Configuring ERPNext Account

An application is said to be configured completely when you can start making business transactions like orders, invoices, stock transactions etc.

Let us understand the different types of forms which exist in ERPNext:

1. Masters:
    Masters are sets of records which are created once and used in transactions.
    Example: Customer, Supplier, Item, Customer Group, Supplier Type, Territory etc.
    Once the required masters are set, you can proceed with transactions.

2. Transactions:
    Business transactions are the records created based on an event.
    Example:
    Sales order is made when a customer confirms an order.
    Delivery note is made when goods are delivered to a customer.

3. Reports:
    Reports give you an interface to see multiple records of Transactions / Masters on the same screen

    and allow you to export these records in CSV format.

Getting Started:

When you login into your account for the first time, you will be asked to enter the name, abbreviation, fiscal start date and default currency of one of your companies. This creates the first company for your account.

Note: The abbreviation you enter will be appended to various master records, so that it becomes visibly obvious, which master record belongs to which company.

With company creation, your account creation will also be complete. To be able to start with transactions, you can setup your customer, suppliers, items, tax / bank ledgers.

Customer:

To add a new customer, go to:

Selling >> Customer >> Add new customer

OR

Setup >> System >> Import data. Select customer from the list to download template for importing customer master. Learn more about data import functionality here.

Customer categorization: If you want to create customer groups, go to:
Setup >> Selling >> Customer group

If you don't maintain customer group, continue with "default customer group" which be preset in your account.

Accounting ledger of customer:
Customer ledger will be created in chart of accounts (account receivable) as soon as you add or import them.

Supplier:

To add a new supplier, go to:

Buying >> Supplier >> Add new supplier

Or

Setup >> System >> Import data, Select Supplier from the list to download template for importing supplier master.

Supplier Types: If you want to create supplier types, go to:
Setup >> Buying >> Supplier Types

If you don't have supplier type, continue with "default supplier type" which will be preset in your account.

Accounting ledger of supplier:
Supplier ledger will be created in chart of accounts (account payable) as soon as you add or import them.

Item:

To add new item, go to:

Stock >> Item

Or

Setup >> System >> Import data, select item from the list to download template for importing item master. Learn more about import data functionality here.

Customer categorization: If you want to create item groups, go to:

Setup >> Stock >> Item group

If you don't maintain item group, continue with "Default" which will be auto-created.

To import opening stock for items, go to: Stock >> Stock reconciliation. To learn more, click here.

Accounting ledger:

To create new accounting ledger, go to:

Setup >>  Accounts >> Chart of account

1. Click on group under which you want to create ledger.
2. After clicking on folder (group), under which you want to create ledger, a button called
    "Add a child account" will appear below action items (on right side).
3. Enter account name
4. Select group or a ledger. If "group" selected, then it will become folder and you will be able to
    add child ledgers under it. If "Ledger" selected, then only you will be able to select it in
    transactions.

For getting started, you will need to create few accounting ledgers manually for bank, cash and tax accounts. To learn more on creating ledger in chart of account, click here.

To learn updating an opening balance for accounting ledger, click here.

Note: Ledger for customer and supplier will be added in the receivables and payables respectively. You need not add ledger for customer and supplier manually.

Warehouse:

To create new warehouse, go to:

Setup >> Stock >> Warehouse

Once above discussed masters is set, you will be good to go live with transactions like making quotations, orders and invoices.

For any product related help, please drop us a line at support@erpnext.com

Recurring Sales Invoice

Recurring sales invoice is a tool which will re-generate selected invoice automatically and e-mail to selected recipients.

This feature will work for company who raises invoice of same amount to customer in predefined span of time. This scenario is observed followed in business which sell items on lease or loan.

How to enable recurring invoice?

To enable recurring invoice feature in your account, go to:

Setup  >> System >> Feature Setup

How to make invoice recurring?

Once recurring invoice is enabled in feature setup, you will find separate tab of recurring invoice in submitted sales invoices.

Invoice will become recurring once "convert to recurring invoice" field is checked. On checking stated field, few more field will be made visible when user can set property based on which selected invoice will be created in system.

Repeat on day on month:
Considering above screenshot, selected invoice will be re-generated in system on 12th of every month till "convert to recurring invoice" is unchecked or end date arrives.

End date:
Date on which recurring invoice generation will stop.

Notification e-mail address:
E-mail notification of auto-generated invoice will be sent to  email id's mentioned in notification address field. Customer contact selected above will be pulled automatically in notification field.

E-mail Digest

E-mail digest is a tool to receive auto-generated e-mail report for transactions done in your account.

How to configure e-mail digest?

Enable e-mail digest:

You do all the e-mail digest configuration but if enable is not checked, e-mail wont be triggered to people selected.

Select company, set frequency for auto-generated report and select recipients:

You can set e-mail digest for each company separately.

Email digest can be set for daily, weekly and monthly. System will trigger email report to recipients selected from list.

What is e-mailed to recipients?

E-mail digest will be generated for the items which are checked from list of items.

Sample report:

Customize Form View

Let us understand the ERPNext architecture before we venture to learn form customization tool.

ERPNext is built over WNframework. In this framework, each form is created as a table in the backend. Each table has field and properties are assigned to each field.

Like Sales order is a table, in which sales order fields are defined in rows as "Sales order series" and "customer name". Each of these field has properties like "label", "mandatory", "print hide" etc.

Sales order table:

	Field label	Mandatory	Print Hide	In Filter
Sales order Series	Series	(Check box)	(Check box)	(Check box)
Customer Name	Customer	(Check box)	(Check box)	(Check box)

To store more details of sales order like item detail, we have separate table called "sales order item" table. Likewise, taxes are the separate table in sales order. So, for sales order form, sales order table becomes parent and sales order item, taxes and sales person becomes child table.

Please find below the table structure of each form type.

Transaction	Table	Table Name
Quotation	Quotation	Quotation
	Quotation item table	Quotation Item
Sales Order	Sales order	Sales Order
	Sales order item table	Sales Order Item
Delivery Note	Delivery note	Delivery Note
	Delivery note item table	Delivery Note Item
Sales Invoice	sales invoice	Sales Invoice
	Sales invoice item table	Sales Invoice Item
	Sales invoice tax table	Sales Taxes and Charges
Purchase Order	Purchase order	Purchase Order
	Purchase order item table	Purchase Order Item
Purchase Receipt	Purchase receipt	Purchase Receipt
	Purchase receipt item table	Purchase Receipt Item
Purchase Invoice	Purchase invoice	Purchase Invoice
	Purchase invoice item table	Purchase Invoice Item
	Purchase invoice tax table	Purchase Taxes and Charges
Journal Voucher	Journal voucher	Journal Voucher
	Journal voucher item table	Journal Voucher Detail

With this, lets dive into the form customization tool. "Customize form view" is the tool which allows us to select a table and modify fields property as per your requirement.
You can find customize form view by going to:
Modules --> Setup --> Customize form view

Lets' say I want to make item code field mandatory in sales invoice - item table. What will I select in form type?

1. Form type - RV detail (refer to above table for clarification)
2. Selecting form will pull columns of invoice item table (as row here)
3. To make item code mandatory, select check req. for item code and update.
You will need to do clear cache (from tools --> clear cache) and browser refresh to see the effect in the form.

Please refer to table below to learn about field property.

Field property	Purpose	Field Type
Allow on submit	Lets user update value in field even after submission.	Check box
Default	Value defined in default will be pulled on new record creation	Text box
Description	Gives field description for user understanding	Text box
Hidden	Will hide field in form	Check box
In Filter	Will add this field in report	Check box
Label	Label is the name defined for field which appears in form	Text box
Options	Make field drop down selecting	Text box
Print hide	Will hide this field in print	Check box
Reqd (Required)	Will make that field mandatory	Check box

How ERPNext Help in Decision Making?

ERPNext is a application which not only facilities creation and retrieval of transactions, but it also provide a tool (a report) which lets management pull data from transactions and try different permutation and combination in report for analysis purpose.

Selling >> Trend Analyzer

Using trend analyzer, one can run report on different transactions like sales order, delivery note, invoices, purchase order and GRN.

These transactions contain masters like customers, suppliers, items, territories. Trend analyzer allows you do run report on transactions based on masters and time period.

As mentioned above, trend analyzer report pull data from transactions like:

• Quotation
• Sales order
• Delivery note
• Sales invoice
• Purchase order
• Purchase Receipt (GRN)
• Purchase invoice

Report can be ran based on masters:

• Customer 
• Customer group
• Supplier
• Supplier type
• Item
• Item group
• Project
• Territory

Below is the sample report ran for delivery note, based on item:

With the above data, you can do an analysis, which item was delivered the most in specific time period (which can be  month, quarter, half year or year).

Likewise, considering all the permutation and combination, one can run upto 500+ reports from the trend analyzer alone.

How to over-write records?

All the master which are imported from import data wizard can be over-written also. Lets consider a situation to understand how over-writing works.

I need to change the Default Warehouse for few items.

1. Download template for importing item master for import data wizard.
2. Check "Download with data" .
3. Keep only 3 columns. ID, Item code (primary field) and Default Reserved Warehouse in spreadsheet.
   Note: ID is only required when over-writing data. ID will be same as Item Code.

4.  Put data and then save file in .csv format
5.  In import data wizard, check field: Over-write records with same name?
6.  Browse file the import

Multi Currency in ERPNext

Multi currency functionality allows user to maintain price list and making transaction in multiple currency.

A user can define default currency for each company in ERPNext application. For example, you could have 3 companies in your single ERPNext account with different default currency.

Multi-currency transactions possible in transactions:
1. Selling : Quotation, sales order
2. Purchase: Purchase order
3. Stock: delivery note, purchase receipt
4, Accounts: Sales invoice, purchase invoice, journal voucher

When you are making transaction for Test company then INR will be fetched as default with conversion factor as 1.

If i want to make an invoice in currency other than my default currency, then i will select that currency and define conversion rate between select and my default currency.

After selecting currency and mentioning conversion rate, one can select items and put ref rate for respective items.

In items table below you will find columns with duplicate labels like:
Ref rate (for rate in def. currency)
Ref rate* (for rate other then def. currency)

Basic rate (basic rate in def. currency)
Basic rate* (basic rate in other currency selected)

Amount (amount in def. currency)
Amount* (amount in other currency selected)
















Note: No columns of other currency will be editable except basic rate* where user can put discounted amount and discount rate will be calculated automatically.

After saving invoice that's how your transaction will look like:























All ledger posting will be done in default currencies. For example, if you have a bank account of currency USD, even if you do invoicing in INR or any other currency but payment entry would be done  in default currency only. Bank ledger will show balance in USD which is default currency for that company.

How Can I Change Field Property?

Property setter is a tool which lets you amend the property of field. You can customize field name, size, print related option, default etc. yourself using property setting.

1. Name of field (label)
2. Width of field
3. Type of field (data, select field, time, currency, small text etc..)

How do it get there?

Lets consider a case where i want to make territory field visible in print. So i select:

1. Doctype or field = Dockfield

2. Select Doctype = Customer

3. Select field = Territory

4. Select Property = Print hide

5. Set value = 0

Print hide field is the check box field. Value 0 uncheck it and no. 1 check mark it.

Field property	Purpose	Field Type	Value
Allow on submit	Lets user update value in field even after submission.	Check box	1 = Check 0 - Uncheck
Default	Value defined in default will be pulled on new record creation	Text box	(Text box)
Description	Gives field description for user understanding	Text box	(Text box)
Hidden	Will hide field in form	Check box	1 = Check 0 = Uncheck
In Filter	Will add this field in report	Check box	1 = Check 0 = Uncheck
Label	Label is the name defined for field which appears in form	Text box	(Text box)
Options	Make field drop down selecting	Text box	Enter each select field option in new row
Print hide	Will hide this field in print	Check box	1 = Check 0 = Uncheck
Reqd (Required)	Will make that field mandatory	Check box	1 = Check 0 = Uncheck

How to Create Custom Fields in ERPNext?

You can create custom fields in any transaction and make them available in print formats and reports.

To create a custom field go to Setup-->System-->Custom Field

Click the "New Custom Field" button.

Enter the details as shown below

Click on the Save button. A unique number will be generated for the custom field. On saving the new field will be added in all the new transactions of the corresponding document. Please refresh the system once before creating a new transaction.

For more information and free trial visit http://www.erpnext.com

How to Create Salary Structure in ERPNext?

Salary structure will be created for each employee in the company. Salary structure is where employee's earnings and deductions are defined.

To create new salary structure, go to:
HR --> Salary structure --> New Salary structure.
Click on "New salary structure"

Step 1: Select an employee from employee master for whom you want to create the salary structure.

Step 2: Mark status of an salary structure as "Yes" or "No".
If marked Yes - System will consider that salary structure for processing salary slip of an employee
If marked No - System wont consider that salary structure for processing salary slip.

Also mention yearly package offered to employee in CTC (cost to company).

Step 3:

Earning and Deduction:

All the earning and deduction heads created in your account will be pulled in salary structure.

1. Keep only required earning and deduction head required for that employee.

2. Mention amount in front of each earning and deduction type.

    Note: No need to mention income tax and leave deduction if creating IT checklist for the employee.

3. LWP = Leave without pay

    Only earning head for whom "Depend on LWP" is marked will be affected when employee takes "leave
    without pay".

Net Pay = total earning - total deduction

Save the Salary Structure.

Now you can create a Salary Slip and IT Checklist against this Salary Structure.

For more details, please visit www.erpnext.com

How to Check Stock Levels in ERPNext?

You can check real time stock available across multiple locations in terms of

• Reserved Quantity - quantity for which orders are received but not delivered.
• Actual Quantity-  actual physical stock lying in the warehouse
• Ordered Quantity- quantity for which purchase orders are raised but not items are not received yet
• Planned Qty- quantity planned in the production orders
• Indented Quantity- quantiy for which indents are raised but purchase orders are not.
• Valuation Rate- fifo or moving average rate for the item 
• Projected Qty = actual+ordered+planned+indented-reserved

To check your stock level, go to Stock --> Reports --> Stock level

To check for a specific item available in particular warehouse use the available filters.

For more information and sign up for a free trial please visit http://www.erpnext.com

How to Raise Customer Issue in ERPNext?

Using customer issue you can keep a log of all the customer issues related to your product and services, assign it to a service personnel and keep a track of  its status.



To create a new customer issue,

Got to Support --> Customer issue --> New customer issue

Click on the Save button to save the issue and generate a issue number. You can now allocate issue to a service personnel and intimate using an email.


Once issue is resolved, change the ticket status "closed", enter the resolution details, date, name of the engineer and Submit button the issue.

For more information and free trial visit http://www.erpnext.com

How to Create Delivery Notes in ERPNext?

Delivery Note can be created from a Sales Order. However to create a Delivery Note directly, follow steps as shown below.

The Delivery Notes will have the following tabs. Lets have a look at each tab in detail.

The Basic Info tab will capture details related to the customer and the posting date on which the stock ledger entries will be affected. You can mention the lorry and challan details as well.

The Items tab will have a list of items and their quantities to be delivered from a warehouse. You can create a Delivery Note against multiple Sales Orders.

The Ref rate will get fetched from the item master on selection of price list. Changes can be made to the Rate which will calculate the Discount(%) on Ref Rate. The below rate and amount are in customer's currency.

Mention the warehouse from where goods will be delivered so that the stock level gets reduced from that warehouse on submitting Delivery Note. Mention Serial Nos and Batch Nos if applicable to the item. Serial numbers can be separated by a comma.

The Taxes tab will capture the total tax amount. If you have not created a tax template, enter taxes directly. You can select Type based on the following requirements :

1. Actual - when you know the actual amount of tax or other charge to be added to the net total, mention the amount in the Rate column.
2. On Net Total - will be selected when a tax percentage has to be calculated on the net total.
3. On Previous Row Amount - will be selected if a tax percentage needs to be calculated over the previous row tax amount . In this case mention the Row Id.
4. On Previous Row Total - will be selected when a tax percentage needs to be calculated over the total of net total and the previous row tax amount. In this case also mention the Row Id

Select the relevant tax account head applicable. The account head should be created under Chart of Accounts. The tax rate will be mentioned in the account head and will get fetched under the Rate column on selecting the same. 

Creating a tax template will save your time. To see how to create a tax template click on the link http://erpnext.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-create-template-for-taxes-and.html

The Terms tab will have the terms and conditions and other additional information which you would want to appear on the Sales Order print format. You can even create a template pull its details. To create a template click on the link http://erpnext.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-create-templates-for-terms-and.html

The More Info tab will capture additional information.

The Sales Team will capture the details of the Sales Partner and Sales Persons involved in the sales process and their commission and allocated percentage. The sales team is captured even in the Customer master and can be fetched from there once the customer is selected in the Sales Order.

Now save and submit the Delivery Note. 

Submitting the Delivery Note reduce the stock quantity from the warehouse selected. Also you can email and print the Delivery Note. 

Sales Invoice can now be made against the Delivery Note to book your income.

For more details, please visit www.erpnext.com