Using ERPNext for Professional Services

[Sultan Ghaznawi]

Hello,

I really like ERPNext and its flexibility and I am thinking about trialing it for a professional services organization. The company will be working with files mostly, and project management and workflows will dominate the way it operates. Imagine this scenario:

1. Customer calls the company asking to work on a particular file.
2. The company creates a quotation, client accepts it and the opportunity is turned into a project.
3. The project will follow certain workflow templates, depending on client requirements. When the project manager selects Project Template A, the ERP will create the steps that need to be implemented for successful project delivery.
4. Each step of the project delivery will have a file system folder where related and working files could be uploaded.
5. We want each step to be assignable to internal employees or contractors who qualify and have the capabilities for the specific task and we want such tasks to be linked with invoices, purchase orders etc.
6. We will also want to be able to track the activities, types of projects and resource and service performance in detailed reports.

This is a high level outline of what we are looking for in such an ERP system. In your opinion, does ERPNext have the capability to be turned into something useful for a strictly professional services type of an organization? If so, what needs to happen and where do we go from here?

Thanks,

Sultan

[Umair Sayyed]

Dear Sultan,

Thanks for the kind remarks.

Functional queries are welcome on user forum. Developer forum is mainly for technical queries. Check my in-line replies below.

On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 5:05 AM, Sultan Ghaznawi <sultan....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello,

I really like ERPNext and its flexibility and I am thinking about trialing it for a professional services organization. The company will be working with files mostly, and project management and workflows will dominate the way it operates. Imagine this scenario:

ERPNext has generic and basic Project Management module. Following is its basic structure.

• Project 1
  
  • Task 1
    
    • Time Log 1
    • Time Log 2
      
  • Task 2
    
    • Time Log 3
    • Time Log 4
      
  • Task 3
    
    • Time Log 5
    • Time Log 6
• Project 2
• Project 3
  

You will be able to attach files in Project, Task and Time Log forms.

1. Customer calls the company asking to work on a particular file.
   
   

1. They can indicate Project Id or Task Id.
   
   

1. The company creates a quotation, client accepts it and the opportunity is turned into a project.
   

1. 
   Quotation can be converted into Sales Order, which can be treated at Project and central point for tracking billing and delivery against Project.
   
   Also, new Project can be added when Quotation materialize.
   
   

1. The project will follow certain workflow templates, depending on client requirements. When the project manager selects Project Template A, the ERP will create the steps that need to be implemented for successful project delivery.
   

1. 
   No option to project template now. User should manually create Project and Task against Project, based on customer's requirement.
   
   

1. Each step of the project delivery will have a file system folder where related and working files could be uploaded.
   

1. 
   Project can be divided in multiple task. File can be attached with Task.
   
   

1. We want each step to be assignable to internal employees or contractors who qualify and have the capabilities for the specific task and we want such tasks to be linked with invoices, purchase orders etc.
   
   

1. Task can be assigned to Employees/Users.
   
   Currently, Project can be selected in sales and purchase transactions. You can insert custom fields to select Task as well.
   
   

1. We will also want to be able to track the activities, types of projects and resource and service performance in detailed reports.
   

This is a high level outline of what we are looking for in such an ERP system. In your opinion, does ERPNext have the capability to be turned into something useful for a strictly professional services type of an organization? If so, what needs to happen and where do we go from here?

Please make a test run in trial account created to map client's requirement with solution.

Thanks,

Sultan

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Thanks and Regards,
Umair Sayyed
www.erpnext.com

[Sultan Ghaznawi]

Dear Umair,

Thank you for your detailed response and apologies for posting a user question in the developer forum. I will follow your notes here and get back to you with any additional questions (of course in the user forum) and hopefully we can get to a good start. Who do I talk to about tech support options for ERPNext? Do you have a list of available packages?

Thanks,

Sultan

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