staff wait for a manager's approval before they change stock; a manager's own entries go through at once.
Test: Enter a receipt as store staff, show it pending, approve it as a manager, and show the stock change only then.
Production and BOM
Must Bills of materials kept in Excel are imported as they are, matched to the item master and grouped into assemblies; a likely typo is suggested, never silently corrected.
Test: Import one of your real BOM sheets and show how each unmatched line is handled.
Must A released bill of materials is frozen as a version that purchase and stores work from; later edits make a new version.
Test: Release a BOM, edit a line, and show the released version unchanged and the edit as a new version.
Should At each cut, what was used and the usable remnant are recorded; remnant weights come from dimensions and density, and remnants return to stock to be matched to waiting BOM lines before anything is bought.
Test: Cut a plate, record the remnant, and show it back in stock with its weight and offered against a waiting BOM line.
Should Each job is costed from the material and labour actually recorded against it, with each used piece costed by its share of the source piece.
Test: Show one finished job's cost, and the issues and work logs behind each line of it.
Should For each job or milestone the system shows what it is waiting on (material, drawing, approval, payment), worked out fresh each time it is opened.
Test: Open a delayed job and show what it is waiting on, then clear the blocker and show the status change by itself.
Quality and traceability
Must Material test certificates are kept once, in a bank, and linked to each piece of material and each product they apply to.
Test: Show one certificate and every product it has been used for.
Must The system may suggest which certificate belongs to which part, but a link that ends up in statutory paperwork is made only after a person confirms it.
Test: Show a suggested certificate link waiting for confirmation, and that it doesn't appear in any document until confirmed.
Should Statutory quality documents (for example a boiler's IBR folder) are assembled from the records already in the system, not compiled by hand.
Test: Generate the statutory folder for one finished product and check each certificate in it against the material used.
Dispatch and logistics
Must For goods moving with a consignment value above ₹50,000, the e-way bill is generated from the invoice and dispatch record, without retyping into the portal.
Test: Dispatch a consignment above ₹50,000 and show the e-way bill details produced from the invoice.
Law: CGST Rules, 2017, rule 138
Should Packing lists, invoices and certificates for a dispatch are produced from the same order and released to the customer as they are issued.
Test: Dispatch part of an order and show the packing list, invoice and certificates for exactly what left.
Could Suppliers record each dispatch on their link (lines, quantities, transporter, vehicle, LR number, photos), so stores see what is on the way.
Test: Record a supplier dispatch on the link and show it in stores' incoming list.
Accounts and GST
Must Every transaction in the books has an audit trail: an edit log of each change with the date it was made, which cannot be switched off.
Test: Enter a purchase bill, change its amount, and show the edit log with the old value, the new value, the user and the time; then show there is no setting to disable it.
Law: Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014, rule 3(1), proviso
Must Where aggregate turnover has exceeded ₹5 crore in any year since 2017-18, B2B invoices, credit notes and debit notes get an IRN from the invoice registration portal before they are issued.
Test: Issue a B2B invoice and show the IRN and signed QR code returned from the IRP on the printed invoice.
Law: Notification No. 13/2020–Central Tax, as amended by No. 10/2023–Central Tax (under CGST Rules, rule 48(4))
Must If Tally stays as the books, approved invoices post into TallyPrime as vouchers automatically, and each posted voucher is checked against Tally's own data so one deleted inside Tally is flagged.
Test: Approve an invoice, show the voucher in TallyPrime, delete it in Tally, and show it flagged as unconfirmed after the next sync.
Should The audit trail has been on, without gaps, for every financial year from 1 April 2023, including for data migrated from an older system.
Test: Show the audit trail for an entry made before the switch to the new system, and the first entry after it.
Law: Companies (Accounts) Second Amendment Rules, 2022
Should GST rates by HSN, TDS rates and payroll slabs come from one registry that a person verifies, used by every module, not typed into each transaction.
Test: Change a rate in the registry with an effective date and show transactions before and after it using the right rate.
Should Bank statement lines are matched to entries automatically only when the match is unique both ways; everything else goes to a person.
Test: Import a statement with two receipts of the same amount and show that neither is matched automatically.
Payroll and people
Must Pay is computed from attendance, rates and advances recorded during the month, never typed as a final figure.
Test: Show one worker's month: days present, rate, advances, and the pay the system worked out.
Should Who worked on which order, and on which part, is logged daily, so labour shows up in job costs.
Test: Log a day's work for two people on one order and show it in that order's cost.
Should PF, ESI, professional tax and income-tax slabs come from the verified rate registry and are applied by rule, not typed per employee.
Test: Show the deductions for one salaried employee and the registry entries they came from.
Customer and supplier portals
Must The customer portal shows a customer only their own orders and documents; stock levels, other customers and internal prices are never exposed.
Test: Sign in as one customer and try to open another customer's order by changing its number in the address.
Should Customers sign in to see each of their orders as plain-language stages worked out from what each department records, never typed for the customer.
Test: Sign in as a customer, open an order, then move it forward internally and show the customer's view change.
Could Drawings, certificates, packing lists and invoices appear to the customer as they are released, and drawings can be approved or uploaded there.
Test: Release a drawing, approve it as the customer, and show the approval recorded on the order.
Reporting and AI
Must Every figure on every report can be opened to show the transactions it was computed from.
Test: Pick a figure on the owner's dashboard and open the records behind it.
Should An AI assistant answers from fixed look-ups in code; it never writes a number itself, and any written answer containing a number not in the data is dropped.
Test: Ask the assistant this month's sales in plain English and in Hinglish, then compare its answer with the sales report.
Should AI reads purchase invoices, bills of entry, purchase orders and bank statements into the system, and a person approves each one before anything posts.
Test: Upload five of your own documents and show the fields read, the corrections needed, and that nothing posted before approval.
Could Drawings, certificates, past quotations and decisions are searchable in plain words, and each answer shows the document it came from.
Test: Search for a past quotation by what was quoted, not its number, and open the source.
Integrations
Must The ERP connects to TallyPrime through an agent on the Tally PC (Tally's gateway only listens there), with vouchers pushed and outstandings synced back on a fixed schedule.
Test: Show the agent running beside TallyPrime and the last sync times for vouchers and masters.
Must The ERP sends B2B invoices to the invoice registration portal and stores the IRN and signed QR code returned.
Test: Generate an IRN from the ERP for a test invoice and show the QR code on the print.
Should Receivables with ageing, payables, registers, cash, bank and stock are copied out of TallyPrime into the business system on a schedule, and show the last sync when Tally is off.
Test: Show receivables ageing in the ERP and the time of its last sync from Tally.
Should The ERP generates e-way bills through the NIC e-way bill system from dispatch records.
Test: Generate an e-way bill for a test dispatch and show its number on the dispatch record.
Should Bank statements are imported from the bank's PDF or file, read into lines, and offered for reconciliation.
Test: Import one month's statement from your bank and show the lines it read.
Should Sheets people already keep (BOMs, price lists, opening stock) import through the interface, with each problem row shown rather than silently skipped.
Test: Import a sheet with one bad row and show how the bad row is reported.
Could Links that suppliers and customers act on (RFQs, quotations, reminders) can be sent on WhatsApp as well as email.
Test: Send an RFQ link to a supplier on WhatsApp from the system.
Reliability, access and support
Must When the connection drops, work in progress isn't lost: syncs retry by themselves, and a real error (a missing ledger, a rejected voucher) waits for a person.
Test: Pull the network cable during a sync and show what happens to the queued entries when it's back.
Must What each role can see is enforced by the system itself, not just hidden on screen; staff can be refused bank data entirely.
Test: Sign in as staff and try to open a bank page directly by its address.
Must Logins created at setup must have their passwords changed on first sign-in.
Test: Sign in with a newly created user and show the forced password change.
Must All business data can be exported at any time in standard formats, during the contract and at its end.
Test: Ask for a full export of the demo data and open it in Excel.
Must Personal data of staff, customers and contacts is protected with reasonable security safeguards, and a breach can be traced and reported.
Test: Ask who can see employees' personal details, how access is logged, and how a breach would be detected and reported.
Law: Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, section 8(5)
Must Support requests have a stated response time in the contract, and the vendor has written documentation that lets another developer take the system over.
Test: Ask for the response time in writing, and to see the system document for one of their live systems.
Should Agents and integrations sign in with their own machine identities, separate from people, so their actions are traceable and revocable.
Test: Show the list of machine identities and revoke one.
Should Stores, site and sales staff can do their daily tasks on a phone: scanning stock, marking attendance, checking an order.
Test: Do a stock scan and mark attendance on a phone, in front of you.
Contract and ownership
Must The contract states who owns the source code and the software, and what the buyer gets: the code itself, or a licence to use the system for a stated term.
Test: Ask for the ownership clause in writing before the build starts.
Must A change is written down, priced and agreed before it is built, never billed after the fact.
Test: Ask how the last change on one of their projects was priced and approved.
Must The AMC states what it covers (licence, hosting, fixes, small changes), what it costs per year, and what is quoted separately.
Test: Ask for the AMC scope and price in writing, and an example of something it doesn't cover.
Should Work is priced in fixed phases, each quoted before it starts, rather than an open-ended hourly bill.
Test: Ask for the phase plan with a fixed price and a go-live date for each phase.
What the answers change
- Turnover: above ₹5 crore, B2B invoices need an e-invoice (IRN); at ₹10 crore and above, each must reach the portal within 30 days, and TDS on purchase of goods can apply.
- Company: a company keeping its books in software needs an audit trail that can't be switched off.
- Tally: if Tally stays, the system must post into it and check what it posted; if not, it must do the GST returns, period locks and fixed assets itself.
- Business: production, BOM and certificate lines apply to manufacturers; stock and dispatch lines to anyone who holds goods.
Each line links to why it is there and what good looks like. The full list, every line with its law and its proof, is the checklist; the same lines with vendor scoring are in the Excel template.
Answer five questions about your business and get the requirements that apply to it, ready to send to vendors.
Most lines here can be tried today on a live system: manufacturing · trading · interiors · how Ahrom Labs builds them
Official sources
- Companies (Accounts) Amendment Rules, 2021 (G.S.R. 205(E), 24 March 2021). Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Gazette of India, October 25, 2026.
- Companies (Accounts) Second Amendment Rules, 2022 (G.S.R. 235(E), 31 March 2022). Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Gazette of India, October 25, 2026.
- Notification No. 10/2023–Central Tax (10 May 2023), amending Notification No. 13/2020–Central Tax. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (copy hosted by the GST Council), October 25, 2026.
- Advisory: Time limit for reporting e-invoice on the IRP portal, lowering of threshold to AATO 10 crores and above (5 Nov 2024). GSTN (Goods and Services Tax Network), October 25, 2026.
- Notification No. 12/2018–Central Tax (7 March 2018), substituting rule 138 of the CGST Rules, 2017. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (copy hosted by the GST Council), October 25, 2026.
- Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006, sections 15 and 16. Gazette of India (copy hosted by the Ministry of MSME), October 25, 2026.
- Income-tax Act, 2025 (30 of 2025), in force from 1 April 2026. Ministry of Law and Justice, Gazette of India, October 25, 2026.
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, section 8. Ministry of Law and Justice, Gazette of India, October 25, 2026.
- Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 (G.S.R. 846(E), 13 November 2025). Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Gazette of India, October 25, 2026.
What this page is not
A guide written by Ahrom Labs from the systems it runs; not legal or tax advice. Statutory lines quote the official text, and the text governs wherever this page differs from it; how a rule applies to your business is a question for your CA. Last updated .
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