ERP Business Analyst India

Turning GST rules into testable requirements

GST touches almost every transaction an Indian ERP records, so vague requirements here cause the most rework. In my ERP business analysis work, I break GST down into specific statements the system must satisfy, for example:

• the system determines place of supply and applies intrastate or interstate tax automatically, with manual override restricted to named roles
• every item and service carries an HSN or SAC code, and invoices cannot be posted without one
• reverse charge purchases are flagged and accounted for separately
• credit and debit notes are linked to the original invoice
• purchase records can be reconciled against supplier data available on the GST portal, so input tax credit issues are visible before returns are filed

Each requirement gets an owner, a priority and a test case. Requirements are written to reflect your chartered accountant's guidance on how your business is treated; I do not decide tax treatment myself, and I do not give tax advice.

This level of detail sounds heavy, but it pays back quickly. When three vendors respond to the same written requirement, their answers become comparable, and the fit-gap matrix shows clearly which platform handles your GST scenarios as standard and which needs extra work.

E-invoicing and e-way bills inside the order-to-cash flow

For businesses that are required to issue e-invoices, invoice data is reported to the Invoice Registration Portal, which returns an IRN and a signed QR code. For many movements of goods, an e-way bill is also needed. The compliance step itself is well understood; the real requirement work is about where these steps sit in your process.

During workshops I document questions such as:

• Is the IRN generated when the invoice is saved, when it is approved, or when goods are ready to ship?
• Who handles cancellations and amendments, and how is the window for cancelling an e-invoice respected in the workflow?
• Is the e-way bill raised by the dispatch team, the accounts team or the transporter, and how are vehicle changes updated?
• How are branch transfers, job work movements and returns handled, which often fall outside the standard sales flow?
• Will the platform connect directly or through a GST service provider, and what happens when the portal is unavailable?

The answers become process maps, BRD sections and UAT scripts. They also expose ownership gaps early, such as a dispatch team that has never generated an e-way bill in the system, so training can be planned instead of discovered at go-live.

TDS, vendor masters and payables

TDS requirements are often treated as a configuration detail, but they shape vendor onboarding, purchase booking and payments. A weak vendor master is the most common root cause of TDS errors, so I start there.

Typical requirements I document include:

• vendor masters capture PAN and the applicable TDS section, validated before the vendor can be used
• the system tracks cumulative amounts per vendor so applicability thresholds are applied consistently, using the rules your advisor confirms
• lower or nil deduction certificates are recorded with their validity and applied automatically
• deduction timing (at bill booking or at payment) follows your accounting policy
• reports give the accounts team clean data for TDS payments and quarterly returns

I also capture related payables requirements that Indian finance teams raise again and again: approval limits by amount and department, payment runs grouped by bank, and visibility of overdue payables to suppliers who need special attention under your policies.

As with GST, I do not interpret the law. Your chartered accountant confirms sections, rates and treatment; my job is to make sure the requirement is complete, unambiguous and testable, so the configured system reflects that advice every time.

Multi-GSTIN and multi-state structures

Businesses registered in more than one state hold a separate GSTIN for each registration, and that has knock-on effects across the ERP design. Getting the structure right is a business analysis decision before it is a configuration task.

Questions I work through with you include:

• Should each state registration be modeled as a branch within one company, or as a separate company in the system?
• Which document series are needed per GSTIN for invoices, credit notes and delivery challans?
• How are stock transfers between states documented, given they are generally treated as supplies between registrations?
• Which reports are needed at GSTIN level for compliance, and which at consolidated level for management?
• Which approvals stay local to a plant or branch, and which go to head office?

I capture the answers in an entity and GSTIN map, which becomes the first section of the BRD. Every later requirement refers back to it, from warehouse setup to user permissions. Platforms differ in how cleanly they handle branches, multiple companies and interstate transfers, so this map is also one of the most useful inputs to the fit-gap analysis.

Tally data and the BRD you receive

Most Indian ERP projects inherit data from Tally, and the quality of that data shapes the migration plan. As part of requirements work, I assess how ledgers and groups are structured, whether cost centers and godowns are used consistently, how stock items are named and how many voucher types have been created over the years. The result is a migration requirements section that states what moves, what gets cleansed and what is left behind.

The final deliverable is a BRD your team owns. It usually contains:

• business context, scope and entity and GSTIN map
• as-is and to-be process maps for each department
• the compliance requirement register
• masters, documents, approvals and reports
• integrations and data migration requirements
• the fit-gap matrix and a prioritized list of open decisions

You can use it to run vendor selection, brief an implementation partner or plan a phased rollout. My BRD consulting page and the guide on how to create an ERP BRD explain the structure in more detail. For platform choice and Tally migration itself, see my ERP consultant page for India, or start from the India hub. All of this work is delivered remotely.