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India
What does a business process consultant do for an Indian company?
A business process consultant maps how orders, purchases, production and month-end really run today, finds where work stalls or gets redone, and designs a clearer process with named owners and approval limits. For an Indian company that design has to carry GST input credit checks, e-way bills, TDS, job work and dealer claims. I work remotely from India, and software choices come only after the process is agreed.
Last reviewed by Vikas Saroj
In many Indian companies the real process lives in a few senior heads: the accountant who knows which supplier bills to hold back, the dispatch clerk who remembers which customers need vehicle details changed midway, the sales coordinator who tracks every dealer scheme from memory. That holds together until a plant, a branch or a second shift is added. My work is to put that knowledge on paper as a process anyone can follow.
I am India-based, and the engagement is still remote: short online sessions with the people who perform each step, screen shares of Tally, registers and spreadsheets, and maps your team corrects while we talk. A visit can be planned by arrangement where seeing the floor genuinely helps.
Only once the future process is agreed do we discuss systems. Sometimes the honest finding is that the tools you already pay for are enough.
What I Do
Each piece of work starts from real documents and real people, not from a template process copied from a textbook or a vendor demo.
I trace real documents with accounts, stores, dispatch and sales, from the indent to the payment voucher, so the map shows what actually happens on a busy day rather than what an old policy file claims.
A defined routine for comparing supplier bills with what suppliers have reported, deciding who chases mismatches and when a payment is held. Your chartered accountant confirms the tax rules; I design who does what and when.
Where the invoice, e-invoice and e-way bill are raised, who may change vehicle details, and how a cancelled dispatch is unwound, written down so dispatch and accounts stop working from two different versions.
Challans going out, material sitting with job workers, returns with process loss and the periodic check of what is still outside, mapped as one flow shared by stores, production and accounts.
Scheme claims, rate differences and damaged returns from dealers brought into one approval path, with the evidence required, who approves which amount and the exact point at which a credit note is issued.
A delegation of authority stating who approves purchases, discounts, write-offs and payments within which limits, plus short role-based SOPs that let staff act without phoning the promoter for every decision.
How I Work
See how work really moves
Collect formats, registers and reports
Interview each step owner
Follow sample transactions end to end
Log delays, rework and gaps
Agree the future process together
Draft to-be swimlane maps
Set approval limits by role
Name an owner per process
Review tax steps with your CA
Turn the design into habit
Write role-based SOPs
Walk branch and plant teams through
Agree a few process measures
Decide whether software is needed
A process review is not a search for someone to blame. It looks for the places where work waits, gets done twice or slips past a control. In Indian businesses those places tend to follow a recognizable pattern, so the review checks for them deliberately.
Each finding is written against the step where it happens, with the effect it has on cash, stock, customers or compliance. That keeps the discussion practical. The point is to decide which problems need a changed process, which need a clearer owner and which simply need a rule written down. The general method behind this is described on my business process consulting page.
Indian compliance steps are part of the process, not an afterthought for accounts. If they are left out of the map, people bolt them on later in whatever way is quickest, and that is where errors creep in.
On the selling side, the map shows where the e-invoice is generated, who checks the customer's GSTIN and place of supply before the invoice is raised, when the e-way bill is created and who may update transport details. It also covers the awkward paths: a cancelled order after dispatch, a partial delivery, a sales return arriving at a different branch.
On the buying side, I map the path from requisition to payment, including the points where TDS is considered, where supplier bills are compared with supplier-reported GST data and what happens when they disagree. A clear rule might say that accounts flags a mismatch, purchase contacts the supplier, and the payment run excludes that bill until it is resolved. Whether such a rule fits your situation, and how each tax is treated, is for your chartered accountant to confirm; my part is making the agreed rule visible and owned.
The maps follow the swimlane style described on my ERP process mapping page, so they can later feed requirements if you do choose a new system.
Several Indian process questions have no equivalent in a textbook order-to-cash diagram. They need their own maps.
Job work. Material goes out on a challan, is processed elsewhere and comes back, sometimes in parts and with some loss. The process has to say who raises the challan, who confirms receipt of processed goods, how loss is recorded and who reviews material that has stayed outside too long. Without that, stock figures drift and the reconciliation becomes a year-end scramble.
Branches and multiple registrations. Transfers between branches under different GSTINs can carry tax and document consequences, so the map shows who initiates a transfer, which document travels with it and how the receiving branch acknowledges it. Your CA confirms the treatment.
Dealers and distributors. Schemes, rate differences, free goods and damaged stock all generate claims. I map one path from claim to credit note, with the evidence each claim type needs and an approval limit for sales and accounts. Dealers then get faster answers, and finance stops discovering commitments made verbally months earlier.
Where these flows depend on sales data, my CRM consultant work in India may follow; where they depend on stock, the process maps feed the wider ERP consultant engagement for India.
A redesigned process only lasts if someone owns it and the people doing the work can find the rules quickly. Three deliverables make that happen.
Approval matrix. A single table listing each decision, such as purchase orders, payment release, discounts beyond list price, credit limit overrides and write-offs, with the role that approves it and the limit that applies. Limits are set by your leadership; I make sure every decision on the maps has a row, including the ones currently taken by whoever happens to be available.
Process owners. Each end-to-end process gets one named owner, usually a functional head, who decides on changes and settles disputes between departments. Without an owner, a process slowly reverts to old habits.
Short SOPs. One to two pages per role, written around the documents and screens that person actually handles, with the exceptions spelled out. The engagement runs in English; if staff need Hindi or a regional-language version, your team writes or checks that version so the wording suits the people using it.
These outputs also make onboarding easier when a branch opens or a key person leaves, which is often the moment a family-run business notices how much depended on memory.
When a business buys an ERP before agreeing its process, the implementer's default settings quietly become the process. Approval limits get set to whatever was quickest to configure, and the dealer claim path becomes whatever the partner built for a previous client. Agreeing the process first reverses that: the system is then asked to fit an agreed design.
Once the maps, approval matrix and SOPs are settled, the next step depends on what they reveal. Some companies find that clear rules and a cleaner Tally setup solve most of the problem. Others need written requirements for a new system, which is where my ERP business analyst work for India picks up. Where the maps show repetitive manual steps, such as keying supplier bills or chasing approvals, those become candidates for my business automation consulting in India.
No vendor or implementation partner pays me anything, so the process design carries no hidden preference for a product. The engagement is remote and planned around your working day, with a visit by arrangement where a site walk-through adds something the video sessions cannot. For a broader view of my work in the country, see the India overview.
Tell me about your business and current systems. I’ll suggest the most sensible first step.
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FAQ
Often yes. Many of the problems that push companies toward an ERP, such as unclear approvals, untracked job work and late dealer settlements, are process problems that Tally neither causes nor fixes. Agreeing owners, limits and routines can make the current setup work much better, and if you later move to an ERP, the maps become your requirements starting point.
No. Tax treatment belongs with your chartered accountant. I map the steps, such as who compares supplier bills with supplier-reported data, who decides to hold a payment and who records the deduction, and I mark each point where your CA's guidance applies. Once they confirm the rule, it goes into the SOP so it is followed the same way every time.
One person per end-to-end process, normally the functional head whose team is most affected when it fails: the finance head for procure to pay, the sales or commercial head for order to cash. The owner approves changes, settles disputes between departments and reviews the agreed measures. Shared ownership by committee tends to mean nobody acts.
Yes. Sessions are short and online, so a stores supervisor or branch accountant can join from their desk or phone, and a short screen recording of a task often explains more than a meeting. Where the floor layout or document movement really needs to be seen, a visit can be arranged and agreed in advance.
Every business is different. Share where you are today and what you want to fix, and I’ll tell you honestly whether and how I can help.
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