ERPNext for landed cost the moment goods clear
customs.
Multi-currency purchasing. Forex tracked per transaction. Credit limits that block the order, not the post-mortem.
5 wks
Typical go-live
Real-time
Landed cost margins
Enforced
Credit limits
Common Challenges
The problems every UAE trading company faces.
Electronics, building materials, FMCG. Same trade, same leaks. Margin lost to landed cost discovered at month-end. Forex bleeding through reconciliations. Credit extended past the limit because no one stopped the order.
Landed cost calculated days after the goods arrive
Freight, customs duty, clearance charges, and port fees are booked late or missed entirely. Your margin reports are always wrong until end of month.
How we solve it
Every landed cost component — freight, duty, insurance, clearance — allocated to goods at receipt in ERPNext. Margin on each item is accurate the moment stock is booked in.
Multi-currency purchases creating monthly reconciliation headaches
USD and EUR purchases hitting AED books at different rates. Unrealised gains and losses not tracked. Finance spends days reconciling what should be automatic.
How we solve it
ERPNext handles multi-currency natively. Exchange rates updated daily. Unrealised and realised forex tracked per transaction. Month-end currency reconciliation is automatic.
Customers buying on credit with no system enforcing limits
Sales team approves orders for customers already over their credit limit. Aging report reviewed only at month-end. Bad debt builds up without visibility.
How we solve it
Credit limits configured per customer in ERPNext. Orders blocked at entry when the limit is exceeded. Outstanding aging visible to every sales and finance user in real time.
Stock spread across warehouses with no consolidated view
Sales commit stock that is in the wrong location. Purchase orders raised for items already in transit. Over-purchasing and stock-outs happening at the same time.
How we solve it
Multi-warehouse inventory in ERPNext with real-time quantity by location, in-transit tracking, and reorder rules per warehouse. Sales see available-to-promise before committing.
How It Works
Your trade cycle inside ERPNext.
From sourcing to collection, every transaction in one system with margins accurate at every step.
Supplier RFQ
Quotations requested and compared. Best price approved before PO is raised.
Purchase Order
PO raised in supplier currency. LC created and linked if payment terms require it.
Goods Receipt
Stock received and booked. Landed costs allocated before items move to available inventory.
Sales Order
Customer order checked against credit limit and available stock before confirmation.
Delivery & Invoice
Delivery note issued. Tax invoice generated with VAT compliance built in.
Collection
Payment matched against invoice. Forex gain/loss posted automatically on settlement.
ERPNext Modules
What we configure for trading.
These are the modules that matter for a UAE trading business, configured for how you buy, stock, and sell.
Landed Cost Allocation
All import-related charges allocated to received stock at the line-item level, giving you accurate cost and margin from the moment goods are receipted.
- Freight, duty, insurance, clearance allocated per item
- Multiple allocation methods — by value, quantity, or weight
- Margin report updated on goods receipt, not at month-end
Multi-Currency & Forex
Full multi-currency support with automatic exchange rate management, unrealised forex tracking, and clean currency-separated reporting.
- Daily exchange rate updates with manual override
- Unrealised and realised forex gain/loss tracked per transaction
- Supplier and customer ledgers in transaction currency
Purchase & LC Management
Purchase workflow from RFQ through supplier payment, with Letter of Credit tracking built in for import-heavy businesses.
- RFQ, PO, GRN workflow with multi-level approvals
- LC creation linked to PO, expiry alerts, shipment tracking
- Supplier payment against LC terms with due date management
Multi-Warehouse Inventory
Real-time stock visibility across all storage locations — main warehouse, showroom, free zone, or third-party logistics.
- Stock levels by item, warehouse, and batch
- Inter-warehouse transfers with transit tracking
- Reorder rules per warehouse, automated purchase suggestions
Credit Control
Customer credit limits enforced at the order stage, with aging reports always current and overdue follow-up built into the accounts workflow.
- Credit limit check on sales order creation
- Automatic hold on new orders when limit is breached
- Aging report by customer, filtered by days overdue
Margin & Profitability Reports
Real-time gross margin by item, category, customer, and salesperson — with landed cost factored in from day one.
- Gross margin per sales order and invoice
- Item-level profitability including all landed charges
- Salesperson and customer-wise margin comparison
Client Result
A real trading implementation.
The Situation
Sahel Jeddah had been on ERPNext for three years before they called us. Two partners had come and gone. The system was up, but it wasn't theirs. The biggest pain, and this is one I see often in trading, was 'common parties': contacts who are both your customer and your supplier. ERPNext wouldn't show their balances cleanly, so the accountant was running a manual spreadsheet just to figure out who owed who. Sales team targets weren't tracked. HR and payroll were happening outside the system. Branch transfers were approved on WhatsApp. They had ERPNext, but they were running the business around it.
What We Did
We started with the financial reports because the common party problem was bleeding hours every month. We rebuilt the report so a contact's customer balance and supplier balance show on one screen, side by side. Then we built a one-click reconciliation tool. The accountant messaged me a week later: 'Last month I closed in two days. I used to take a week.' From there we worked through the rest in stages. Sales targets and team structure inside ERPNext. Integration with their loyalty program. Full HR and payroll. Branch-level transaction controls with proper approvals. They've been running the system properly for the first time in three years.
Outcomes
Common party reconciliation
Manual cross-referencing → one-click tool
Payroll processing
Fully moved into ERPNext from external sheets
Branch stock transfers
Controlled and approval-gated system-wide
Loyalty sync
Real-time integration with Loyalty app
Questions
Questions trading companies ask us.
Can ERPNext handle purchases in USD and EUR against an AED book?
Yes. ERPNext supports full multi-currency accounting. Each transaction is recorded in the transaction currency and converted to AED at the exchange rate on that date. Unrealised and realised forex differences are tracked automatically and posted to the correct ledger accounts.
How does landed cost work in ERPNext?
When you receive goods, you create a Landed Cost Voucher in ERPNext and attach all additional charges — freight, customs duty, port charges, insurance. These are then distributed across the received items using your chosen allocation method (by value, quantity, or weight). The item's valuation rate and your margin report update immediately.
We have customers who regularly exceed their credit limit. Can ERPNext stop this?
ERPNext enforces credit limits at the sales order stage. When a new order is created for a customer who has exceeded their limit, the system blocks the order and requires an authorised user to override it. You can also set the system to warn only, if you prefer. Outstanding balances are always visible on the customer record.
Can we track stock across a free zone warehouse and a mainland warehouse separately?
Yes. ERPNext supports unlimited warehouses, each with its own valuation, stock reports, and reorder rules. Free zone and mainland warehouses can be maintained separately with inter-warehouse transfers tracked from source to destination. VAT treatment on transfers between zones is also configurable.
How are Letters of Credit handled in ERPNext?
ERPNext has a built-in LC module where you create an LC linked to a purchase order, track the LC number, issuing bank, expiry date, and shipment terms. Payment against the LC is reconciled with the supplier invoice when the goods arrive and the documents are presented. Expiry alerts can be configured so your finance team never misses a deadline.
Trading ERP
Bring us last month's shipment.
Bring us one shipment that came in last month. We'll trace the landed cost, the forex, and the credit check on the customer who bought it. Then you decide.
We typically respond within a few hours during UAE business hours.