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Setup Check

ERP for trades

ERPNext for Trades: From enquiry to job costing.

Material and hours land on the right job, and you know afterwards whether it paid off. Instead of piecing it together weeks later from delivery notes and scraps of paper.

Does this sound familiar?

  • Quotes live in WordWith no connection to material and hours.
  • Material goes missing on the wayAnd the margin goes with it.
  • No job costingWas the job profitable? Unclear.
  • Jobs are hard to scheduleAppointments depend on individual people.

The chain

Survey, quote, job, invoice. With no break.

  1. 01Quote and job

    With line items, material and labour in one place.

  2. 02Material

    Consumption per job, stock and reordering.

  3. 03Jobs and scheduling

    Plan jobs and assign them to crews.

  4. 04Time tracking

    Hours per job, the basis for billing and costing.

  5. 05Job costing

    Planned versus actual per job, instead of gut feeling.

Material and hours run straight onto the job

We agree which data and handovers to connect for your business.

JobsMaterialsHoursJob costing
ERPNext

Illustrative structure, not a product screenshot. Configuration, integrations and scope are assessed in the project.

What we clarify up front.

  1. How do quotes come about today?

    From a template, from a site survey, or typed freehand?

  2. Where is material recorded?

    Use one job to check how issued, consumed and returned materials are recorded. Site, warehouse and document need an unambiguous connection to the job.

  3. How do hours get into the system?

    Define who records and approves time and how later corrections are handled. Test the agreed mobile recording method with a typical site scenario; offline use is not assumed.

  4. What should the job costing show?

    Planned against actual per job, or per site and customer too?

Frequently asked questions from the trades.

Can we record hours and material per job?

Yes, both run onto the job and feed the job costing.

Does that work on mobile from the site?

ERPNext is web-based and works on mobile; we set the concrete recording path during the setup.

Do we see whether a job was profitable?

Job costing needs complete time, materials, subcontracted work and revenue records assigned to the correct job. Test a normal case and a change request. Those records are needed to assess the required planned-versus-actual report.

What does a system like this cost for a trades business?

Costs depend on requirements, data migration, mobile workflows and custom work. The free conversation covers your starting point; a reliable proposal then needs an agreed assessment scope.

When material and hours go missing on the way, the margin goes with them.

In a free conversation, we discuss your starting point, the changes you need and whether ERPNext is a suitable fit. We can then show you a demo on request. Implementation scope and effort are assessed separately.

Request a free conversation