ERPNext CRM Consultant, India

GSTIN, PAN and place of supply on the customer master

In an Indian ERPNext setup, the customer and address records are not just contact details. They decide which GST applies. Whether a sale is within the same state or between states depends on the supplier's location and the place of supply, which usually follows the shipping or billing address. Get the state wrong and the quotation, order and invoice all carry the wrong tax.

What I put in place:

• GSTIN on each address, not just on the customer, because large buyers often have separate registrations in different states.
• GST category such as registered, unregistered, overseas or special economic zone, so the right treatment follows automatically.
• PAN and legal name recorded and checked against the GSTIN, which helps catch duplicates.
• Mandatory rules so a lead cannot become a customer without the details finance needs.

Community and partner India compliance apps for ERPNext can add GSTIN validation and other helpers; check what your chosen app currently offers and test it on real customer data. During migration from Tally or an older CRM, I merge accounts on GSTIN and PAN first and leave uncertain matches for sales to confirm. The compliance stack itself is discussed on the ERPNext consultant in India page.

Quotation to e-invoice and e-way bill: the sales chain

Indian buyers increasingly expect a quotation that already shows tax in the form they will be invoiced. ERPNext makes that possible because quotations, orders, delivery notes and invoices share items, HSN or SAC codes, price lists and tax templates.

The chain I configure:

1. Lead with source, product interest, state and owner.
2. Opportunity with expected value, stage and next follow-up.
3. Quotation built from price lists, applying intra-state or inter-state tax from the addresses, with discount limits and approvals.
4. Sales order from the accepted quote, checking stock and credit limit.
5. Delivery note for dispatch, including partial dispatches against one order.
6. Sales invoice, with e-invoice and e-way bill steps handled through your compliance app where the rules apply to you.

Because tax is decided at the quote, errors surface early, when a salesperson can still ask the customer for the right GSTIN, rather than at invoicing when goods are already loaded. Which documents need an IRN or an e-way bill depends on your turnover and transactions, so confirm the current requirements with your chartered accountant. How invoices reach returns is covered on the ERPNext accounting in India page.

Lead sources Indian sales teams actually rely on

Indian business-to-business selling draws on a wide mix of sources. Industrial buyers meet suppliers at trade fairs. Dealers and distributors refer retail and project inquiries. Government and public sector buyers publish requirements on procurement portals such as GeM. EPC contractors and consultants specify products for projects. Online trade directories and marketplaces add a constant flow of inquiries, some serious and many not.

How I shape ERPNext around them:

• A fixed source list agreed with sales and marketing, so reports compare like with like.
• Trade fair imports through a standard template after each event, with owners assigned the same day.
• Tender opportunities carrying bid dates, earnest money details where relevant and documents, reported separately from the regular pipeline.
• Dealer-referred deals linked to the dealer as a sales partner, so channel conflict and commission are visible.
• Marketplace and website inquiries captured through web forms, the API or a connector; check any marketplace integration for reliability before depending on it.
• Territories by state, matching how regional managers are measured.

A trustworthy source field is what allows any later analysis of which channels produce paying customers. Industry context is on the Indian manufacturing ERP page and distribution.

Export quotations in dollars and euros

Many Indian manufacturers export, and export selling has its own quoting habits: prices in dollars or euros, delivery terms stated precisely, proforma invoices for advance payment, and documentation that finance and the bank will need later.

In ERPNext I set up:

• Foreign currency price lists maintained deliberately, with validity dates so old prices are not accepted after costs or rates move.
• Overseas customers marked with the overseas GST category and a fixed billing currency, so they never pick up domestic tax by accident.
• Proforma documents as quotation or sales order print formats, clearly distinct from the tax invoice.
• Delivery terms and port details on the quote and order, carried through to shipping documents.

The GST treatment of exports, including whether supplies are made under a letter of undertaking or with payment of tax, is decided by your chartered accountant; I configure the templates they confirm. Realization of export proceeds is tracked in accounting, but linking the receipt back to the original quote makes margin analysis by market possible. The multi-currency ERP page covers exchange differences in more detail.

Frappe CRM, a dedicated CRM and ERPNext CRM's limits in India

For order-driven Indian businesses, ERPNext CRM is usually enough, and running one system instead of two saves effort. It falls short in a few places I always mention:

• Ads attribution: lead forms on Google and Meta can feed ERPNext through an integration, but tracking those leads through to paid invoices needs deliberate design or another tool.
• Messaging at scale: high-volume WhatsApp follow-up for consumer or education businesses usually runs through a dedicated platform; ERPNext connectors exist through third parties and need testing.
• Marketing automation: nurture journeys, scoring and regional-language campaigns are limited in ERPNext.
• Inside sales volume: teams handling large numbers of calls may want a faster interface than the ERP screens.

Frappe CRM is the Frappe team's standalone CRM app. Teams that find ERPNext's sales screens heavy sometimes look at it; I review its current features and test how its deals hand over to ERPNext quotations and orders before advising. If a dedicated CRM is kept, ERPNext remains the owner of customers, GSTINs, items, prices and invoices. See ERPNext CRM, CRM consulting, the ERP consultant in India page and the India hub.