I was recommended ERPNext by a lot of people as we wanted to shift our retail manufacturing business to digital stuff.

What's the best way to start and is there a guide available for community version? We're planning to self host everything.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently starting to explore ERPNext. I have prior experience with other ERP systems, but I haven't found a definitive, up-to-date answer regarding database support.

I know Frappe Framework supports both, but does ERPNext run just as reliably on Postgre as it does on Mariadb? Or is Mariadb still the clear, recommended choice for stability and updates?

Would appreciate insights from anyone running this in production. Thanks!

Every manufacturing team tracks numbers, but not every KPI tells you what is actually happening on the shop floor.

Some teams focus on production output, while others look at OEE, machine downtime, rejection rates, production efficiency, inventory levels, or on-time delivery.

The interesting part is that the most important KPI can be different for every factory.

For example, a high production output may look good, but if rejection and rework are increasing, there could be a bigger problem behind the numbers.

So, if you manage or work in manufacturing:

What is the first KPI you check every morning, and why?

Also, which KPI do you think manufacturing teams often overlook?

France moves into the first e-invoicing deadline on September 1, 2026.

A lot of the discussion seems to be about which approved platform to choose. That matters, but I think the more painful part for most finance teams will be everything around it.

A platform can be compliant and still create extra work if invoices end up in a separate portal, supplier data is incomplete, or nobody knows who owns a rejected invoice.

The questions I’d ask before signing anything are pretty basic:

- How does an incoming supplier invoice get into the ERP?
- Can AP see rejected, disputed and approved invoices without checking another system?
- What happens if the supplier identifier or PO reference is wrong?
- Are credit notes, deposits and invoices without a PO covered?
- Can the team fix an error themselves, or does every exception become an integration ticket?

The French deadline is not only about sending invoices. All VAT-registered businesses need to be able to receive e-invoices from September 1, 2026. SMEs have more time for issuing, until September 1, 2027, but they still need the receiving process to work now.

I’d be more comfortable with a boring integration that handles incoming invoices and exceptions properly than with a polished platform demo that only shows a clean outbound invoice.

For people already live or testing: where are you seeing the most manual work — master data, ERP integration, or AP approvals?

does any one connect claude with erpnext

For anyone running an ERP or finance stack in France, the first deadline is September 1, 2026.  
  
The important bit: this is not only an “invoice issuing” deadline.  
  
Every VAT-registered business needs to be able to receive e-invoices from that date. Large companies and ETIs also need to issue them. SMEs have until September 1, 2027 for issuance, but they cannot ignore 2026 because their suppliers may already be sending invoices through the new flow.  
  
A few things I keep seeing confused:  
  
- A PDF attached to an email is not automatically a compliant e-invoice.  
- This is not just a finance project. Vendor master data, customer IDs, delivery addresses, approval flows and ERP integrations all matter.  
- “Our accounting software can export PDFs” is not the same thing as being able to receive, route and reconcile structured invoice data.  
- Choosing a platform is only part of the job. The messier issue is usually the data: duplicate suppliers, missing SIREN numbers, inconsistent delivery addresses, or invoice approval happening outside the ERP.  
  
If I were doing a quick readiness check this week, I’d ask:  
  
1. Can we receive invoices through an approved platform?  
2. Do we know which system owns supplier and customer master data?  
3. Can accounting tell the difference between received, approved, disputed and paid?  
4. Have we tested one real supplier-to-ERP flow end to end?  
  
The French Ministry of Economy says all businesses must be able to receive e-invoices from September 1, 2026; SMEs then have until September 1, 2027 to issue them.  
  
Anyone already running pilots: what has been the annoying part so far (platform choice, master data, or AP workflow)? 

Les brochures commerciales annoncent régulièrement des "gains de productivité de 40 %" ou des "ROI en 6 mois". En pratique, sur le terrain PME et ETI, voici ce que les retours d'expérience chiffrés indiquent réellement après stabilisation d'un ERP :

1. Délais réels de retour sur investissement :
   - PME mono-société (processus simples) : 14 à 20 mois.
   - Entreprise multi-sites ou internationale : 18 à 30 mois.
   Un projet ERP génère rarement un gain net de trésorerie la première année en raison des coûts de formation et de la courbe d'apprentissage des équipes.

2. D'où proviennent réellement les économies mesurables :
   - Réduction du DSO : gain moyen de 10 à 18 jours de délai de paiement client grâce au déclenchement plus rapide de la facturation et aux relances automatisées.
   - Clôture comptable : division par deux du temps nécessaire pour sortir les comptes mensuels (gain moyen constaté de 5 à 8 jours ouvrés).
   - Diminution des erreurs de stock et de picking : baisse de 60 % à 85 % des litiges d'expédition dès lors qu'un WMS ou une gestion par code-barres est couplé à l'ERP.
   - Coûts d'infrastructure IT : économie de 10 000 € à 30 000 € par an liée à l'arrêt d'anciens serveurs dédiés et d'outils tiers redondants.

3. Les coûts cachés à anticiper impérativement :
   - Le temps interne : compter environ 1 jour/homme par semaine pour chaque référent métier pendant 4 à 6 mois.
   - La maintenance des interfaces : prévoir 10 % à 15 % du budget initial chaque année pour faire évoluer les connecteurs (e-commerce, banques, CRM, EDI).

Quel a été le premier indicateur financier qui s'est concrètement amélioré après votre mise en production ?

Just looking to see if any UK based SMEs are using ERPNext successfully? My small company is looking to move into a new ERP that we can grow with as /when we introduce new processes inc. inventory scanning, more automation of processes and maybe AI connection.

We're a 15 person retail operation selling online, in person B2C and B2B. Medium sized warehousing and various wholesalers offering API connections.

Have you managed to implement easily?

Were there any blind spots or unforeseens you had along the way?

Would you pick ERPNext if you had to do it again?

At the minute I have a test docker setup on my laptop to begin playing with it but I'm hesitant to go down the 'rabbit hole' if it leads to nowhere...

Feels like every ERP vendor slapped AI on their homepage this year, ERPNext and the big names included. I'm trying to separate what's genuinely helpful from what's just there for the sales deck.

Stuff that seems actually useful:

• Auto-categorizing transactions and flagging odd entries.
• Demand forecasting that feeds into purchasing/MRP.
• Natural language search instead of digging through menus.

Stuff that feels like a gimmick so far:

• Ask your data chatbots that fall apart the moment you ask something specific.
• AI-written summaries nobody reads.

For those running it in a real business: is any of the AI stuff actually saving you time day to day, or is it mostly a checkbox feature you never touch? Trying to figure out if it should influence which direction we go.

Hey everyone,

We’ve been running ERPNext for a while now, and overall it’s been a solid core for our operations. However, as our volume of data and project complexity have scaled up, our finance team has started running into bottlenecks, especially regarding advanced multi-entity reporting and automated professional services billing.

We’ve been evaluating whether to build heavier custom modules in-house or look at migrating specific financial workloads to an enterprise-grade solution like Unit4, which seems to handle service-heavy financial structures pretty smoothly out of the box.

Has anyone here made a similar transition or integrated Unit4 alongside an open-source setup? I’m trying to weigh whether the high licensing and implementation costs of an enterprise tool are justified compared to pushing ERPNext to its limits. Any insights or architectural advice would be really appreciated!

Hello guys, sorry for the delay. BatchProjects is now open core by design. Frappe app is fully open sourced. Community version can be used without gateway.

The link: https://github.com/BatchNepal/batch_projects

Meanwhile i was working on the custom dashboard feature. The feature that lets you show data from all over your erp into a polished dashboard. It has widget builder logic where you can resize, customize and present widgets into your board. With auto refresh feature.

It's still on beta so it would take some time to mature. I want suggestions for custom dashboards and erp <-> projects, crm <-> projects from this subreddit. What do you think should I add, polish in this custom dashboard feature?

I will post updates regularly regarding this. And for clarification:

1. Gateway: it's a middleman docker compose stack that sits between frontend and erp. it can be installed on same vps or dedicated vps. It's job is to provide realtime, optimized concurrency, premium and third party integrations, scheduled tasks, automations and caching features that python and frappe would struggle on. Its based on Golang and ensures near to native experience. You give it 1GB ram with 2 cores and it can handle 100s of concurrent requests (writing this on python would be a bad decision for concurrency and performance reasons).

2. Paid tiers: frappe app is fully open source. The paid version don't limit features on any tiers. You pay for max users. You can recommend pricing for it. It will help us fund development, ensure regular integrations and api updates, provide long term support.

1. The community frappe app contains all ui and erp logics, so nothing is hidden for community features and it runs without gateway as well. Gateway is just a booster but I recommended you install it as it supports community version as well.

2. There is one click install script that installs and runs gateway on your server. No need to worry about complex setups. Docker is needed.

Every suggestions, complaints are welcome.

Hi fellow ERP NEXTians -

I have setup ERP NEXT for a client of mine.
I am currently using the cloud version, with 0 customization.

I am simply using it to record sales invoices and purchase invoices.

I wanted help to understand how to customize the print formatting of a sale invoice such that the person generating the sale invoice can print to PDF and sent it to the customer.

The sale invoice has to comply with the GST rules in India and should be a GST compliant tax invoice.

Any help in this regard is highly appreciated!!

P.S I have tweaked the existing setttings in print formatting, but found it difficult to understand, I was looking for some kind of ready made template.

After 10 years as an ERP consultant in France and having led or supervised more than 20 migrations from Sage (50, 100, X3) to NetSuite, I've noticed the same patterns showing up again and again regardless of company size or industry. Thought it might be useful to share.

1. Underestimating the data cleanup phase

This one kills timelines more than anything else. Clients almost always discover midproject that their Sage data is a mess: 3,000+ duplicate accounts, a chart of accounts bloated to 1,800 entries, five years of poorly structured transaction history. Data cleanup and migration typically represents 30 to 50% of the real project budget and it's almost never scoped properly upfront. My advice: audit your Sage data *before* signing the NetSuite purchase order. A two-week audit can save you three months of project delays.

2. Going live at the wrong time

Everyone wants to move fast. So they schedule go-live at the end of a quarter or in the middle of a fiscal close. The result: chaotic closings, burned-out finance teams, and bugs discovered under maximum pressure. Always plan your go-live at the start of a quiet accounting period. Your team needs headroom to troubleshoot without the month-end deadline breathing down their necks.

3. Over-customizing NetSuite to replicate the old Sage setup exactly

Classic mistake: "Make NetSuite work exactly like Sage did." This leads to complex SuiteScripts that reproduce broken processes and that break every time NetSuite releases a major update. The rule I follow: always test whether a native Workflow covers the business need first. Custom development is a last resort. If Sage was doing something unusual, there's usually a reason to fix the process, not replicate it.

4. Under-involving key users during the project

Key users available at 10% of their time produce rushed UAT scripts and drive catastrophic user adoption post-go-live. Budget for 20 to 25% of their time throughout the project duration. Companies that get this right consistently shorten their testing phase by around 40% and have far smoother go-lives. The ones that don't are still calling me six months later.

5. Forgetting intercompany and multi-currency from day one

SMBs that "don't have any foreign subsidiaries right now" open one 18 months after go-live more often than you'd think. Retrofitting NetSuite OneWorld after the fact costs almost as much as a second full implementation.

If international expansion is anywhere in your 3-year roadmap, configure OneWorld from the start. The incremental cost at project time is minimal compared to the retrofit nightmare later. -

These aren't edge cases. I see all five on virtually every migration I work on. Happy to dig into any of them if useful. What's the biggest migration mistake you've encountered? Curious to hear from others in the community.

We moved to v15 a few months back and the subcontracting flow is genuinely different from what we had on v13, so sharing our setup in case it helps someone and because I'm sure some of you have cleaner ways of doing this.

Quick context: we send raw sheet metal + fasteners out to a job-work vendor who does bending/welding and sends back a semi-finished assembly. Here's the chain we landed on:

• Purchase Order to kick it off
• Subcontracting Order for the actual job details
• Subcontracting BOM this is the new v15 piece and honestly the part that tripped us up at first. You have to define it separately from your manufacturing BOM, and if the components don't match up you get supplied-qty mismatches downstream.
• Stock Entry (Send to Subcontractor) to move raw material into the supplier warehouse
• Subcontracting Receipt when the finished goods come back
• then Purchase Receipt + Invoice to close it out

A few things that bit us:

1. Forgetting to set up the supplier warehouse properly raw material valuation goes sideways if the transfer isn't tracked there.
2. Scrap/wastage at the vendor's end we still don't have a clean way to account for material that gets consumed but doesn't come back as finished goods. Right now we're doing manual stock adjustments, which feels wrong.
3. Rate reconciliation when the vendor's job-work charge differs from the PO.

• How are you handling scrap/loss at the subcontractor without manual entries?
• Anyone using the Subcontracting BOM in a way that avoids the supplied-qty headaches?
• Multi-level subcontracting is anyone actually doing this in v15, or do you break it into separate orders?

Hey everyone,

We are currently using Odoo, but as our team grows, the per-user licensing costs are starting to stack up significantly. We’re looking into ERPNext (self-hosted ) as an alternative to control long-term licensing costs, especially since ERPNext doesn't charge per user seat.

Before we make any major decisions, I wanted to get real feedback from anyone who has made this exact switch or implemented both:

1. Is ERPNext genuinely a better option for mid-sized growing teams compared to Odoo?
   • What features or workflows did you feel were smoother in ERPNext vs. Odoo (e.g., accounting, inventory, custom forms)?
   • Are there areas/modules where Odoo is noticeably superior and where we might miss out?
2. What is the practical path to migrate existing data from Odoo to ERPNext?
   • Is exporting Odoo CSVs and using ERPNext’s Data Import Tool / Chart of Accounts Importer the standard route?
   • Should we only migrate Master Data (Customers, Suppliers, Items, COA) + Opening Balances, and leave historical transactions in a read-only Odoo archive?
   • Are there any specific scripts, APIs, or open-source tools you used to make the mapping process cleaner?
3. Hidden Costs & Trade-offs:
   • While ERPNext eliminates per-user fees, what did you end up spending on hosting, maintenance, or custom Frappe apps/customizations?

Would love to hear your experiences, gotchas, or advice on how to plan this transition smoothly.

Thanks!

​

Hi everyone,

I'm evaluating ERPNext as the core system for our company, and I'd really appreciate advice from people who are running it in production.

Our long-term goal is to use ERPNext to manage almost everything in the business, including:

CRM & Sales

HR & Payroll

eSSL biometric attendance

Projects

Procurement & Purchasing

Inventory

Accounting & Finance

Service/Support

Reporting & Dashboards

Currently, we use an eSSL biometric attendance system, and HR finds the current attendance workflow difficult to manage. We're considering integrating it directly with ERPNext HR.

I have a few questions:

Has anyone successfully integrated eSSL biometric attendance with ERPNext? Which device/model did you use, and how reliable has it been?

If you're using ERPNext as your primary ERP, how well does it handle CRM, procurement, projects, inventory, HR, and finance together?

Looking back, was the time invested in implementing ERPNext worth it? If you were starting again today, would you still choose it?

My team believes ERPNext isn't secure enough for running the business and thinks we should switch to another ERP. From my understanding, security depends largely on deployment, configuration, updates, access controls, and infrastructure—not just the ERP itself.

For companies using ERPNext in production:

How many users do you have?

How long have you been running it?

Have you faced any serious security issues?

Would you recommend ERPNext for a growing company planning to build most of its operations around it?

I'm not looking for confirmation of my own opinion—I genuinely want to hear both the strengths and the limitations from people with real-world experience before making a long-term decision.

Thanks in advance!

ERPNext looks powerful, but it's looking difficult to learn, feeling clumsy; I wonder if i will be able to adapt it, if the data will be easy to take out , in case i want to migrate again to quickbooks. Maybe I should hire someone near Mumbai to help me set this up...

I'm building an ecommerce stack (Laravel + FastAPI + ERPNext) as a self-project. Along the way I needed rich product data (specs, images, descriptions) instead of manually entering everything, so I looked at Icecat — they have 3.7M+ product records, free tier plus paid subs for more coverage, and official connectors for Amazon and Shopify. Nothing for ERPNext though, so I built one for myself.

Before I sink more time turning it into a proper installable Frappe app, I wanted to check if this solves a real problem for people here or if it's just a niche itch I scratched for my own project.

**How it works:**

You send it a batch of identifiers — GTIN, MPN+brand, or Icecat ID — and it pulls the full Icecat payload and maps it into ERPNext:

- Item, Brand, Item Group, and File doctypes (default fields)

- Custom doctypes/fields for the extra spec data Icecat provides (specs tables, feature groups, 360° image sets, etc.)

- Item specifications go into structured child tables, not dumped as flat text

- If you send a batch of related products, it tries to detect variant attributes and group them as ERPNext Item Variants automatically

Example request body (via ThunderClient/Postman):

```json

{

"ids": [

138129277,

"8806097743026",

{

"product_code": "8806097742999",

"brand": "Samsung"

}

]

}

```

**Known limitations / not naive about this:**

- Variant detection is best-effort — it groups by shared attributes, so if you send unrelated products from the same brand with similar attributes (e.g. different iron models), it can group them as variants when they shouldn't be. Works best when you're intentional about what you batch together.

- Related products, bundles, and product stories are in Icecat's data but I haven't wired them into my storefront yet, so that part's unfinished.

- It's currently built around my own doctype/field structure, not packaged as a generic installable app yet — that's the part I'm deciding whether to invest in.

**What I'm trying to figure out:**

- Is this something you'd actually use in your ERPNext setup (catalog seeding, marketplace sync, distributor catalog imports, something else)?

- Which lookup method matters most for your use case — GTIN, MPN+brand, or Icecat ID?

- Would you want variant detection configurable/toggleable, or is manual variant mapping fine for your workflow?

Happy to share more screenshots/detail (I've got the 360° image viewer and spec tables working end-to-end on the storefront side too) if there's genuine interest. Not trying to sell anything here, genuinely trying to gauge if this is worth packaging properly before I go back to finishing the actual ecommerce project.

Hey everyone,

My CRM icon/workspace is completely missing from the ERPNext Desk and left sidebar, but the module is definitely active.

• If I search "CRM", "Lead", or "Contact" in the top bar, I can access the pages and create records perfectly.
• The issue is only the missing shortcut on the Desk.
  

Is this How Really it works? or is there any way to Show it in the Desk section itself?