ERPNext Review

ERPNext is a cloud-based platform aimed to help small- to medium-sized businesses in integral business processes such as accounting, human resource (HR) management, sales, purchase, inventory, customer relationship management (CRM), administration, project and task management, manufacturing, and website development.

With ERPNext’s simple, feature-rich, and powerful enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution built on Python and MySQL, businesses can make use of its open-source modeling structure to customize the platform. There’s no need for custom programming and/or expert developer support.

In this review of ERPNext, HRD will look at ERPNext’s features and ERP solutions can enable businesses to automate relevant and core integral business processes.

We’ll also look at how ERPNext could help your business take advantage of open-source API to personalize your experience and what functionalities and integrations you can use under ERPNext’s unified solution.

What is ERPNext?

Touting itself as one of the most agile enterprise resource planning platforms in the market, ERPNext is widely known for its free and open-source cloud-based ERP solution that’s highly integrative and customizable. Designed for both simplicity and power, ERPNext allows your business to combine multiple features of other traditional ERP systems, integrate them, and tailor the platform to your specific business needs.

ERPNext can integrate with more than a thousand objects and applications. It can automate and simplify your core business processes without having to subscribe to an ERP solution that can be difficult to understand and personalize.

ERPNext Features

ERPNext makes use of its feature-rich modules to manage your core integral business processes throughout your organization without the need of changing to and leaving ERPNext’s platform.

ERPNext supports your business processes by providing solutions such as:

Financial Accounting:

Your business can manage cash flow in one place, from recording transactions to generating and analyzing financial reports. You can:

• view your accounting dashboard in real-time, highlighting all KPIs;
• make use of Chart of Accounts to configure ledgers;
• track income and expenses using Journals and Payments;
• automate invoices and chase receivables through Billing and Pricing,
• manage transactions in multiple currencies,
• track current balances and maintain bank accounts
• use Bookkeeping to track changes for every single transaction

Order Management:

Track inventory levels, replenish stocks, and complete other order management functions by using ERPNext’s various modules:

• Item Variants that track product permutations
• Serialized Inventory that tracks product availability and stock location
• Batch that tracks batch inventories to maintain item expirations
• track and integrate third-party e-Commerce apps through its Multi-Channel Sales

Order management apps also help your business automate supplier- and vendor-related documentation needed for purchase orders and cost estimates before restocking.

HR and Payroll:

With ERPNext, your human resource department can:

• recruit and manage employees
• track attendance and leave
• manage approvals for leave, benefits, and expenses
• handle onboarding, training, and appraisals/evaluation
• automate integral HR-related tasks such as Talent Acquisition job advertisements
• manage Employee Repositories for external documentation
• schedule Training Program modules
• manage KPIs (key performance indicators) for future employee evaluations
• use Automate Payroll to generate payslips based on time sheets
• configure approvals using the Leave Management System

Automate your HR ops, Lead inflow, Support queries, and more with #ERPNext. Take a peek at this handy snapshot to see how it's done!

Check out our app firsthand and witness the difference yourself here > https://t.co/fiWRYqkJ0D https://t.co/8RtSmR6q9T

— ERPNext (@erpnext) June 26, 2023

Manufacturing:

Your business can integrate production planning by using ERPNext’s Production Analysis to track sales orders and inventories, manage Bill of Material, capture daily activities using Floor Management, track Subcontracting processes, track material consumption through Material Resource Planning, eliminate bottlenecks through Capacity Planning, and prevent stock outs through Stock Replenishment and Quick Stock Balance.

CRM:

ERPNext enables your business to automate and simplify your customer relationship management tasks by using Call Popup to convert all interactions into data, distribute assignment rules through Automated Daily Chores, generate 360-view, Sales Team Efficiency, and Sales Pipeline reports, and track Digital Marketing campaigns and newsletters.

Projects:

With ERPNext, your business can organize, schedule, plan, and analyze projects with a task-driven approach that streamlines collaboration and decreases inefficiencies.

Tracking project deadlines using ERPNext’s all-in-one workspace can enable employees to estimate deadlines accurately, assess collaboration by tracking project progress through Agile Tracking, use To-Do lists and Real-Time chat to manage assignments easier, as well as defining activities and checking profitability using Time-Tracking and Billing tools.

Helpdesk:

ERPNext enables you to create more responsive customer support through:

• configurable Real-Time Insights
• automated ticket assignments through Ticket Assignments
• personalized customer experiences using Service Level Agreement to improve support processes
• leveled up interactions using the Customer Portal that tracks issues and resolution details

You can also use the Maintenance Schedule to manage service maintenance visits and create FAQs by using self-help articles and troubleshooting articles to expand your business’s knowledge base. 

Asset Management:

Using ERPNext’s asset management modules, your business can track all information about all assets in Asset Lifecycle, track inventories and manage batches using Asset Inventory, automate depreciation entries by Automated Asset Depreciation, create journal entries for readjusted asset values using Asset Value Adjustment, and monitor performance with Asset Reporting.

Website:

ERPNext’s Website modules allow your business to create, design, manage, and develop your business’ web presence using Bootstrap 4’s responsive and mobile-friendly responsive website, use Search Engine Optimization tools to enhance website visibility, customize your product pages through e-Commerce modules, create dynamic One-Click Web Forms, and using Social Login Keys to speed up new users to gain new users.

Other industry modules include:

• Point of Sale (Retail)
• Student Information System (Education)
• Hospital Information System (Healthcare)
• Agriculture Management (Agriculture)
• Nonprofit Organization (Nonprofits)

Who uses ERPNext?

Trusted by over 10,000 companies worldwide, ERPNext offers its ERP solutions to its multi-industry businesses and their employees — allowing businesses to resolve various core integral business process issues using its highly customizable and personalized open-source API modules.

What is ERPNext used for? ERPNext serves various businesses in differing industries, such as:

• Manufacturing
• Distribution/Trading
• Services
• Retail
• Education
• Healthcare
• Agriculture
• Nonprofits

Which companies use ERPNext?

Here are some of ERPNext’s clients as displayed on their website:

 

What is ERPNext used for?

ERPNext allows your business to mix and match its modules in a singular all-in-one cloud-based platform.

For businesses that simply want their own ERP software that’s easy to use, ERPNext can help with that too.

What technologies are used in ERPNext?

ERPNext is built using an application framework called Frappe – named after the Indian company that built it – with Python and MySQL as a base for their open-source API.

More than one thousand features/modules can be integrated into Frappe, along with metadata modeling tools that can provide adaptability, flexibility, and customization to the ERP platform without the need for custom programming.

Is ERPNext free to use?

ERPNext pricing is dependent on which subscription plan you want to sign up for. Although ERPNext is poised to be one of the only ERP solutions in the market that is free, there are other options available for businesses that want to take advantage of its feature-rich capabilities:

• Open-source Edition: While ERPNext’s Open Source is fully free and all modules are available for use, this edition is solely on-premises and self-hosted.
• Cloud Edition: ERPNext offers Cloud web-based platforms that are fully managed by ERPNext’s servers. ERPNext Cloud costs $10 per site per month.
• Enterprise Edition: ERPNext offers its cloud-based platform for medium- to large-sized businesses, with all the capabilities and scalability that it can provide. ERPNext Enterprise costs $1000 per site per month.

ERPNext: company overview

Headquarters address: D/324 Neelkanth Business Park, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400086, India

Year established: 2008

Size (number of employees): 200+ employees as of 2023

Key people: Rushabh Mehta (Founder, CEO), Nabin Hait (Co-founder, VP-Engineering), Umair Sayed (Co-founder, VP-Partnerships), Prakash Hodage (Cofounder, VP-Accounts), Saurabh Palande (Director-Engineering)

Founded by Rushabh Mehta in 2008 in Mumbai, India, Frappe was started as an answer to building a free and bug-free ERP software that can solve the needs of small- to medium-sized businesses. Frappe (Framework + Apps) started as a web-based metadata framework inspired by Stanford’s Protege.

Looking forward to meeting FOSS enthusiasts in Hyderabad! https://t.co/OkEN0OiCBA

— Rushabh Mehta (@rushabh_mehta) July 7, 2023

In 2010, the project “Frappe”, was renamed to ERPNext and launched as a Software-as-a-Service model.

In 2011, ERPNext transitioned from Google Code to GitHub, opening the ERPNext platform as an open-source product to build a community of users who help other users.

In 2013, ERPNext revamped the Frappe architecture to include Python and MySQL. By 2020, ERPNext was backed by one of the best startups, Zerodha.

Who are the competitors of ERPNext?

Although ERPNext is a well-known free open-source ERP software, there are other competitors in the business support industry such as:

• SAP ERP
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Oracle NetSuite
• SAP Business One
• Sage Intacct
• Odoo ERP
• SYSPRO
• Brightpearl
• Acumatica

Is ERPNext the right ERP software for your business?

As one of the fully free and open-source enterprise resource planning software in the business support industry, ERPNext is perfect if you’d like to save expenses by delivering a well-supported traditional ERP experience without the costs of annual subscription fees.

ERPNext is one of the most affordable, flexible, ERP solutions without significant periods of downtime — using its ERPNext Open Source option.

With the various features that ERPNext provides for their customers, the wide range of modules that can be integrated with ERPNext, and the ability of ERPNext to be customized and personalized according to your business’s needs, ERPNext can be the ERP solution for your business.

If you still don't feel like this is the perfect tool for your company, see our HR software reviews page for more options. 

What do you think about ERPNext? Share an ERPNext review of your own in the comments box below.