Concepts and Terms
Before you start implementation, lets get familiar with the terminology that is used and some basic concepts in ERPNext.
Basic Concepts
Company
This represents the Company records for which ERPNext is setup. With this same setup, you can create multiple Company records, each representing a different legal entity. The accounting for each Company will be different, but they will share the Customer, Supplier and Item records.
Setup > Company
Customer
Represents a customer. A Customer can be an individual or an organization. You can create multiple Contacts and Addresses for each Customer.
Selling > Customer
Supplier
Represents a supplier of goods or services. Your telephone company is a Supplier, so is your raw materials Supplier. Again, a Supplier can be an individual or an organization and has multiple Contacts and Addresses.
Buying > Supplier
Item
A Product, sub-product or Service that is either bought, sold or manufactured and is uniquely identified.
Stock > Item
Account
An Account is a heading under which financial and business transactions are carried on. For example, “Travel Expense” is an account, “Customer Zoe”, “Supplier Mae” are accounts. ERPNext creates accounts for Customers and Suppliers automatically.
Accounting > Chart of Accounts
Address
An address represents location details of a Customer or Supplier. These can be of different locations such as Head Office, Factory, Warehouse, Shop etc.
Selling > Address
Contact
An individual Contact belongs to a Customer or Supplier or is just an independent. A Contact has a name and contact details like email and phone number.
Selling > Contact
Communication
A list of all Communication with a Contact or Lead. All emails sent from the system are added to the Communication table.
Support > Communication
Price List
A Price List is a place where different rate plans can be stored. It’s a name you give to a set of Item Prices stored under a particular List.
Selling > Price List
Buying > Price List
Accounting
Fiscal Year
Represents a Financial Year or Accounting Year. You can operate multiple Fiscal Years at the same time. Each Fiscal Year has a start date and an end date and transactions can only be recorded in this period. When you “close” a fiscal year, it's balances are transferred as “opening” balances for the next fiscal year.
Setup > Company > Fiscal Year
Cost Center
A Cost Center is like an Account, but the only difference is that its structure represents your business more closely than Accounts. For example, in your Chart of Accounts, you can separate your expenses by its type (i.e., travel, marketing, etc.). In your Chart of Cost Centers, you can separate them by product line or business group (e.g., online sales, retail sales, etc.).
Accounting > Chart of Cost Centers
Journal Entry
A document that contains General Ledger (GL) entries and the sum of Debits and Credits of those entries is the same. In ERPNext you can update Payments, Returns, etc., using Journal Entries.
Accounting > Journal Entry
Sales Invoice
A bill sent to Customers for delivery of Items (goods or services).
Accounting > Sales Invoice
Purchase Invoice
A bill sent by a Supplier for delivery of Items (goods or services).
Accounting > Purchase Invoice
Currency
ERPNext allows you to book transactions in multiple currencies. There is only one currency for your book of accounts though. While posting your Invoices with payments in different currencies, the amount is converted to the default currency by the specified conversion rate.
Setup > Currency
Selling
Customer Group
A classification of Customers, usually based on market segment.
Selling > Setup > Customer Group
Lead
A person who could be a future source of business. A Lead may generate Opportunities. (from: “may lead to a sale”).
CRM > Lead
Opportunity
A potential sale. (from: “opportunity for a business”).
CRM > Opportunity
Quotation
Customer's request to price an item or service.
Selling > Quotation
Sales Order
A note confirming the terms of delivery and price of an Item (product or service) by the Customer. Deliveries, Work Orders and Invoices are made on basis of Sales Orders.
Selling > Sales Order
Territory
A geographical area classification for sales management. You can set targets for Territories and each sale is linked to a Territory.
Selling > Setup > Territory
Sales Partner
A third party distributer / dealer / affiliate / commission agent who sells the company’s products usually for a commission.
Selling > Setup > Sales Partner
Sales Person
Someone who pitches to the Customer and closes deals. You can set targets for Sales Persons and tag them in transactions.
Selling > Setup > Sales Person
Buying
Purchase Order
A contract given to a Supplier to deliver the specified Items at the specified cost, quantity, dates and other terms.
Buying > Purchase Order
Material Request
A request made by a system User, or automatically generated by ERPNext based on reorder level or projected quantity in Production Plan for purchasing a set of Items.
Buying > Material Request
Stock (Inventory)
Warehouse
A logical Warehouse against which stock entries are made.
Stock > Warehouse
Stock Entry
Material transfer from a Warehouse, to a Warehouse or from one Warehouse to another.
Stock > Stock Entry
Delivery Note
A list of Items with quantities for shipment. A Delivery Note will reduce the stock of Items for the Warehouse from where you ship. A Delivery Note is usually made against a Sales Order.
Stock > Delivery Note
Purchase Receipt
A note stating that a particular set of Items were received from the Supplier, most likely against a Purchase Order.
Stock > Purchase Receipt
Serial Number
A unique number given to a particular unit of an Item.
Stock > Serial Number
Batch
A number given to a group of units of a particular Item that may be purchased or manufactured in a group.
Stock > Batch
Stock Ledger Entry
A unified table for all material movement from one warehouse to another. This is the table that is updated when a Stock Entry, Delivery Note, Purchase Receipt, and Sales Invoice (POS) is made.
Stock Reconciliation
Update Stock of multiple Items from a spreadsheet (CSV) file.
Stock > Stock Reconciliation
Quality Inspection
A note prepared to record certain parameters of an Item at the time of Receipt from Supplier, or Delivery to Customer.
Stock > Quality Inspection
Item Group
A classification of Item.
Stock > Setup > Item Group
Human Resource Management
Employee
Record of a person who has been in present or past, in the employment of the company.
Human Resources > Employee
Leave Application
A record of an approved or rejected request for leave.
Human Resource > Leave Application
Leave Type
A type of leave (e.g., Sick Leave, Maternity Leave, etc.).
Human Resource > Leave and Attendance > Leave Type
Payroll Entry
A tool that helps in creation of multiple Salary Slips for Employees.
Human Resource > Payroll Entry
Salary Slip
A record of the monthly salary given to an Employee.
Human Resource > Salary Slip
Salary Structure
A template identifying all the components of an Employees' salary (earnings), tax and other social security deductions.
Human Resource > Salary and Payroll > Salary Structure
Appraisal
A record of the performance of an Employee over a specified period based on certain parameters.
Human Resources > Appraisal
Appraisal Template
A template recording the different parameters of an Employees' performance and their weightage for a particular role.
Human Resources > Employee Setup > Appraisal Template
Attendance
A record indicating presence or absence of an Employee on a particular day.
Human Resources > Attendance
Manufacturing
Bill of Materials (BOM)
A list of Operations and Items with their quantities, that are required to produce another Item. A Bill of Materials (BOM) is used to plan purchases and do product costing.
Manufacturing > BOM
Workstation
A place where a BOM operation takes place. It is useful to calculate the direct cost of the product.
Manufacturing > Workstation
Work Order
A document signaling production (manufacture) of a particular Item with specified quantities.
Manufacturing > Work Order
Production Planning Tool
A tool for automatic creation of Work Orders and Purchase Requests based on Open Sales Orders in a given period.
Manufacturing > Production Planning Tool
Website
Blog Post
A short article that appears in the “Blog” section of the website generated from the ERPNext website module. Blog is a short form of “Web Log”.
Website > Blog Post
Web Page
A web page with a unique URL (web address) on the website generated from ERPNext.
Website > Web Page
Setup / Customization
Custom Field
A user defined field on a form / table.
Setup > Customize ERPNext > Custom Field
Global Defaults
This is the section where you set default values for various parameters of the system.
Setup > Data > Global Defaults
Print Heading
A title that can be set on a transaction just for printing. For example, you want to print a Quotation with a title “Proposal” or “Pro forma Invoice”.
Setup > Branding and Printing > Print Headings
Terms and Conditions
Text of your terms of contract. In Sales/Purchase transactions there might be certain Terms and Conditions based on which the Supplier provides goods or services to the Customer. You can apply the Terms and Conditions to transactions and they will appear when printing the document. To know about Terms and Conditions, click here
Selling > Setup > Terms and Conditions
Unit of Measure (UOM)
How quantity is measured for an Item. E.g., Kg, No., Pair, Packet, etc.
Stock > Setup > UOM