ERP Business Processes
A business process can be thought of as a collection of activities happening in an enterprise during the day to day functioning.
Through these business processes, enterprises achieve their objectives.
Each business process starts with a trigger. As shown in the below pic, Sales business process starts with a Sales order creation.
The below are the important Business processes occur in a typical manufacturing company.
Production or making process includes all activities or events to produce products in an enterprise.
Selling or fulfillment process includes all activities of creating sales orders, sales invoices and delivering products to customers.
Financial Accounting process includes all activities to manage accounts payable, accounts receivable, assets and G/L accounts in an enterprise.
Let us discuss the selling business process in detail.
The below diagram is a pictorial representation of the selling business process which includes activities or sub-processes of a profit enterprise.
This picture is from the chapter — ERP Domain in the book titled: Develop Web ERP software using Visual Studio and ASP.Net
When you set out to develop or create an ERP software with Java or .Net it is recommended by ERP experts that you begin with learning about the business processes and the resources required to run an enterprise.
It is this understanding of the enterprise from the perspective of processes and the resources required for the processes which will help you to gain mastery over ERP software development. The original purpose of implementing an ERP system was to enable the enterprise plan the resources by recording all the activities of the enterprise in real time.
Every business process starts by some event. For example, as shown in above pic, the selling business process starts with receiving a sales order from a customer. For this business process, the first activity is creation of sales order. After sales orders are created, these orders have to be processed, deliveries have to be done and sales invoices are created.
Observe that there are four major activities in selling business process starting with creating sales orders, picking and packing the sales orders, shipping orders and creating the sales invoices for orders for which goods are shipped.
Given below is the picture of a typical sales order document or a form. As shown in the Picture, sales orders include details such as name of customer, products to be delivered, date of delivery, taxes if any and discounts.
Note that the data which is recorded depends on the enterprise control objectives. If the sales department desires to have control on factors such as time, dispatch point and such details these data is also reflected in the form.
Sales orders are sorted regularly and those orders for which material is not available are categorized as back-orders. With a simple stored procedure, data can be extracted to create a back order report.
When orders are due to be delivered, finished goods which are readily available are picked and packed.
The next activity is the preparation of delivery note for the orders which are ready to be shipped. Delivery notes include details of material to be dispatched.
The next activity is creating sales invoices. Sales invoices are created for orders which are shipped. Depending on the shipping periods and other considerations, sales invoices are sent to customers.
The activities in the selling business process are done in different functional areas or departments. The activity of raising sales order happens in the sales department. Shipment is handled by materials management department and creating sales invoice and receiving payments is handled by the accounting department.
So, the important point to note here is, activities of a particular Business Process happens in different functional areas and handled by respective modules of the ERP system.
In an enterprise, when a customer places an order, manufacturing department produces finished goods and sales department delivers the same to the customer with sales invoice creation. Customer makes the Payment against the order after the finished goods are received and this activity is handled by the accounting department.
While implementing or developing an Enterprise Resource Planning software, the team involved in preparing the system study report is responsible for identifying and listing all the business processes which occur in an enterprise.
To ensure that all the business processes which occur in an enterprise are listed, a comprehensive chart is prepared listing all the business processes with detailed explanation. Also, identifying the main integration points between and among business processes are very essential.
Each activity in a business process requires data to be recorded. Data entry forms are used to record this data. ERP software provides user interface screens to facilitate easy data entry to record each activity in a business process.
In the later part of this article we will discuss about a typical sales order entry form with data entered and creating master records for customers. There are various master data to be created to perform business activities in the Sales and Accounting department.
ERP software modules provides features to create required master data such as customers, items, products, vendors, general Ledger accounts and employees.
The below picture is a customer master data entry form which includes details such as name of customer, Id, shipping address, billing address etc.
Whether you are an accountant or a developer who wants to develop ERP System, a thorough understanding of business processes in each department is very much essential.
Let us list out Business processes in all the main departments.
Manually managing financial business processes are a bottleneck for your enterprise as they take considerable amount of time to record and get financial reports. Automation of financial business processes listed below such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, journal entries, bank reconciliation, tax related issues, closing of financial period and generating financial statements is key to ensure that your finance department business processes are streamlined and you can plan the resources required in an efficient manner.
Most of the business processes have a financial implication and hence the financial accounting module is always at the center in any ERP system.
An Account is used to record a total amount allocated for a specific use.
Accounts are required when creating financial accounting transactions, or creating sales invoices and purchase invoices, sales returns, payments towards expenses, cash inflows and outflow, credit receipts from customers etc.
It is important to look up existing accounts before creating new accounts in the system and ensure all minimum and necessary accounts exist in the ERP system to commence recording accounting transactions.
The below mentioned fields are mandatory to create an account in the ERP system.
Name
Name for the account. This must be unique across accounts that is vendors, customers and bank accounts. So before creating one, always check if the account with the same name exists or not. ERP systems provides sophisticated validations routines to help businesses to create master records.
AccountType
A detailed account classification that specifies the use of this account in the system.
With the available source code in the book, you can modify the screen appearance as you like.
Classifying a Ledger Account under a hierarchy of Sub-Groups or Groups is essential, useful, and convenient and can be utilized to enhance the information levels. Groups and Ledger Accounts are distinct. All accounts are classified to their appropriate groups. A basic Group of accounts template is provided in the book titled: Develop Web ERP Software Using VS 2015.
Accounts payable relates to money that you owe vendors and creditors. These accounts reflect the amount payable to creditors the enterprise owes, and they are considered as current or short term liabilities. Accounts Payable business process includes the following business activities.
Vendors/Suppliers are individuals or companies that a business pays money to, such as a store or subcontractors who do work for the company. A reference to a vendor is required when creating bill, bill payment and vendor credit transactions.
The name of the person or enterprise must be unique across Customer, Vendor and Employee master data.
The below picture is the Cash Voucher form used to make Payments to Vendors by raising Checks or through Cash.
A Cash Voucher is a special purpose Voucher, which is used to record transactions involving cash payment or outflow. The purpose of outflow may change from transaction to transaction. Example of such transactions are cash purchases, payments to earlier credit purchases and other payments towards expenses already incurred. The cash voucher as shown above contains the following fields:
Cash Account
Name of the Cash A/c is recorded in this field. Note that each transaction must involve one cash account.
Amount
In this field the transaction amount is entered. The amount is Credited to cash account.
Accounts
In this field names of other accounts are entered. Other acounts can be names of suppliers in case of payments to be made for earlier purchases or names of purchase discount account in case of cash purchases which involve purchase discounts.
Narration
The purpose of transaction is entered in this field.
Debit
In this field debit amounts are recorded.
Credit
In this field credit amounts are recorded.
Totals
Totals of the Debit amounts and Credit amounts are recorded here.
Performing General Ledger (G/L) Closing Operations
This Business process occurs at the end of the period usually at the end of a financial period. Closing a period or closing a year is mandatory for auditing, making financial corrections, reconciliation or correcting the ledger history.
The financial module will automate the procedures to be followed while closing a financial period, for example expense accounts closing balances should be initialized to zero amount, assets accounts closing amounts should be carried forward to next year as opening balances and closing stock values are carried forward as opening balances.
The purchase department is entrusted with the task of purchasing materials required for manufacturing products in the enterprise. The purchase department is responsible for purchasing materials in the right quantities of the right quality at the right time.
The purchase department initiates the purchase process by raising the purchase order. Purchase orders are created when there is shortage of materials for production of finished products. The vendor supplies goods based on the purchase order. All purchase orders are treated as pending purchase orders till the time material is received from the vendors.
On receipt of goods, a receipt note is raised. When the receipt note is raised, stock accounts are updated. After the receipt note is created, purchase invoice is created which is a reference for the finance department to make a payment. The stock updating are reflected in the stock ledger and the stock registers. General ledger account updating are reflected in the balance sheet, p / l statement and general ledger.
An ERP software system is capable of managing all the business processes occurring in all the departments and also integrate each of the business processes within a department and between processes of other departments.
The benefits of an ERP system are many and the primary benefit is the information flow is accurate and in real time, right from raw material procurement to production to selling.
Today's ERP systems are very sophisticated and provide multiple insights of the manufacturing processes which results in continuous and mostly incremental improvements in the business processes. This information is useful for businesses to gain a competitive edge and make better decisions.
The success of ERP software implementation depends on the adherence to business processes standards by the enterprise and integration of BP.
As a developer, you should interact closely with the management and enterprise staff to educate them on the necessity of adhering to business process rules. This will increase the adaption of the ERP system and customizing the software to match with the processes of the business.
The development team should acquaint themselves with the business processes and workflow and this will ensure better integration and customization.
Managing Business Processes is one of the primary aspects for company growth. Companies should manage these Business process efficiently to make sure different aspects of the business is managed in an efficient way to enhance growth. ERP CIO and the management are interested and invest in successful implementation of managing business processes as this will lead to Competitive advantage.
Business processes are common for every enterprise. But some enterprise implement and manage their business processes efficiently which leads to profits.
Successful companies manage their business processes in a superior manner as compared to others.
ERP software are designed in such a way that these Business processes are implemented in a more efficient manner and streamlined in every department. Companies use their superior systems for creating a brand. This has become easier because of multi featured ERP systems, high speed computers, high speed internet, cloud computing and other devices such as tablets and smart phones.
While customizing ERP, developers and consultants play an important role in understanding the business processes of the enterprise and also help in optimizing the software.
Internal staff of the enterprise and ERP consultants interact and collaborate to design the ERP system to match it with the business processes resulting in productivity and growth.
If the business processes in an enterprise are already streamlined, then ERP software and the workflows needs to be implemented in the way it should meet the objectives of the firm.
ERP is a sophisticated software and it enables streamlining of all the processes in every department and provide inputs to proper decision making and growth.
So, for successful implementation one needs to understand information flow.
It does not mean that ERP system itself brings profits, rather it improves performance by implementing processes efficiently. Select best ERP software with best of industry Processes. SAP software contains sophisticated business processes and this software is implementations all over the world in many industry verticals.
Earlier in this article, we have listed and understood the key business processes in each department of an enterprise.
To develop an ERP system, programmers should be familiar with each and every business process and their sub processes in detail and integration points between them.
These Business processes are developed as ERP modules and these are available as a features in the ERP software.
Programmers should categorize business processes under a specific module, usually department wise.
ERP systems are integrated end-to end solutions and these systems should be developed as consolidation of all data in a single database.
ERP systems ensure that data is real time and status of the process is visible to everyone in the enterprise who are authorized to access.
There are different architectures developers adopt to develop a software. There are Client-server, web based ERP and cloud based / Saas Based ERP solutions.
If you are developing ERP financial accounting Accounts Receivable Business process from scratch using ASP.Net and c#, follow the below steps.
A customer is a consumer of the service or product that your business offers. Customers should be created before making any Accounts Receivable transaction.
Customer details can be stored in any database such as SQL server database.
ERP systems use this centralized database and after customer data is saved into this database, customer lookup is available in sale orders, sales invoices, and cash receipts transactions which are available across all the modules.
We need to develop the corresponding web forms and business object for the maintaining Customer master records.
The AccountsForm.aspx is implemented using the ASP.Net web forms, and Account.cs is implemented in C#. Data is stored in the Sql Server.
The AccountsForm allows the user to add a new Customer account or a Vendor account, a Bank account or a General Ledger account. The following are the fields in the AccountsForm. The purpose of each field is listed below.
Code
The Account code is entered here.
Name
The Account name is entered here.
Description
Additional information about the Account is entered here.
Parent Group
The Group to which the Account belongs to is selected here.
Address
Address of the Customer or Vendor is entered here.
Opening Balance
Opening balance amount is entered here. When creating a new Customer or Vendor, the opening balance amount is zero.
Debit
This radio button is selected to specify the opening balance as a Debit amount.
Credit
This radio button is selected to specify the opening balance as a Credit amount.
Save
To save a new account to the database, this button is clicked.
In Visual Studio, use the Solution Explorer and add a new WebForm and name it as AccountsForm.aspx.
Create AccountsForm.aspx and add the following controls to the form.
Your form should appear as shown below.
All the business logic required to program the AccountsForm is placed in the Account.cs business object. The functionalities of this business object are:
Saving and retrieving of data in the Web ERP software is done using stored procedures. The names of the stored procedures are passed from the Business Layer methods to the Data Access Layer.
Let us now create the Business object Account.cs. Creating a business object is similar to creating a class. In Visual Studio, select the myCsBusinessLayer project and choose Add -> class and name it as Account. Similar to a class, a business object contains class variables, constructor, class properties and methods. The two sections of the business object Account.cs are listed below.
Use the following Stored procedure to save customer data to the accounts table.
Note:-
The name and data type of the variable used in the stored procedure should be same as the parameter name and data type used in the method AddAccount(). The following is the code for the stored procedure — AddNewAccount.
The AccountsForm is used to enter a new Vendor or Customer or General account or Bank account. With this form, we can add, update and delete information about account data. You can add new account information. You can update account name, account parent group. You can delete account in account master by selecting your desired account.
Create a new customer account using the below form.
Steps to enter the account master data:
Creating a Cash Account using Accounts Form
Enter the name as Main Cash Account A/c and select the Cash—in—hand group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Supplier Account using Accounts Form
Enter the name of supplier and select the Accounts Payable group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Customer Account using Accounts Form
Enter the name of the customer and select the Accounts Receivable group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Bank Account using Accounts Form
Enter the name of the bank and select the Bank Accounts group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Purchase Account using Accounts Form
Enter name of the account as Purchase A/c and select Purchase Group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Sales Account using Accounts Form
Enter name of the account as Sale A/c and select Sales Group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Purchase Return Account using Accounts Form
Enter name of the account as Purchase Return A/c and select Purchase Return Group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Sales Return Account using Accounts Form
Enter name of the account as Sales Return A/c and select Sales Return Group in the parent group listbox.
Functionality Specifications
The VouReForm.aspx performs the following functionalities:
Additionally, the VouReForm.aspx form should :
The picture shown above is a screenshot of the VouRecForm.aspx in the design mode. The following are the data fields used in the VouRecForm.aspx. The purpose of each data field is listed below.
Tran No
The serial number is entered here.
Date
The date of the transaction is recorded here.
Cash Account
The name of the Cash A/c or Bank A/c.
Amount
The Voucher / Receipt amount.
GridView
Accounts which are entered are displayed here.
AccountName
The name of the account is selected here.
Debit
In this field, debit amounts are recorded.
Credit
In this field, credit amounts are recorded.
AddNewrecord
To add a new row of data i.e., new account, this button is clicked. When clicked, a new row of data is added to the GridView control.
Delete
To delete a row of data, click this button.
Edit
To modify the record, click this button.
Save
To commit a transaction to the database, click this button.
The control ObjectDataSource2 is used to display Cash Account or Bank Account names in the DropDownList1 control. The ObjectDataSource1 control is used to display accounts in the DropDownList control which is placed in the FooterTemplate field of GridView control.
The VouRecForm loads with appropriate accounts in the DropDownList controls. User has to select the cash account /bank account name in the Cash Account - DropDownList and the appropriate account in the GridView control. We ensure that double entry rules are adhered to and transaction is saved only if total of debit amounts is equal to total of credit amounts. Before saving, users are allowed to add, modify, delete or cancel these entries.
Observe that we have placed a GridView control and customized it by using the Template columns. In the following steps, we will design the VouRecForm.aspx using Template columns and on the completion of these steps, the VouRecForm.aspx will appear as shown in the Fig. After completing the design, we will start with programming the VouRecForm.cs.
Through these business processes, enterprises achieve their objectives.
Each business process starts with a trigger. As shown in the below pic, Sales business process starts with a Sales order creation.
Important Business processes which occur in a typical manufacturing company
The below are the important Business processes occur in a typical manufacturing company.
- Procurement process (buy)
- Production process (make)
- Fulfillment process (sell)
- Financial Accounting process
Production or making process includes all activities or events to produce products in an enterprise.
Selling or fulfillment process includes all activities of creating sales orders, sales invoices and delivering products to customers.
Financial Accounting process includes all activities to manage accounts payable, accounts receivable, assets and G/L accounts in an enterprise.
Let us discuss the selling business process in detail.
The below diagram is a pictorial representation of the selling business process which includes activities or sub-processes of a profit enterprise.
This picture is from the chapter — ERP Domain in the book titled: Develop Web ERP software using Visual Studio and ASP.Net
When you set out to develop or create an ERP software with Java or .Net it is recommended by ERP experts that you begin with learning about the business processes and the resources required to run an enterprise.
It is this understanding of the enterprise from the perspective of processes and the resources required for the processes which will help you to gain mastery over ERP software development. The original purpose of implementing an ERP system was to enable the enterprise plan the resources by recording all the activities of the enterprise in real time.
Every business process starts by some event. For example, as shown in above pic, the selling business process starts with receiving a sales order from a customer. For this business process, the first activity is creation of sales order. After sales orders are created, these orders have to be processed, deliveries have to be done and sales invoices are created.
Observe that there are four major activities in selling business process starting with creating sales orders, picking and packing the sales orders, shipping orders and creating the sales invoices for orders for which goods are shipped.
Given below is the picture of a typical sales order document or a form. As shown in the Picture, sales orders include details such as name of customer, products to be delivered, date of delivery, taxes if any and discounts.
Note that the data which is recorded depends on the enterprise control objectives. If the sales department desires to have control on factors such as time, dispatch point and such details these data is also reflected in the form.
Sales orders are sorted regularly and those orders for which material is not available are categorized as back-orders. With a simple stored procedure, data can be extracted to create a back order report.
When orders are due to be delivered, finished goods which are readily available are picked and packed.
The next activity is the preparation of delivery note for the orders which are ready to be shipped. Delivery notes include details of material to be dispatched.
The next activity is creating sales invoices. Sales invoices are created for orders which are shipped. Depending on the shipping periods and other considerations, sales invoices are sent to customers.
The activities in the selling business process are done in different functional areas or departments. The activity of raising sales order happens in the sales department. Shipment is handled by materials management department and creating sales invoice and receiving payments is handled by the accounting department.
So, the important point to note here is, activities of a particular Business Process happens in different functional areas and handled by respective modules of the ERP system.
In an enterprise, when a customer places an order, manufacturing department produces finished goods and sales department delivers the same to the customer with sales invoice creation. Customer makes the Payment against the order after the finished goods are received and this activity is handled by the accounting department.
While implementing or developing an Enterprise Resource Planning software, the team involved in preparing the system study report is responsible for identifying and listing all the business processes which occur in an enterprise.
To ensure that all the business processes which occur in an enterprise are listed, a comprehensive chart is prepared listing all the business processes with detailed explanation. Also, identifying the main integration points between and among business processes are very essential.
How to record an activity of business process in the ERP software
Each activity in a business process requires data to be recorded. Data entry forms are used to record this data. ERP software provides user interface screens to facilitate easy data entry to record each activity in a business process.
In the later part of this article we will discuss about a typical sales order entry form with data entered and creating master records for customers. There are various master data to be created to perform business activities in the Sales and Accounting department.
ERP software modules provides features to create required master data such as customers, items, products, vendors, general Ledger accounts and employees.
The below picture is a customer master data entry form which includes details such as name of customer, Id, shipping address, billing address etc.
Key business Processes on Department wise
Whether you are an accountant or a developer who wants to develop ERP System, a thorough understanding of business processes in each department is very much essential.
Let us list out Business processes in all the main departments.
Business processes in a typical Finance department
Manually managing financial business processes are a bottleneck for your enterprise as they take considerable amount of time to record and get financial reports. Automation of financial business processes listed below such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, journal entries, bank reconciliation, tax related issues, closing of financial period and generating financial statements is key to ensure that your finance department business processes are streamlined and you can plan the resources required in an efficient manner.
Most of the business processes have a financial implication and hence the financial accounting module is always at the center in any ERP system.
General Ledger (G/L) Accounting - Account maintenance business process
- Maintaining G/L Master Records
- Posting Transactions in the G/L
Maintaining G/L Master Records
An Account is used to record a total amount allocated for a specific use.
Accounts are required when creating financial accounting transactions, or creating sales invoices and purchase invoices, sales returns, payments towards expenses, cash inflows and outflow, credit receipts from customers etc.
It is important to look up existing accounts before creating new accounts in the system and ensure all minimum and necessary accounts exist in the ERP system to commence recording accounting transactions.
Accounts can be of five basic types: asset, liability, revenue (income), expenses, or equity.
The below mentioned fields are mandatory to create an account in the ERP system.
Name
Name for the account. This must be unique across accounts that is vendors, customers and bank accounts. So before creating one, always check if the account with the same name exists or not. ERP systems provides sophisticated validations routines to help businesses to create master records.
AccountType
A detailed account classification that specifies the use of this account in the system.
With the available source code in the book, you can modify the screen appearance as you like.
Chart of Accounts
Classifying a Ledger Account under a hierarchy of Sub-Groups or Groups is essential, useful, and convenient and can be utilized to enhance the information levels. Groups and Ledger Accounts are distinct. All accounts are classified to their appropriate groups. A basic Group of accounts template is provided in the book titled: Develop Web ERP Software Using VS 2015.
Accounts Payable business process
Accounts payable relates to money that you owe vendors and creditors. These accounts reflect the amount payable to creditors the enterprise owes, and they are considered as current or short term liabilities. Accounts Payable business process includes the following business activities.
- Maintaining Vendor Master Records
- Maintaining Accounts Payable Transactions
- Managing the Integration between Accounts Payable and Materials Management
- Performing Accounts Payable Closing Operations
Maintaining Vendor Master Records
Vendors/Suppliers are individuals or companies that a business pays money to, such as a store or subcontractors who do work for the company. A reference to a vendor is required when creating bill, bill payment and vendor credit transactions.
The name of the person or enterprise must be unique across Customer, Vendor and Employee master data.
Maintaining Accounts Payable Transactions
The below picture is the Cash Voucher form used to make Payments to Vendors by raising Checks or through Cash.
A Cash Voucher is a special purpose Voucher, which is used to record transactions involving cash payment or outflow. The purpose of outflow may change from transaction to transaction. Example of such transactions are cash purchases, payments to earlier credit purchases and other payments towards expenses already incurred. The cash voucher as shown above contains the following fields:
Cash Account
Name of the Cash A/c is recorded in this field. Note that each transaction must involve one cash account.
Amount
In this field the transaction amount is entered. The amount is Credited to cash account.
Accounts
In this field names of other accounts are entered. Other acounts can be names of suppliers in case of payments to be made for earlier purchases or names of purchase discount account in case of cash purchases which involve purchase discounts.
Narration
The purpose of transaction is entered in this field.
Debit
In this field debit amounts are recorded.
Credit
In this field credit amounts are recorded.
Totals
Totals of the Debit amounts and Credit amounts are recorded here.
Asset Accounting
- Maintaining Asset Master Records
- Executing Asset Transactions
- Executing Asset Accounting Period-End Closing Activities
Bank Accounting
- Maintaining Bank Accounting Master Records
- Managing Bank Accounting Transactions
Closing Operations in General Ledger Accounting
Performing General Ledger (G/L) Closing Operations
This Business process occurs at the end of the period usually at the end of a financial period. Closing a period or closing a year is mandatory for auditing, making financial corrections, reconciliation or correcting the ledger history.
The financial module will automate the procedures to be followed while closing a financial period, for example expense accounts closing balances should be initialized to zero amount, assets accounts closing amounts should be carried forward to next year as opening balances and closing stock values are carried forward as opening balances.
Business activities that occur in a typical in Sales and marketing department for the selling business process are:
- Creating Sales Order
- Deliveries / Shipping orders
- Create Sales Invoice
- Sales Returns
Business processes that occur in a typical in Purchase department are:
- Purchase Order
- Purchase Picking Orders
- Purchase Invoice
- Purchase Returns
The purchase department is entrusted with the task of purchasing materials required for manufacturing products in the enterprise. The purchase department is responsible for purchasing materials in the right quantities of the right quality at the right time.
The purchase department initiates the purchase process by raising the purchase order. Purchase orders are created when there is shortage of materials for production of finished products. The vendor supplies goods based on the purchase order. All purchase orders are treated as pending purchase orders till the time material is received from the vendors.
On receipt of goods, a receipt note is raised. When the receipt note is raised, stock accounts are updated. After the receipt note is created, purchase invoice is created which is a reference for the finance department to make a payment. The stock updating are reflected in the stock ledger and the stock registers. General ledger account updating are reflected in the balance sheet, p / l statement and general ledger.
Business processes that occur in a typical manufacturing department are:
- Creating Bill of materials
- Creating Work Orders
- WIP receipts for recording completed work orders
Business Process Integration with ERP system
An ERP software system is capable of managing all the business processes occurring in all the departments and also integrate each of the business processes within a department and between processes of other departments.
The benefits of an ERP system are many and the primary benefit is the information flow is accurate and in real time, right from raw material procurement to production to selling.
Today's ERP systems are very sophisticated and provide multiple insights of the manufacturing processes which results in continuous and mostly incremental improvements in the business processes. This information is useful for businesses to gain a competitive edge and make better decisions.
The success of ERP software implementation depends on the adherence to business processes standards by the enterprise and integration of BP.
As a developer, you should interact closely with the management and enterprise staff to educate them on the necessity of adhering to business process rules. This will increase the adaption of the ERP system and customizing the software to match with the processes of the business.
The development team should acquaint themselves with the business processes and workflow and this will ensure better integration and customization.
Managing Business Processes is one of the primary aspects for company growth. Companies should manage these Business process efficiently to make sure different aspects of the business is managed in an efficient way to enhance growth. ERP CIO and the management are interested and invest in successful implementation of managing business processes as this will lead to Competitive advantage.
Business processes are common for every enterprise. But some enterprise implement and manage their business processes efficiently which leads to profits.
Successful companies manage their business processes in a superior manner as compared to others.
ERP software are designed in such a way that these Business processes are implemented in a more efficient manner and streamlined in every department. Companies use their superior systems for creating a brand. This has become easier because of multi featured ERP systems, high speed computers, high speed internet, cloud computing and other devices such as tablets and smart phones.
While customizing ERP, developers and consultants play an important role in understanding the business processes of the enterprise and also help in optimizing the software.
Internal staff of the enterprise and ERP consultants interact and collaborate to design the ERP system to match it with the business processes resulting in productivity and growth.
If the business processes in an enterprise are already streamlined, then ERP software and the workflows needs to be implemented in the way it should meet the objectives of the firm.
ERP is a sophisticated software and it enables streamlining of all the processes in every department and provide inputs to proper decision making and growth.
So, for successful implementation one needs to understand information flow.
It does not mean that ERP system itself brings profits, rather it improves performance by implementing processes efficiently. Select best ERP software with best of industry Processes. SAP software contains sophisticated business processes and this software is implementations all over the world in many industry verticals.
Developing Financial Accounting business processes using ASP.Net and C#
Earlier in this article, we have listed and understood the key business processes in each department of an enterprise.
To develop an ERP system, programmers should be familiar with each and every business process and their sub processes in detail and integration points between them.
These Business processes are developed as ERP modules and these are available as a features in the ERP software.
Programmers should categorize business processes under a specific module, usually department wise.
ERP systems are integrated end-to end solutions and these systems should be developed as consolidation of all data in a single database.
ERP systems ensure that data is real time and status of the process is visible to everyone in the enterprise who are authorized to access.
There are different architectures developers adopt to develop a software. There are Client-server, web based ERP and cloud based / Saas Based ERP solutions.
If you are developing ERP financial accounting Accounts Receivable Business process from scratch using ASP.Net and c#, follow the below steps.
Accounts Receivable Business process contains two business activities.
- Maintaining Customer Master Records
- Managing Accounts Receivable Transactions
Maintaining Customer Master Records
A customer is a consumer of the service or product that your business offers. Customers should be created before making any Accounts Receivable transaction.
Customer details can be stored in any database such as SQL server database.
ERP systems use this centralized database and after customer data is saved into this database, customer lookup is available in sale orders, sales invoices, and cash receipts transactions which are available across all the modules.
Developing a Webform to create Customer master data.
We need to develop the corresponding web forms and business object for the maintaining Customer master records.
The AccountsForm.aspx is implemented using the ASP.Net web forms, and Account.cs is implemented in C#. Data is stored in the Sql Server.
Designing the AccountsForm.aspx
The AccountsForm allows the user to add a new Customer account or a Vendor account, a Bank account or a General Ledger account. The following are the fields in the AccountsForm. The purpose of each field is listed below.
Code
The Account code is entered here.
Name
The Account name is entered here.
Description
Additional information about the Account is entered here.
Parent Group
The Group to which the Account belongs to is selected here.
Address
Address of the Customer or Vendor is entered here.
Opening Balance
Opening balance amount is entered here. When creating a new Customer or Vendor, the opening balance amount is zero.
Debit
This radio button is selected to specify the opening balance as a Debit amount.
Credit
This radio button is selected to specify the opening balance as a Credit amount.
Save
To save a new account to the database, this button is clicked.
Points to Note:
- It is a recommended practice to assign numbers to all Accounts.
- All new accounts created become a part of Chart of Accounts. So, due care must be taken while creating new accounts.
- Accounts are the master data for the Finance module. Once the master data is set up, we can enter transactions for various business activities of an enterprise.
In Visual Studio, use the Solution Explorer and add a new WebForm and name it as AccountsForm.aspx.
Create AccountsForm.aspx and add the following controls to the form.
Your form should appear as shown below.
Creating the Business Object — Account.cs
All the business logic required to program the AccountsForm is placed in the Account.cs business object. The functionalities of this business object are:
- Retrieve Groups.
- Save an Account.
Saving and retrieving of data in the Web ERP software is done using stored procedures. The names of the stored procedures are passed from the Business Layer methods to the Data Access Layer.
Let us now create the Business object Account.cs. Creating a business object is similar to creating a class. In Visual Studio, select the myCsBusinessLayer project and choose Add -> class and name it as Account. Similar to a class, a business object contains class variables, constructor, class properties and methods. The two sections of the business object Account.cs are listed below.
- Creating Account class
- Writing class methods
Use the following Stored procedure to save customer data to the accounts table.
Note:-
The name and data type of the variable used in the stored procedure should be same as the parameter name and data type used in the method AddAccount(). The following is the code for the stored procedure — AddNewAccount.
How to create a Customer Account using Accounts Form
The AccountsForm is used to enter a new Vendor or Customer or General account or Bank account. With this form, we can add, update and delete information about account data. You can add new account information. You can update account name, account parent group. You can delete account in account master by selecting your desired account.
Create a new customer account using the below form.
Steps to enter the account master data:
- Run the application and select the Masters->Accounts option in the menu
- The AccountsForm is displayed,
- For customer master record, select Accounts Receivable group as a parent group.
- After data is entered, click on the Save button to save the data into the AccountsTable.
Creating a Cash Account using Accounts Form
Enter the name as Main Cash Account A/c and select the Cash—in—hand group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Supplier Account using Accounts Form
Enter the name of supplier and select the Accounts Payable group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Customer Account using Accounts Form
Enter the name of the customer and select the Accounts Receivable group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Bank Account using Accounts Form
Enter the name of the bank and select the Bank Accounts group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Purchase Account using Accounts Form
Enter name of the account as Purchase A/c and select Purchase Group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Sales Account using Accounts Form
Enter name of the account as Sale A/c and select Sales Group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Purchase Return Account using Accounts Form
Enter name of the account as Purchase Return A/c and select Purchase Return Group in the parent group listbox.
Creating a Sales Return Account using Accounts Form
Enter name of the account as Sales Return A/c and select Sales Return Group in the parent group listbox.
How to develop Accounts receivable data entry form to enter cash and check receipts using ASP.Net C#
Functionality Specifications
The VouReForm.aspx performs the following functionalities:
- Should display DropDownList control with Cash/ Bank accounts.
- User should able to select a Cash/ Bank account from the DropDownList control.
- Similar to the Jounal Voucher, user should be able to enter multiple rows of accounts and a corresponding credit or debit entry
- User should be able to edit and delete the data in the GridView.
- Save the transaction.
Additionally, the VouReForm.aspx form should :
- Enforce double entry rules.
- Enforce data entry validations.
- Ensure users enter either a credit or a debit amount only.
- Force users to select a particular account only once.
- Calculate the total of the amounts in each column in the GridView.
Form design using GridView to enter vouchers and receipts transactions
The picture shown above is a screenshot of the VouRecForm.aspx in the design mode. The following are the data fields used in the VouRecForm.aspx. The purpose of each data field is listed below.
Tran No
The serial number is entered here.
Date
The date of the transaction is recorded here.
Cash Account
The name of the Cash A/c or Bank A/c.
Amount
The Voucher / Receipt amount.
GridView
Accounts which are entered are displayed here.
AccountName
The name of the account is selected here.
Debit
In this field, debit amounts are recorded.
Credit
In this field, credit amounts are recorded.
AddNewrecord
To add a new row of data i.e., new account, this button is clicked. When clicked, a new row of data is added to the GridView control.
Delete
To delete a row of data, click this button.
Edit
To modify the record, click this button.
Save
To commit a transaction to the database, click this button.
The control ObjectDataSource2 is used to display Cash Account or Bank Account names in the DropDownList1 control. The ObjectDataSource1 control is used to display accounts in the DropDownList control which is placed in the FooterTemplate field of GridView control.
The VouRecForm loads with appropriate accounts in the DropDownList controls. User has to select the cash account /bank account name in the Cash Account - DropDownList and the appropriate account in the GridView control. We ensure that double entry rules are adhered to and transaction is saved only if total of debit amounts is equal to total of credit amounts. Before saving, users are allowed to add, modify, delete or cancel these entries.
Observe that we have placed a GridView control and customized it by using the Template columns. In the following steps, we will design the VouRecForm.aspx using Template columns and on the completion of these steps, the VouRecForm.aspx will appear as shown in the Fig. After completing the design, we will start with programming the VouRecForm.cs.
