Looking for Advice on Accounting Usage

Hi,
We are excited about subscribing to ERPNext, but our accountant is requesting more input from other accountants/financial pros that are using the accounting functions. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Here are her questions and concerns:

“Having gone through several software conversions in my field, I have some concerns over the product, the newness of the company, and what looks to be oversimplified processes. I would love any insight you could provide concerning the ERP Next product, how the conversion process went for you, what you were utilizing before or what you have used in the past as a point of reference. As a CPA and overseer of all things financial, having a system with the utmost in integrity is key. How do your financial people, and folks responsible for job costing and inventory control like the product? Did ERP Next management provide adequate support for the conversion? Is there adequate training and ongoing support? The reports look very basic, can they be modified without losing integrity of the figures? (ie throwing out to excel where numbers can be manipulated) Do you find the ERP system has enough gusto to provide sufficient data for purchasing? Manufacturing? The lingo used by ERP Next looks foreign to me, not common US GAAP, has this been a problem? Does it have all of the standard features of solid financial sub ledgers like aged Accounts receivable, Aged payables, Perpetual inventory reports? Does the manufacturing module have bar code capabilities?”

Thanks again for your time,
Isaac

Can any experienced users please help?

CC (randomly): @adityaduggal @bobzz_zone @Francois_Ifitwala @camilopianos @mouuuton @eamonn

Thanks!

Thanks for helping me reach out Rushabh:)

Hi,

honestly… i not quite understand about the problem…
please make it simplified , and have a number for each question…a sample case if possible, so i can understand better so i might give you some advice form my view

Thanks
Bobby

Hi Bob, thanks for being willing to help. Do you mind me putting you in touch with our accountant so she can clarify her questions and concerns?

hi, sure but im not very well versed with accounting system but you might try to ask she can wrote the case here clearly… so i can see throught it…

Thanks
Bobby

Hi @iricket,
We are in the process of switching to ERPNext from Sage Pastel Partner. We are still doing lots of testing to make sure we are covering all possible scenarios.

With your questions I imagine you are already a decent size company.

We are a trading company on fresh & frozen products.

In terms of support, the guys at ERPNext are really really fast at responding and helping. Community is also growing and you usually get answers within 24h if questions are not straight out of the ERPNext Manual.

Reports can be changed. You will need then to hire someone who has enough programming skills to help you with that. Our idea is that for the little we pay comparing to similar ERP products, we are happy to pay development / customisation. I would say first ask the ERPNEt team for paid development / customization as they will be the best to implement anything. If it is too specific, then they can recommend you third parties.

I can’t say much on Manufacturing but on Purchasing and Repacking (we do lots of butchery work), it is quite good and sufficient for our needs.

I would agree that the lingo is different (Purchase Receipt instead of GRN, etc.)

All the normal accounting features are there as well as barcode (not sure for barcode at Manufacturing though).

The key is really testing, testing and again testing with real life data for a couple of month to ensure that everything your company is doing, ERPNext can do it as well. Now change is hard, and it can be daunting to go from one way of doing thing to another. Also there are always give and take. The common complain from our accountants & warehouse people is the length of the form. They use to “enter”, “enter”, “enter”, etc. for all the fields. Here it does take a little bit more time.
That said considering all the features ERPNext offers under one roof, the price, the support, we can go over that disadvantage.

Best,

François

Thanks @Francois_Ifitwala for the detailed reply!

Issac, like @Francois_Ifitwala mentioned, you need to do test transactions to satisfy yourself. Someone has to take a call on implementing the system and it should ideally not be your accountant.

Ok, we are looking for someone with strong accounting experience with ERPnext, so we will keep searching for this person.

Thanks,
Isaac

Isaac Ricketts | iricketts@chrisreeve.com

Chris Reeve Knives

Hi, yes, I agree, we need to get moving on this. The owner of our company has had a bad experience with ERP implementation, and is leaning heavily on our accountant to help decide if this is the answer for us. I forwarded Francois message to her, we are asking her to get us an answer ASAP.

Thanks:)

Isaac Ricketts | iricketts@chrisreeve.com

Chris Reeve Knives

Francois,
Thanks so much for taking the time to provide this feedback, it is helpful and highly valued. I sent it on to our accountant, hopefully we will get her buy in and we can move to a real testing phase.

Isaac

Isaac Ricketts | iricketts@chrisreeve.com

Chris Reeve Knives