Operations
Export ERP or accounting software: what an export business needs
What an export ERP does that accounting software does not, and how the two work together.
Contents
- Accounting software records money. It was not built to run orders, shipments and export documents.
- A large general ERP can do everything, but often takes months to set up and still needs export work added.
- For most exporters the best answer is an export ERP for operations, working with the accounting software you already use.
Two different jobs
Your accounting software, often Tally, does one job very well. It records what was bought, sold, paid and received, and keeps your books and GST in order. Your CA depends on it.
But think about what happens before an entry reaches your accounts. An enquiry becomes a quotation. The quotation becomes an order. Goods are bought from suppliers, packed and shipped. A set of documents is made for the buyer, customs, the bank and the forwarder. Payment arrives, sometimes in parts, sometimes under a letter of credit. Refunds and incentives are claimed.
None of that is accounting. It is the operation of your export business. Accounting software only sees the end result.
What an export ERP does
An export ERP, sometimes called an EXIM ERP, runs that operation. It typically covers:
- enquiries, costing and quotations
- sales orders and purchase orders, including back-to-back orders to suppliers
- stock and packing
- shipments and their tracking
- export documents made from the order and shipment data
- letters of credit and payment tracking against shipments
- compliance dates, refunds and incentives
The point is that each step uses the data from the step before. Nothing is typed twice.
Why not a full general ERP?
Large ERPs from big global vendors can do all of this and more. Some exporters choose them. The common problems are:
- Time. Set-up projects often run for many months.
- Fit. Export documents, Indian compliance and bank formats usually have to be added on.
- Effort. Your team must change how they work to fit the software.
- Accounts. You may be asked to move your accounting out of Tally, which your CA and team know well.
A general ERP is built to fit every industry. An export ERP is built for the work exporters actually do.
How the two work together
The right set-up for most exporters is simple. The export ERP runs orders, purchases, shipments, documents and payments. The accounting software keeps the books. The two exchange data, so invoices and payments recorded in one appear in the other without retyping.
Your CA keeps working in Tally. Your operations team works in the export system. You see both sides of the business.
How Expodite helps. Expodite is an export ERP built for Indian exporters. It runs everything from enquiry to payment, and a two-way integration with Tally keeps products, clients, orders and invoices in step. Your accounts stay where they are.
See Expodite as an export ERPQuestions to ask your team and your CA
- Which parts of our export work happen outside Tally today, and where?
- How many times is an invoice typed: once in our documents and again in our accounts?
- If we added an export system, what would our CA need from it?
- Have we looked at a full ERP before? What stopped us?
- Which of our people would use an export system every day?
Quick answers
- Is export software the same as an ERP?
- Export management software that covers orders, purchases, stock, shipments, documents and payments is an export ERP. It usually works with separate accounting software rather than replacing it.
- Do I have to stop using Tally to use an export ERP?
- Not with an export ERP that integrates with Tally. Your accounts stay in Tally and the two systems share data.
