How to Implement ERPNext for Garment & Apparel Business (2026 Guide)

1Who ERPNext fits

ERPNext is a practical choice for small and mid-size apparel businesses that want an open-source ERP covering sales, purchasing, stock, manufacturing and accounts, and that have a Frappe developer in-house or a partner they trust. It handles colour and size through item templates and variants, has an outward subcontracting flow and, from version 16, an inward one for customer-supplied material. Its licence costs nothing, because ERPNext is published under the GPL-3.0 licence.

ERPNext is an open-source ERP built on the Frappe Framework, a Python and JavaScript web framework that also provides its database layer, user authentication and REST API. Everything in ERPNext is a DocType: a document type with fields, permissions and a list view, such as Item, Purchase Order or Job Card. Custom fields, custom DocTypes and whole custom apps extend it in the same way.

It suits a factory that has people who can own the system technically and wants to avoid licence fees. It suits a factory less well if nobody can maintain custom code through upgrades, or if the owner expects the ERP to replace the merchandisers' tracking sheets, the IE department's minute studies and the quality team's inspection reports in one move. Those are the parts of this guide where ERPNext needs the most design work, custom code or a separate system.

Signs ERPNext is a good choice

ERPNext tends to work when the factory wants one ledger, values an open licence and has the technical people to look after it.

• The business wants one ledger, one stock value and one set of purchase and sales documents, and today it has several.
• At least one person, in-house or at a partner, can build and maintain Frappe apps and carry them through each upgrade.
• Style counts per season are in the hundreds, not the thousands, so the BOM-per-variant question in section 14 stays manageable.
• A country compliance app exists for local tax and e-invoicing, or the partner has a plan for it (section 22).

Signs to slow down

Slow down when the expectations placed on ERPNext belong to a planning, floor or development system, or when nobody owns the code.

• The factory expects ERPNext to plan sewing lines hour by hour. Work orders and job cards record operations; they do not balance a line (section 15).
• An open GitHub feature request describes a shirt in 2 colours and 4 sizes needing 8 work orders, 8 BOMs and 24 job cards. If your order book looks like that, read Example 11 before signing.
• Buyers require EDI, compliance labels and portal uploads, and nobody has scoped them.
• The plan is to host on a shared Frappe Cloud site and still run custom apps. Custom apps and Server Scripts need a private bench (section 8).
• The go-live date falls inside peak season.

2Why no ERP fits apparel on its own

No general ERP fits apparel out of the box, because an ERP is built around a known item with one bill of materials, while a garment order starts as a style that is quoted, sampled and approved before any item exists. This is not an ERPNext weakness. SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics 365, Odoo and every general ERP meet the same wall, which is why fashion add-ons and fashion-specific systems exist, and why even they leave much of the work outside. In ERPNext the wall has a precise shape: an Item must exist before it can be sold, bought or made, and a submitted BOM cannot be edited, only cancelled and replaced. The same wall stands in front of brands, buying agents and own-label retailers who never sew a garment: their styles, samples and factory follow-up also come before any Item exists (section 35).

An ERP is built around the transaction: a known item, a fixed bill of materials, a price, a receipt, an invoice. It is right to be strict about that, because strictness keeps the books correct. A garment order does not start there.

Forcing an ERP to do all of this means heavy customisation in the one system that most needs to stay standard. Every upgrade gets harder, the ledger fills with data finance never reads, and the merchandisers keep their spreadsheets anyway. ERPNext makes customisation easy to start, which makes the trap easier to fall into. The durable answer is to give the ERP the books and give the operations to a system built for them. Section 3 summarises that model and section 36 shows it in full. The ERP-agnostic reasoning is in the methodology chapter.

3The recommended architecture, in short

Before discovery starts, agree which system owns which part of the business. Our recommendation is a split along the line in Example 1: ERPNext keeps the books, and an operations system built for apparel runs everything from the style to the shipment.

With this split, the ERPNext project stays close to standard: fewer custom apps, cleaner upgrades between major versions and a shorter project. The rest of this guide still explains how to bend ERPNext toward garment production, because some factories choose to do that, and because a consultant needs to know what each choice costs. Where an area moves out of ERPNext under the recommended model, the section ends with a short note. Section 35 describes the model in full, department by department.

4Business types, and what each needs from ERPNext

"Apparel manufacturer" covers very different businesses, and the business type decides who owns the material, what is invoiced, and which parts of ERPNext carry weight. Settle it in the first discovery meeting, because a factory often runs two types at once, for example full package for one buyer and CMT for another.

The list above is general implementation practice. Treat it as a starting point for the discovery questions in section 6, not as a scope.

5Who should be on an ERPNext apparel project team?

An apparel ERPNext project needs one decision owner for every design question, and most of those owners sit in the factory, not in IT. The Frappe developer or partner configures and builds; the factory decides how styles, units, batches, costs and inspections work.

The table lists the roles we see on projects that go well. One person can hold several roles in a small factory. What matters is that every question in the fit-gap has a named person who can say yes. ERPNext projects add one role that licensed-ERP projects often leave to the vendor: someone who owns the custom apps, the bench and the upgrade path.

Rules that keep decisions moving

Most delays in apparel projects come from decisions nobody owns. Four rules prevent them.

• One owner per decision. "Merchandising and finance will agree" produces no decision. Write one name against each fit-gap line.
• Decide in writing. Keep a decision log with the date, the owner, the option chosen and the options rejected. Discovery findings, design choices and change requests all go in it.
• The sponsor settles scope, not configuration. The sponsor decides whether T&A lives in ERPNext or elsewhere. The merchandising head decides how it works.
• Key users are released from part of their day. A key user who is also running peak-season orders will not test properly.

6What should discovery workshops for an apparel factory cover?

Discovery for an apparel factory is one workshop per department, each walking a real, recent order from start to finish and asking where the data comes from, who changes it and what goes wrong. Use the factory's own orders, not a demo site. The polo order in this guide is the kind of order to bring.

Each workshop produces three things: the current flow as it really runs (including the spreadsheets), a list of findings mapped to the fit-gap lines in section 7, and a list of decisions with an owner. The question lists below are a starting set; add the factory's own.

Merchandising

Merchandising questions establish how orders arrive, change and are tracked.

• How does an order arrive: buyer PO by email, portal, EDI? What fields does it carry, and how often is it amended after confirmation?
• How are sizes and colours broken down, and do buyers order in ratio packs?
• What quantity tolerance do buyers allow, and how is a short or over shipment agreed?
• Is one buyer order split into several deliveries, each with its own date and destination?
• Where is the T&A calendar kept, who updates it, and who looks at it each morning?
• Which season and style numbering does each buyer use, and does the factory keep its own?

Development and sampling

Development questions establish what happens before an order exists.

• Which sample types does each buyer require, and in what order?
• How are sample rounds recorded: sent date, courier, comments, verdict?
• Where do tech packs live, and how is a revision after PP approval handled?
• Who prepares the quotation cost, from what inputs, and how many versions does a quote go through?

Purchasing and stores

Stores questions establish units, batches and what is measured at receipt.

• In which unit is each material bought, stocked and issued? Which suppliers invoice in a different unit from the one they deliver in?
• What is checked at receipt: weight, width, GSM, shade, shrinkage, four-point inspection? Who records it and where?
• How are dye lots and rolls labelled, and can the store find every roll of one lot today?
• Which materials are nominated by the buyer or supplied by the buyer?
• What happens to leftover fabric and trims after an order ships?

Cutting, production and subcontracting

Production questions establish the level of control and how output is counted.

• At what level is production controlled: per order, per style-colour, per size, per delivery, per cut?
• How is the cut plan made per dye lot, and who checks that lots are not mixed?
• How is output counted today: per line per hour, per operator, at end of line?
• Which processes go outside (print, embroidery, wash, CMT) and how are pieces counted out and back?
• How are rejects, repairs and second-quality pieces recorded?

Industrial engineering and planning

IE questions establish where minutes and capacity come from.

• Are operation minutes (SMV) studied per style, taken from a library, or estimated?
• How is line capacity planned across the season, including subcontractors?
• What efficiency figure is used for planning, and how is actual efficiency measured?

Quality

Quality questions establish inspections, buyer standards and who may release a failed lot.

• Which inspections run: incoming fabric, cutting, inline, end of line, pre-final, final, measurement?
• Which buyers set their own AQL levels, and where are their quality manuals kept?
• Who may release a lot that failed inspection, and is that decision logged?
• Which lab tests and certificates are required per order?

Shipping

Shipping questions establish packing rules and documents per buyer.

• How are cartons packed: solid size, assorted, ratio? What carton labels does each buyer require?
• Which export documents are prepared per shipment, and who checks them against the letter of credit?
• Does any buyer require an advance shipping notice?

Finance

Finance questions establish currencies, payment terms, import costing and tax.

• Which currencies are used for sales, purchases and wages? How are exchange differences booked today?
• How are buyers paid: letter of credit, advance, open account? Which buyers deduct chargebacks?
• How is imported material costed: are freight, duty and clearing added to the material cost, and by what key?
• Is the factory in a free zone or under a temporary-admission regime, and what reports does that require?
• Which e-invoicing and tax reporting rules apply, and is there an ERPNext app for them?

Technology (ERPNext-specific)

Technology questions establish who will own the platform once the partner leaves.

• Who writes and reviews Frappe code today, and who will port custom apps to the next major version?
• Frappe Cloud, a hosting partner or the factory's own server? Who takes and tests backups?
• Which systems must connect: buyer portals, a shop-floor system, banks, the tax authority?

7The apparel fit-gap checklist for ERPNext: 52 lines

A fit-gap checklist lists every requirement an apparel business has and records, line by line, whether ERPNext meets it as standard, meets it with configuration, needs custom code, or is better handled outside ERPNext. The 52 lines below cover product, BOM and costing, materials, production, quality, sales and shipping, and finance.

The answers are our assessment of ERPNext v15 and v16 for a typical full-package garment factory. Where a line depends on version 16, it says so. "Configure" includes custom fields added with Customize Form, which need no code. Confirm each line against your release and your partner's apps before you sign a scope.

Key: Standard works as delivered · Configure settings, custom fields or Customize Form · Custom build a Frappe app, Server Script or third-party app · Operations layer better run in an apparel operations system and passed to ERPNext

Counted from this table, 8 of the 52 lines are standard, 22 need configuration, 13 need custom code and 9 are better run outside ERPNext. That count is our assessment for a typical full-package factory, not a survey. A CMT factory drops most of the costing and material lines; a mill adds process lines this list does not cover.

8Frappe Cloud vs self-hosted ERPNext, and what it costs

ERPNext has no paid edition: the whole product is open source under GPL-3.0, so the choice to make is where it runs and who looks after it. The ERPNext README lists three ways to run it: Frappe Cloud (managed hosting by Frappe), self-hosting with Docker, and a manual install with the bench tool for development. For an apparel project, the deciding question is whether the site can run custom apps.

From practice: the licence being free moves the cost into people. Budget for the developer time to keep custom apps working across major versions, and for someone to own backups if you self-host.

How much does ERPNext cost for a garment factory?

ERPNext itself costs nothing to license; the cost of an apparel implementation is hosting, partner work, custom apps and their upkeep through upgrades. We do not quote hosting prices here, because they change; Frappe Cloud publishes its plans on its own site.

The fastest way to lower the total is to shrink the custom-build column. Every line moved to standard ERPNext or to an operations system is code nobody has to port.

Questions to settle with the partner

Settle these before signing, because each changes the cost and the upgrade path.

• Which ERPNext major version goes live (15 or 16), and when is the next major upgrade due?
• Which custom apps are planned, which Git repository holds them, and who owns that code?
• Is there a staging site for testing each release against real data?
• Shared site, private bench, or own servers, and who restores a backup if something goes wrong?

9ERPNext vs Odoo for garment manufacturing

ERPNext and Odoo both model a style as a template with colour and size variants, both support subcontracting, batches or lots and landed cost, and neither covers sampling, T&A, size-graded consumption or AQL for apparel out of the box. The main differences are the licence, where manufacturing depth sits, and how each handles BOMs for variants. ERPNext is open source in full; Odoo puts Quality, PLM, Barcode and Shop Floor in its paid Enterprise edition.

Which should a garment factory choose?

Choose on the fit-gap, the people who will maintain the system and local compliance, not on the product name. From practice, ERPNext tends to suit a factory with in-house or closely held Frappe developers that wants a complete open-source stack, including quality inspection, without licence fees. Odoo tends to suit a factory that wants Enterprise apps for quality and shop floor, grid entry on sales orders and a large partner network. In both, the lines of the fit-gap marked custom build remain custom build, and in both, customisations must be carried through each upgrade. The Odoo chapter covers the other side in the same structure, and the comparison page sets all the ERPs in this series side by side.

Odoo facts are from Odoo's documentation as cited in the Odoo chapter; ERPNext facts from Frappe's documentation and GitHub (see sources).

10How should Item Groups and materials be set up in ERPNext for apparel?

Set up ERPNext Item Groups by how each material is bought, stocked, valued and tracked: fabrics, yarns, trims, packaging, subcontract services and finished garments each get their own group, and each Item carries its own stock unit, batch setting and valuation method. An Item Group is ERPNext's tree of product categories; it groups Items for reports, defaults and price rules. Apparel is not one product type, and the garment category decides the size system, the main material, the unit it is bought in and the processes it goes through.

Materials, and how each is bought and used

Each material has its own purchase unit, usage unit and receipt checks, and the ERPNext Item must follow them.

What each Item carries in ERPNext

In ERPNext, most of the setup that other ERPs put on the category sits on the Item itself, with defaults from the Item Group and Stock Settings. Three rules shape the design for apparel.

• Valuation method is per Item and cannot be changed once the Item is saved. Frappe's documentation lists FIFO, LIFO and Moving Average, with FIFO as the default, and says the method cannot be changed after the Item is saved. ERPNext has no standard-cost valuation method, so a finished garment is valued from the materials and operating cost of its manufacture. Decide the method for fabric, trims and garments before the first import.
• Units convert per Item. Each Item has a stock UOM and a table of other UOMs with their conversion factor to the stock UOM, plus a default purchase and sales UOM. Buying buttons by the gross and issuing them by the piece is a row in that table. The same mechanism lets a fabric carry a kilogram-to-metre factor, but only one per Item (section 12).
• Batch tracking is a tick on the Item. "Has Batch No" turns it on; "Automatically Create New Batch" creates a batch on each receipt. Put it on fabric and yarn; most trims do not need it.

With operations on top: the style, its bill of materials by category and its consumption are built in the operations layer. ERPNext still needs the Item Groups, units and valuation methods above, because it holds stock value and the payables.

11How do you set up size and colour variants in ERPNext?

Make the style an Item template by ticking "Has Variants", list its Item Attributes (colour, size and, where it applies, fit or inseam), and create the variants as the combinations you actually make. Only variants can be used in transactions such as Sales Orders and Purchase Invoices; the template is the blueprint. This is how Frappe's item-variants documentation describes it.

• Variants Based On is either Item Attribute or Manufacturer. Garments use Item Attribute.
• Attributes hold a list of values, each with an abbreviation, or a numeric range with an increment. A waist attribute from 28 to 40 in steps of 2 is a numeric attribute; S to XXL is a list.
• Creating variants. From the template you can make one variant, or select several attribute values and create every combination at once. Frappe's example: two colours and three sizes give six variants.
• Item Variant Settings (Home ‣ Stock ‣ Items and Pricing ‣ Item Variant Settings) decides which fields copy from the template to its variants.
• Variant codes are built from the template code and the abbreviations of the attribute values, which is why abbreviations must be agreed before the first variant exists.

ERPNext creates variants only when you ask it to, so the "every combination exists at once" flood that other ERPs produce is a choice here, not a default. The limit lies elsewhere. Every variant is a full Item, and every variant that is made needs a BOM, a Work Order and its Job Cards (section 14). Count those before choosing the template level.

Grid order entry, a colour by size quantity matrix on the Sales Order, is not documented as a core feature. Each variant is a line. Factories that enter many grids either build a small entry screen or enter the order in an operations system and pass the lines in.

Naming and codes

Agree a code pattern before the first import, for example template P2041-NVY with size abbreviations giving P2041-NVY-L, and hold the buyer's own style number in a custom field. Keep one size attribute per size scale, so an "S" on a polo and an "S" on a bra band never share a value by accident. Integrations should store the Item's name, which is the Item Code, and never a description (section 34).

With operations on top: styles, colourways and size breakdowns live in the operations layer, and ERPNext only needs the finished-goods Items that are actually sold and invoiced. The variant count in ERPNext drops to what ships.

12How do you convert kilograms to metres for fabric in ERPNext?

ERPNext can convert kilograms to metres on a fabric Item, because each Item holds its own table of UOMs and conversion factors; the limit is that the factor is fixed per Item, while the true factor changes with every roll. Knitted fabric is usually bought by weight and cut by length. The conversion depends on the fabric's weight per square metre (GSM) and its width.

GSM means grams per square metre: the weight of one square metre of the fabric. A 180 GSM jersey weighs 180 g per square metre.

In ERPNext the conversion factor is written from the other unit into the stock unit. If the jersey's stock UOM is Kg and you add Meter to its UOMs table, the factor is 0.324: one metre is 0.324 kg. A separate UOM Conversion Factor list holds general conversions such as kilograms to pounds. The UOM record also has "Must be Whole Number", which should be on for pieces, sets, cones and gross, and off for kilograms and metres.

Three workable designs

There are three workable ways to hold knit fabric in ERPNext, each with a trade-off.

Never set one factor for "all jersey". A fabric Item per quality and width at least, and a measured factor per batch if the cutting room works in metres.

With operations on top: the operations layer records a measured lot record per receipt (GSM, width, shrinkage) and works consumption in the unit the cutting room uses. ERPNext can stay in the purchase unit, kilograms, for stock value and payables.

13How do you track dye lots and fabric rolls in ERPNext?

Track fabric with ERPNext Batches and treat each Batch as one dye lot (or one roll carrying its dye lot), then require the batch on every receipt and every issue to cutting. A dye lot is a batch of fabric dyed together; fabric from two dye lots can differ slightly in shade, so pieces cut from two lots show a colour difference once sewn into one garment. Cutting must stay within one lot.

Batch tracking needs "Enable Serial and Batch No for Item" in Stock Settings and "Has Batch No" on the Item. A Batch record has a Batch ID, the Item, manufacturing and expiry dates, a reference, a description and its quantity. Custom fields added with Customize Form hold what apparel needs: shade group, measured GSM, measured width, shrinkage and roll length.

Since version 15, ERPNext links batches and serial numbers to stock transactions through the Serial and Batch Bundle, a separate record created for each stock transaction that lists the batches and quantities it moves. Frappe's documentation says a bundle cannot be reused across transactions, that outward batches can be picked by FIFO, LIFO or expiry through "Pick Serial / Batch Based On" in Stock Settings, and that from version 15 batched items cannot go into negative stock even when negative stock is allowed. Version 16 adds a Serial No and Batch Traceability report that follows a batch backward to its source and forward to its customer.

Automatic FIFO picking is exactly what apparel must avoid at cutting: it takes the oldest batch, not the right shade. Turn automatic picking off for fabric issues, or add a validation that refuses a Work Order issue whose batches differ in dye lot.

Batch per dye lot, or batch per roll?

The choice decides how much the store can see. Both are workable.

A shade band is a set of approved shade references for one fabric colour, used to judge whether a new lot is close enough to the standard. Buyers often allow shade groups within the band (for example A, B and C), and a garment must stay within one group. ERPNext has no shade band object; it is a custom field on the Batch or a record in another system.

With operations on top: shade bands per fabric, the measured lot record and the incoming inspection that carries the dye lot sit in the operations layer. ERPNext still holds the Batch on receipts and issues, so stock value and traceability stay correct.

14How do you handle size-dependent fabric consumption in ERPNext BOMs?

ERPNext holds one quantity per BOM line, so fabric that grows with size needs a BOM per variant, generated from a consumption table rather than typed. A single template BOM can serve every variant on a Work Order, and ERPNext can make a variant BOM from it, but a template BOM gives every size the same fabric quantity. A bill of materials (BOM) is the list of components and quantities, and optionally operations, needed to make one quantity of an Item.

Frappe's BOM documentation describes a BOM Template: a BOM made for a template Item can be used as the default BOM when making Work Orders for its variants, the user can make a BOM for a variant from the template BOM, and when a raw material in the BOM is itself a template Item, ERPNext lets the user pick the matching variant. That last point handles trims that change by colourway, such as navy thread for the navy polo.

Other BOM fields matter for apparel. "With Operations" adds the Operations table; each raw-material line has a scrap percentage and the BOM a process loss; "Transfer Material Against" decides whether material moves against the Work Order or the Job Card; the BOM's "Quantity" can be 100 pieces instead of one, which keeps small per-piece fabric quantities precise. "Inspection Required" with a Quality Inspection Template ties an inspection to the BOM. A submitted BOM cannot be edited: you cancel it or duplicate it, submit the new one and make it the default.

Subcontracting and the template BOM

Work Orders fall back to the template's BOM when a variant has none; subcontracting did not. GitHub issue #54715, opened on ERPNext v15.77.0, reported that a Subcontracting Order would not use the template BOM, which forced a BOM per variant for every subcontracted garment. A change that adds the fallback to subcontracting documents was merged into the develop branch on 24 September 2026 (pull request #59373). At the time of checking it had not appeared in a v15 or v16 release note. Until your release carries it, plan on variant BOMs for anything you subcontract.

Marker efficiency is the share of the fabric in a cutting marker that ends up in garment pieces; the rest is waste between the pieces. Shrinkage is the fabric the garment loses in washing or finishing, planned into the pattern. Keep the two apart: they come from different people (CAD and lab), change for different reasons, and are argued about with different suppliers. ERPNext's scrap percentage holds one number, so the two factors need custom fields if the factory wants both on record.

With operations on top: the consumption engine (marker efficiency, shrinkage, woven construction) and the net-to-buy across the order book run in the operations layer, which passes the purchase quantity to ERPNext. ERPNext does not need size-graded BOMs at all.

15How do you model cutting, sewing and finishing with ERPNext workstations, operations and job cards?

Model cutting, sewing, finishing and packing as ERPNext Workstations, list the garment's operations with their minutes on the BOM (or on a Routing), and let each Work Order create one Job Card per operation to record time and quantity; this gives a labour cost and a record of each step, but it does not balance a sewing line. A Workstation is the place where an operation runs, with its working hours, holiday list, production capacity and an hour rate built from electricity, consumables, rent and wages. An Operation is the work itself; a Routing is a reusable sequence of operations and workstations.

A Job Card, in Frappe's words, stores actual production information about a particular Operation performed on a particular Workstation. ERPNext creates Job Cards when a Work Order with operations is submitted. Operators record time with "Start Job" and "Complete Job" or in a time-log table, against an employee, with the completed quantity; a Material Request can be raised from a Job Card, and a Quality Inspection can be made against it. Version 16 lets Job Cards record the raw materials consumed and the semi-finished goods produced at each operation, create subcontracting purchase orders directly, and adds a "Pending Qty" field so partial completion is not booked as process loss.

The Work Order itself carries source, work-in-progress, target and scrap warehouses, the required items with transferred and consumed quantities, and the operations with planned and actual times. Material moves by a "Material Transfer for Manufacture" Stock Entry and finished goods come in by a "Manufacture" Stock Entry. A Production Plan pulls Sales Orders or Material Requests, creates Work Orders and Material Requests, and handles sub-assemblies in-house or by subcontracting; its documentation does not describe capacity planning.

What an operation time means in a garment factory

SMV (standard minute value) is the time a trained operator needs for one operation at a normal pace, including allowances. A polo has 15 to 25 sewing operations. You can list each one as an ERPNext Operation, or group them into a few operations per department. Every operation on the BOM becomes a Job Card on every Work Order, so the grouping decision is also a decision about how many records the floor must close.

With operations on top: the planning heat-map (lines and subcontractors, 52 weeks), production orders with job cards per department and the WIP board run in the operations layer. ERPNext receives material issues for stock value and does not need Work Orders or Job Cards at all.

16Where do sampling, approvals and the T&A calendar live in an ERPNext project?

ERPNext has no DocType for garment samples, buyer approvals or a T&A calendar, so an ERPNext project must build them as custom DocTypes, borrow Projects and Tasks, or keep them in an operations system. Before a single bulk garment is cut, the buyer approves the product in stages. Each stage can take several rounds, and each approval unlocks the next step of the order. Miss one, and the factory is ordering fabric or cutting on a spec the buyer has not agreed.

A PP (pre-production) sample is a garment made in the actual bulk fabric and trims, which the buyer approves as the reference that bulk production must match. A T&A (time and action) calendar is the list of an order's milestones, each with a planned date worked back from the ex-factory date, an actual date and an owner.

Every round has a sent date, a courier and tracking number, the pieces sent, the buyer's comments and a verdict: approved, approved with comments, or rejected. The T&A calendar hangs on these dates.

Frappe makes custom DocTypes cheap to create, which is both the attraction and the risk. A "Sample Request" DocType with a child table of rounds takes an afternoon; the links that make it useful (the approved round fixing the spec version, cutting blocked until the PP sample is approved, T&A dates filled from the rounds) are real development work, and they must be carried through every upgrade.

What a custom sampling app must hold

If the project builds sampling inside ERPNext, the app needs a small set of records that link to the style and the order. The list below is the minimum we would design.

• A sample request per style and colourway, with its type (lab dip, strike-off, fit, size set, PP, TOP, shipment).
• Rounds under each request: sent date, courier, tracking number, pieces sent, buyer comments, verdict, verdict date, who recorded it.
• A link from the approved round to the spec version it approved, so a later revision cannot silently replace it.
• A block on the next step: bulk dyeing waits for the lab dip, cutting waits for the PP sample.
• T&A milestones that take their actual dates from the rounds instead of from someone typing them.

With operations on top: dev approvals (lab dip, strike-off, sample, shipping mark) with rounds, courier details and the buyer's verdict, the T&A calendar with its critical path, and the PP approval that locks the style version for the order all live in the operations layer. ERPNext needs none of it.

17How does ERPNext subcontracting work for CMT, washing, printing and embroidery?

ERPNext has two subcontracting flows: outward, where the factory sends its own material to a processor and buys the service (Purchase Order, Subcontracting Order, Subcontracting Receipt), and from version 16 inward, where a buyer sends its material and the factory makes goods for it (Subcontracted Sales Order, Subcontracting Inward Order). Both fit one outside step well and a chain of processors less well.

CMT (cut, make, trim) means the factory sews garments from fabric the buyer supplies and charges only for the labour; in subcontracting, the same term describes a factory that sends cut panels to another unit to be sewn. Job work is the South Asian term for the same arrangement.

Outward subcontracting, step by step

Frappe describes the outward flow from version 14 onward as follows.

1. Create the raw-material Items, the finished good the processor returns, and a non-stock service Item for the processor's charge. Items the processor buys itself are marked as sourced by the supplier.
2. Make a BOM for the finished good that lists what you send; add no operations, because the processor does the work.
3. Raise a Purchase Order for the service Item with "Is Subcontracted" ticked, the finished good selected and a supplier warehouse set. The rate is the service price.
4. Create a Subcontracting Order from the submitted Purchase Order. It tracks what you supply and what is consumed.
5. Send the materials with a Stock Entry of type "Send to Subcontractor", created from the Subcontracting Order.
6. Receive the finished goods with a Subcontracting Receipt, which can carry additional costs and backflushes the materials sent.
7. Close the Purchase Order with a Purchase Receipt (no stock or accounting effect) and book the processor's Purchase Invoice.

Version 16 adds stock reservation on Subcontracting Orders, lets a Landed Cost Voucher add freight and handling to a Subcontracting Receipt, and lets a Job Card create a subcontracting Purchase Order for one operation. The template-BOM gap for subcontracted variants is covered in section 14.

Inward subcontracting: the CMT factory's flow (version 16)

Version 16's Subcontracting Inward is the closest ERPNext comes to a native CMT flow. Per Frappe's documentation: each customer has its own warehouse, linked to the customer; customer-provided Items have the customer set and "Allow Purchase" off; the finished good's BOM must contain at least one customer-provided Item and a Subcontracting BOM links the service Item to it. The flow runs from a Sales Order with "Is Subcontracted", to a Subcontracting Inward Order, to receiving the customer's material ("Receive ‣ Raw Material from Customer"), to Work Orders, to "Create ‣ Subcontracting Delivery", with returns of unused material and a Sales Invoice for the service. The material is received at zero value; stock reservation is always used; batches move through the Serial and Batch Bundle. The documentation lists what it does not support: alternative items in Work Orders, inventory dimensions, continuous raw-material consumption and disassembly orders.

Garments often visit several processors: cut panels to a printer, then to a sewing unit, then to a wash. Each step becomes its own intermediate Item, BOM and Subcontracting Order, or custom work. Modelled as one step, the factory loses sight of where its goods are between processors.

Subcontractor tracking a factory expects

A factory expects to see, per processor, what went out, what came back, what was lost and whether the loss is inside the agreed allowance. The Subcontracting Order shows supplied and consumed quantities; the allowance, the reject reasons and the balance per buyer order are design work or a report to build.

With operations on top: subcontract steps sit on the production order in the operations layer, and subcontractors appear on the planning heat-map beside the factory's own lines. ERPNext receives the subcontractor's Purchase Order and the payable.

18How do you cost a garment in ERPNext, and where does the garment costing sheet live?

ERPNext values stock by FIFO, moving average or LIFO per Item, costs a manufactured garment from the materials and operating cost of its Work Order, and adds freight and duty to receipts with a Landed Cost Voucher; the garment costing sheet used to quote a buyer is built before any Item exists and usually lives outside ERPNext. A garment costing sheet lists fabric, trims, making, washing, testing, freight, finance cost and margin per piece, and adds up to the price quoted to the buyer.

• Valuation is FIFO, Moving Average or LIFO per Item, fixed once the Item is saved. There is no standard-cost method; the BOM's cost can be refreshed with "Update Cost" and compared with the Work Order's actuals in reports.
• Operating cost comes from operation times and workstation hour rates, as in Example 11.
• Landed cost is added to Purchase Receipts and to Purchase Invoices that update stock with a Landed Cost Voucher; version 16 adds Manufacture stock entries and Subcontracting Receipts.
• Multi-currency, advances and exchange revaluation are native (section 21).

Pre-costing a style for a quote (fabric, trims, CM, washing, testing, freight, finance cost, commission, margin) is done before an ERPNext Item exists, so it tends to live outside ERPNext.

How do you set up a Landed Cost Voucher for imported fabric and customs duties?

Create a Landed Cost Voucher (Home ‣ Stock ‣ Tools ‣ Landed Cost Voucher), select the fabric's Purchase Receipts or stock-updating Purchase Invoices, fetch their items, enter each charge with its expense account in the Taxes and Charges table, and choose how to distribute: by Quantity or by Amount. A landed cost is any cost of bringing goods to the factory beyond the supplier's price: freight, insurance, customs duty, clearing and bank charges. The charges flow into the items' valuation rate.

Frappe's documentation lists two distribution keys, Quantity and Amount; it does not list weight or volume. You can delete items from the voucher when a charge does not apply to them, and you can link the vendor invoices so the landed cost must match their total. Those two facts give the workaround for freight by weight: split the freight by weight yourself and post it on one voucher per item.

For a factory in a free zone or under temporary admission, duty may be zero or suspended, and the rules for what must be reported are local. Agree them with the customs broker and finance before configuring.

With operations on top: the cost engine (fabric, trims, decoration, CMT, overhead, margin to FOB, with landed cost and dated exchange rates), the standard cost sheet and quotations with approval thresholds run in the operations layer. ERPNext holds the landed cost that actually hit the receipts, for stock value.

19Can ERPNext run quality control and AQL inspection for garments?

ERPNext's Quality Inspection, included in every install, records Incoming, Outgoing and In Process inspections against receipts, deliveries, stock entries and Job Cards, with templates, readings and a sample size field, but it does not contain ISO 2859-1 sampling tables, so AQL inspection needs custom work or a separate system. AQL (acceptance quality limit) inspection checks a random sample drawn from a lot and accepts or rejects the whole lot according to how many defects the sample contains.

Per Frappe's documentation, a Quality Inspection names its type, its reference document (Purchase Receipt, Purchase Invoice, Delivery Note, Sales Invoice, Stock Entry or Job Card, and Subcontracting Receipt), the Item and the sample size. A Quality Inspection Template predefines the parameters. Each reading is judged against a minimum and maximum value, an acceptance-criteria value for non-numeric checks, or a formula such as (reading_1 + reading_2) < 10, and the status is set to Accepted or Rejected from it. Ticking "Inspection Required before Purchase" or "before Delivery" on an Item means the receipt or delivery can be submitted only after an inspection exists. A BOM can also require an inspection and name a template.

Quality control at cutting, stitching, dyeing and printing

A garment factory inspects at each stage where a defect is cheaper to catch than at the end. Dyeing and printing usually happen at a dye house or printer outside the factory, so those checks land on the receipt of the goods coming back.

The sample size field is a number a person types. Under ISO 2859-1 the sample size comes from the lot-size band and the inspection level, and the lot is accepted or rejected against fixed acceptance numbers per AQL. A small custom app or Server Script can fill both from a table; without it, the field holds whatever the inspector remembers.

Acceptance numbers as published in ISO 2859-1 Table II-A, reproduced in common AQL references (see sources). The reading and formula names above follow Frappe's documented pattern; check field names on your version.

With operations on top: typed inspections (incoming, cutting, PP, DUPRO, final AQL, pre-shipment, measurement), the AQL engine on ISO 2859-1 at the buyer's level, CAPA, needle and metal control and quality grades (only first-quality pieces count as shippable) run in the operations layer. ERPNext sees the delivery only once it is cleared.

20How do you handle cartons, packing lists and shipping documents in ERPNext?

ERPNext records cartons with Packing Slips made from a draft Delivery Note, each covering a range of case numbers with the items, quantities, batches and weights inside, but assorted cartons, buyer carton labels and SSCC numbers usually need custom work. A Packing Slip, per Frappe's documentation, lists the items in a shipment; several can be made from one Delivery Note, with From and To package numbers, net and gross weight, and a batch selected for batched items (Home ‣ Stock ‣ Tools ‣ Packing Slip).

Documents a garment shipment needs

An export shipment of garments carries a standard set of documents, and a letter of credit may require each to match exactly.

With operations on top: shipments per delivery, packing and cartonisation, and ship clearance against the buyer's terms run in the operations layer. ERPNext receives the dispatch as a Delivery Note and raises the Sales Invoice.

21How does ERPNext handle multi-currency, letters of credit, advances and chargebacks?

ERPNext Accounting handles foreign currencies, exchange gains and losses, period-end revaluation and advances as standard; letters of credit and reason-coded chargebacks need design, because ERPNext has no letter-of-credit DocType. Garment exporters usually sell in USD or EUR, buy some materials abroad and pay wages locally, so every order touches at least two currencies.

Multi-currency and exchange differences

Parties and accounts can carry their own currency, and a payment that settles an invoice at a different rate produces an exchange gain or loss. For balances still open at period end, Exchange Rate Revaluation (Accounting ‣ Multi Currency ‣ Exchange Rate Revaluation) recalculates the company-currency value of foreign-currency balance-sheet accounts and creates the journal entries for the unrealised gain or loss.

Advances

An advance in ERPNext is a Payment Entry received from the customer and linked to the Sales Order; it is later allocated to the Sales Invoice through the invoice's payment workflow or Payment Reconciliation. Your version may also offer booking advances in a separate party account; check it with finance.

Letters of credit

A letter of credit is a bank's promise to pay the exporter when documents that match the credit's terms are presented. Under ICC's UCP 600 rules, which most credits follow, documents must be presented within 21 calendar days after the shipment date unless the credit says otherwise, and never after the credit expires. ERPNext has no LC DocType: the credit number, amount, latest shipment date, expiry, presentation period and required documents need a custom DocType, and a check before shipment that the documents will match.

Chargebacks

A chargeback is an amount a buyer deducts from a payment for a claimed failure: a late shipment, a wrong carton label, a missing or wrong advance shipping notice. It arrives as a short payment. Record the shortfall on the Payment Entry's deductions against a chargeback account per reason, and keep the buyer's deduction notice attached. Without reason codes, nobody can tell whether the factory loses money to labels or to lateness.

With operations on top: finance stays in ERPNext in full. The operations layer sends the orders, deliveries and purchase requests that the invoices and payables are built on; no money amounts travel through its ERP API.

22Does ERPNext support e-invoicing and localisation for garment exporting countries?

ERPNext handles localisation through country apps installed beside it, some built by Frappe's community or partners and some sold on the Frappe Cloud Marketplace; check which app covers your country, who maintains it and whether it supports your ERPNext version before assuming compliance. E-invoicing rules change often, so treat any statement older than the current tax year with care.

India

The India Compliance app, maintained by Resilient Tech on GitHub, builds on ERPNext and Frappe and covers GST, e-invoice and e-waybill integration with the government portal (IRP), GSTIN validation and GST returns reporting. Its issue tracker already discusses version 16 flows such as e-waybills for Subcontracting Inward. Confirm the app's version against your ERPNext release.

Egypt

We found no Frappe-maintained integration with the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) e-invoicing system. Several ERPNext GitHub issues request one. Third-party apps for ETA e-invoicing and e-receipts are listed on the Frappe Cloud Marketplace; we have not evaluated them. Test any of them end to end, with the ETA's own SDK documentation, before relying on it.

Other garment-exporting countries

Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Morocco, Tunisia and others each have their own invoicing, VAT and export-incentive rules. We have not verified ERPNext's coverage for them in this guide. Search the Frappe Cloud Marketplace and GitHub for a maintained app, ask the partner which statutory reports they have delivered before, and test an e-invoice end to end in staging before go-live.

Factories in free zones or under temporary admission often report the import and re-export of materials to customs. ERPNext's stock ledger carries the quantities, and the batch traceability report in version 16 helps, but the report format is local and usually custom.

23In what order should you configure ERPNext for a garment factory?

Configure ERPNext for a garment factory from the ledger outward: company, chart of accounts, currencies and taxes first, then units, attributes and batch settings, then Item Groups and warehouses, then manufacturing, subcontracting and quality settings, and only then the Items, BOMs and open documents. Each step depends on the one before it; loading Items before units, attributes and valuation methods are final means reloading them, and an Item's valuation method cannot be changed once it is saved.

The table names the ERPNext record or settings page for each step. Full menu paths are given only where Frappe's documentation states them; the desk's search bar opens any settings page by name.

Two Item-level switches complete the setup. A fabric needs "Has Batch No" and the right valuation method at creation; a subcontracted finished good needs the setting that lets it be supplied through a subcontracting Purchase Order. Both are easier to set in the import file than by hand.

24Which custom apps does an ERPNext apparel implementation usually need?

An apparel ERPNext implementation that keeps operations inside ERPNext usually needs one custom Frappe app holding between a handful and a dozen features: fabric units per batch, cut control, BOM generation per variant, grid order entry, ratio packs, sampling, AQL, letters of credit and buyer documents. The list below is from implementation practice; the names are descriptive, not real packages. Search the Frappe Cloud Marketplace and GitHub for maintained apps before writing your own, and check each one against your version.

A Frappe app is a Python package, created with the bench tool, that adds DocTypes, fields, scripts, reports and print formats to a site and is installed per site. Keeping every customisation in one app in Git, instead of in the database through the desk, is what makes an upgrade repeatable.

Every feature in the table is code someone must port at each major ERPNext version. That is the real cost of keeping operations inside ERPNext, and it recurs.

25Should you use Customize Form, Server Scripts or a custom app for apparel changes?

Use Customize Form for fields and layout, Server Scripts only for small rules on a private bench, and a version-controlled custom app for business logic such as unit conversion, BOM generation, cut control and AQL. Customize Form (Home ‣ Customization ‣ Form Customization ‣ Customize Form) changes a DocType's form from the desk and adds Custom Fields without code. A Server Script runs Python on document events or as an API method, under RestrictedPython, and must be switched on with server_script_enabled; Frappe's documentation says Server Scripts are not available on public shared benches on Frappe Cloud.

From practice: customisations made through the desk live in the database, not in code review. Export them into the custom app (Frappe apps can carry them as fixtures), keep a register of every change with its owner and reason, and move anything that holds logic out of Server Scripts once it grows past a few lines.

26Which systems does an ERPNext apparel implementation integrate with?

An ERPNext apparel implementation typically connects to a PLM or tech-pack system, a shop-floor system, EDI with retailers, banks, a tax authority through a country app, and an operations layer; each connection needs one owner per field and links stored on permanent identifiers. The table shows the usual source of truth for each kind of record, based on general practice.

Rules for every connection

Four rules prevent most integration faults. They apply whether the other side is a PLM, a floor system or an operations layer.

• Link on the document's name, ERPNext's primary key, and watch for amendments, which create a new name (section 34). Never link on a description or a title a user can edit.
• One writer per field. If two systems can change the same quantity, one of them is wrong without knowing it.
• Show disagreements to a person. When the other system says something different, put it on a review list; never overwrite silently.
• Make receivers safe to call twice, so a retried message does not create a second Purchase Order.

ERPNext exposes every DocType through its REST API with no extra licence, so an API integration needs only a user with the right roles and an API key. Section 34 covers the details.

27How do you migrate apparel data into ERPNext?

Migrate only open and active apparel data into ERPNext (active styles and their variants, open orders, open purchase orders and stock by batch), load it in dependency order with the Data Import tool, and have each department head sign off the loaded figures. History stays in the old system or an archive. Data Import (Home ‣ Data, or Menu ‣ Import on any list) inserts new records or updates existing ones from CSV or Excel templates, or from a public Google Sheet, validates every row before import, can submit documents after import, and keeps an import log.

Per Frappe's documentation, updating existing records needs the exported ID column left untouched, child tables are separate rows under their parent, and large loads should go in batches of a few thousand records. The ID column is the name of each record; keep the file you imported, because it is your map from old codes to ERPNext names.

Load order

Each object depends on the ones above it. Load and check each level before starting the next.

The cut-off rule

A cut-off rule states the exact moment after which every transaction is entered in ERPNext and not in the old system. Write it as a date and time, name what happens to documents in flight (a truck at the gate, an inspection half done), and stop receiving into the old system at that moment. Stock is counted at the cut-off and loaded as it was counted, batch by batch, not as the old system said. Because batched items cannot go negative from version 15, every batch that will be issued after go-live must be in the opening stock.

Cleansing

Clean data before it is loaded, never after. The usual work in an apparel migration is listed below.

• Merge duplicate suppliers and materials ("Navy Jersey 180", "Jersey 180 NVY").
• Retire styles with no order in two seasons.
• Give every fabric one stock UOM, and every roll in stock its batch.
• Map old size labels to the new attribute values and abbreviations, one scale at a time.
• Split any "open" order line that is already partly delivered into delivered and open quantities.

Item Code,Item Name,Variant Of,Item Group,Stock UOM,Attribute,Attribute Value
P2041-NVY-S,Men's piqué polo P-2041 Navy S,P2041-NVY,Finished garments,Nos,Size,S
P2041-NVY-M,Men's piqué polo P-2041 Navy M,P2041-NVY,Finished garments,Nos,Size,M
P2041-NVY-L,Men's piqué polo P-2041 Navy L,P2041-NVY,Finished garments,Nos,Size,L
P2041-NVY-XL,Men's piqué polo P-2041 Navy XL,P2041-NVY,Finished garments,Nos,Size,XL
P2041-NVY-XXL,Men's piqué polo P-2041 Navy XXL,P2041-NVY,Finished garments,Nos,Size,XXL

Customer,Delivery Date,Currency,Item Code (Items),Quantity (Items),Rate (Items)
Buyer A,2026-12-15,USD,P2041-NVY-S,300,4.26
,,,P2041-NVY-M,750,4.26
,,,P2041-NVY-L,900,4.26
,,,P2041-NVY-XL,750,4.26
,,,P2041-NVY-XXL,300,4.26

Open PO:  navy jersey 180 GSM, 925 Kg ordered, 0 Kg received
Stock:    buttons 15 mm navy, 9,504 Nos, warehouse Stores, no batch

Sign-off

Each owner signs a one-page check of their data: record counts against the old system, totals (stock value, open order value, open payables) and five records picked at random and checked on screen. A migration with no signatures is a migration nobody owns when the first figure is wrong.

28How should you test an ERPNext apparel implementation end to end?

Test an ERPNext apparel implementation with end-to-end scenarios that follow one real order from the buyer's PO to cash, run by the factory's key users on a staging site with migrated data, each step with an expected result written down before the test starts. Testing screens one by one proves the configuration works; only end-to-end scenarios prove the business works.

The 13 scenarios below cover the flows where apparel projects usually break. Run each at least twice: once by the developer or partner to find faults, once by the key users to accept the result. Run them again on the staging site after every ERPNext upgrade, because custom apps break there first.

Test script: subcontract embroidery with loss

Scenario T5 proves that fronts sent out, fronts returned and fronts lost add up, using Example 13.

Test script: short shipment within tolerance

Scenario T6 proves that a short shipment inside the buyer's tolerance is invoiced on what shipped. The buyer allows ±3%; the factory ships 2,940 pieces, 30 short in M and 30 short in L.

Step 4 of T6 needs the tolerance check from section 24; standard ERPNext lets a user close a Sales Order at any quantity.

29How should you train a garment factory's staff on ERPNext?

Train each role only on the DocTypes and scenarios it will use, in the local language, on the factory's own styles and orders, and have key users teach their colleagues. A merchandiser does not need the accounting workspace, and a floor supervisor needs one screen that works, not an introduction to ERPNext. ERPNext's role permissions and workspaces can hide what a role does not use; set them before training, so people learn the screens they will actually see.

Train close to go-live, so that what people learn is still fresh, but not so close that there is no time to repeat a session. Keep each session short and practical: people learn by entering an order they recognise.

Floor operators and supervisors are trained on whatever captures floor output. If that is a kiosk or scanner screen, the training is minutes, not hours; if it is Job Cards on an office form, expect the data never to arrive.

30What does an ERPNext cut-over plan look like for a garment factory?

An ERPNext cut-over plan is a day-by-day list of the steps that move the factory from the old system to ERPNext: freeze, final imports, stock count, opening balances, checks and the first live transactions, each with an owner and a go or no-go point. Rehearse it once in full on a copy of the production site before the real weekend, and take a backup that you have restored at least once.

31When should a garment factory go live on ERPNext, and how long is hypercare?

Go live between seasons, in the lowest-volume weeks and before a new wave of cutting starts, and keep the developer or partner in close support until at least the first month-end close is done in ERPNext. Hypercare is the period right after go-live when the project team stays on hand to fix issues daily.

• Timing. Avoid the weeks before a main shipment window, the month-end of the financial year, any audit and any planned ERPNext major upgrade. A go-live in peak season turns every small fault into a missed shipment.
• Parallel running. A short, bounded parallel run of the books can help finance compare figures. Running the whole factory in two systems rarely works, because people keep using the one they trust.
• Duration. Practitioners commonly plan hypercare of four to eight weeks. That range is judgement, not a measured standard; the rule that matters is that nobody leaves before the first month-end close in ERPNext is complete.
• Issue log. Keep one list: date, who, what happened, severity, owner, status. Review it daily in the first two weeks.
• Exit criteria. Hypercare ends when the month-end closes on time, no issue blocks shipping or invoicing, and key users handle first-line questions without the developer.

32What are the most common mistakes when implementing ERPNext for apparel?

The most common mistakes in apparel ERPNext projects are one template BOM for every size, automatic FIFO batch picking at cutting, one kg-to-metre factor per fabric, every sewing operation as its own Job Card, customisation done in the desk with no code owner, and custom apps planned for a shared Frappe Cloud site. The list below comes from implementation practice, not from Frappe's documentation.

1. One template BOM for every size.Work Orders happily use it for all variants, so large sizes run short without any error (Example 10).
2. Automatic batch picking at cutting.FIFO picking chooses the oldest batch, not the right shade; shade differences are found at final inspection.
3. One conversion factor per fabric.Stock value looks right while the cutting room runs short (Example 8).
4. Every operation a Job Card.Twelve operations on five variants make 60 Job Cards per order, which nobody closes (Example 11).
5. Subcontracting on template BOMs.Until your release carries the change from issue #54715, subcontracted variants need their own BOMs.
6. Distributing landed cost by Quantity across different units.Kilograms and sets are added together, and the wrong item carries the freight (Example 15).
7. Customisation in the desk with no code owner.Custom fields, scripts and print formats live only in the database, and nobody knows what the next upgrade breaks.
8. Custom apps planned for a shared Frappe Cloud site.Custom apps and Server Scripts need a private bench or your own server.
9. The Work Order used as the production plan.Line balancing, operation times and bundle flow need their own place.
10. Ratio cartons and buyer packing lists underestimated.Packing Slips record case ranges; assorted cartons and SSCC labels are custom.
11. Valuation method chosen late.It cannot be changed once an Item is saved, so a wrong choice means new Items.
12. A major upgrade in the same quarter as go-live.Custom apps are ported and tested twice, under pressure.

The 15 general failure modes, and how each shows up in ERPNext

Apparel ERP projects fail in the same fifteen ways whatever the ERP. The table maps each one to where it appears in an ERPNext project and how to prevent it.

33What must be decided before an ERPNext apparel go-live?

Decide the template level and attribute abbreviations, the BOM-per-variant approach, the unit design for every fabric, the batch design and picking rule, the valuation method per Item, the hosting, and which system owns sampling, T&A and floor capture before go-live, because each is expensive to change once transactions exist. The full list:

• The ERPNext major version to go live on, and the date of the next major upgrade.
• Style or style-colour as the template; attributes per Item Group; abbreviations and code pattern.
• Template BOMs, variant BOMs or generated variant BOMs; who owns the consumption table.
• The unit design for every fabric and yarn, and how kg-to-metre is converted.
• Batch per dye lot or batch per roll; which Batch fields are mandatory at receipt.
• The batch picking rule for material transfers, and the validation that refuses mixed lots.
• Valuation method per Item (FIFO, Moving Average or LIFO), since it cannot be changed after saving.
• The landed-cost distribution per charge, including the workaround for freight by weight.
• Operations grouped per department or listed individually, and the resulting Job Card count.
• Hosting: shared Frappe Cloud site, private bench or own servers, given the custom apps planned.
• What lives in Customize Form, in Server Scripts and in the custom app, and who owns the code.
• Which system owns sampling, T&A, planning, floor capture and quality: ERPNext, a custom app or an operations layer.
• How buyer-supplied fabric is received so it never enters stock value.
• The quantity tolerance rule and who may close an order outside it.
• How profitability per order is tagged: Project or accounting dimension.
• The country compliance app, its maintainer and its supported versions.

34Which ERPNext API should an apparel integration use?

Use the Frappe REST API, which exposes every DocType at /api/resource/<DocType> and server methods at /api/method/<dotted.path>, authenticate a dedicated integration user with an API key and secret, and combine webhooks per DocType with polling on the modified timestamp. The REST API is generated from the DocTypes, so a custom field or custom DocType is available through it without extra work.

• Log in as a dedicated integration user. API keys are generated on the User record (Settings tab, API Access); the secret is shown once. Every call runs as that user with its roles, so give it only the roles it needs.
• Link records by name. In Frappe, a document's name is its primary key, usually from a naming series such as PUR-ORD-2026-00457, and it is also what users read. A submitted document cannot be edited; it is cancelled and amended, and the amendment gets a new name with a suffix, such as PUR-ORD-2026-00457-1. Treat an amendment as a new document that replaces the old one, and show the change to a person.
• Watch docstatus. 0 is draft, 1 submitted, 2 cancelled. Only submitted documents are commitments.
• Push and pull. Frappe documents a Webhook Request Log for successful requests, and does not document retries. Keep polling on modified as the dependable baseline, and make the receiving side safe to call twice.
• Rate limits. Frappe's REST documentation does not publish request limits. Check with your host, especially on a shared Frappe Cloud site, and page through lists instead of asking for everything at once.

Core DocTypes an operations system reads and writes: Item, Item Attribute, Customer, Supplier, Material Request, Purchase Order, Purchase Receipt, Batch, Stock Entry, Sales Order, Delivery Note, Sales Invoice, Payment Entry. Custom fields appear on them with the custom_ prefix on recent versions; confirm the field names on your site.

POST /api/resource/Purchase Order
Authorization: token <api_key>:<api_secret>

{"supplier": "Mill A", "custom_mos_request_ref": "PR-1042",
 "items": [{"item_code": "FAB-JER-180-NVY", "qty": 925, "uom": "Kg",
            "schedule_date": "2026-10-28"}]}

POST /api/v1/erp/po-status
Authorization: Bearer <token>
Idempotency-Key: erpnext-PUR-ORD-2026-00457-submit

{"rows": [{"request_ref": "PR-1042",
           "erp_po_id": "PUR-ORD-2026-00457",
           "erp_po_number": "PUR-ORD-2026-00457",
           "status": "open",
           "date": "2026-10-21"}]}

The no-code option is a file exchange: ERPNext's Data Import and report exports on one side, and MerchandiserOS's file import on the other, with the same person-approves-every-change rule. It suits a factory with no developer, at the cost of a daily or hourly rhythm instead of events. The ERP API guide documents both.

35Is ERPNext a good ERP for fashion brands, buying houses and own-label retailers?

ERPNext can serve as the books for a clothing brand, a buying house or an own-label retailer that does not manufacture, using its purchasing, landed cost, selling, drop shipping, multi-currency and service invoicing; such a business should leave the manufacturing modules switched off and keep development, factory follow-up and inspections in a system built for sourcing. Everything earlier in this chapter about Work Orders and Job Cards can be skipped by these readers.

Who they are

Three kinds of apparel business sell garments they do not sew, and each needs something different from an ERP.

What they need from ERPNext, and what to skip

These businesses need the buying, landing, selling and paying half of ERPNext, and none of its manufacturing half. The table maps each need to the ERPNext feature that covers it.

What to skip: Workstations, Operations, Routings, Work Orders, Job Cards, Production Plans and production BOMs. A brand needs a BOM only for goods it sends out for CMT. Hide the manufacturing workspace from every role, so nobody starts using it by accident.

One trap catches agents. ERPNext's Sales Partner is for commission the business pays to a reseller or agent. Frappe's documentation says the commission it calculates is operational data that does not create an expense, payable or payment. A buying agent earns commission, so its income is a Sales Invoice for a service Item, not a Sales Partner record. A brand that pays a buying agent can use Sales Partner to calculate what it owes on sales, or simply book the agent's Purchase Invoice.

What ERPNext handles poorly for brands and buying agents

The work that decides whether a sourced order ships on time happens outside the buyer's own building, and ERPNext has no objects for it. These are the gaps sourcing agent software and buying house ERP products exist to fill.

• Development and sampling with many factories. One style is sampled at two or three factories before it is placed; the rounds, courier details and buyer comments have no DocType (section 16).
• T&A across factories. A brand follows dozens of orders at dozens of factories; ERPNext Projects can hold tasks but not a critical path fed by real approvals and receipts.
• Following production that happens outside. A Purchase Order to a factory says what was bought and when it is due; it says nothing about whether cutting has started, which is what the brand needs to know in week three.
• Inspections at the vendor. Final AQL is done at the factory before the goods ship; ERPNext's Quality Inspection sits on the brand's own receipt, weeks later and on the wrong side of the sea.
• One status per order across many factories and buyers. An agent's day starts with "which of my 140 orders are late?", across buyers and factories that are not in any single ERPNext document.

The MerchandiserOS model for brands and buying agents

MerchandiserOS runs development, samples and approvals, T&A, the orders placed with factories, sourcing, the planning view across subcontracted factories, quality inspections and shipping follow-up; ERPNext keeps the books. Its workspace set-ups include "Brand" and "Buying agent", so a brand or buying house starts with the screens for that job rather than a factory's. Retail back-office work (stores, POS, allocation, open-to-buy) is out of MerchandiserOS's scope; an own-label retailer keeps that in its retail systems.

Neither side of this example needed a Work Order, a BOM or a Job Card. For more on the brand-side ERPs often weighed against ERPNext, see the chapters on Zoho and apparel-specific ERPs.

·Glossary of apparel and ERPNext terms

Short definitions of the apparel and ERPNext terms used in this guide.

AQL

Acceptance quality limit: an inspection method that checks a random sample from a lot and accepts or rejects the lot on the number of defects found, using ISO 2859-1 tables.

Batch

In ERPNext, a quantity of an Item tracked under one Batch ID; for fabric, usually one dye lot or one roll.

Bench

The command-line tool and folder structure that install and run Frappe sites and apps; on Frappe Cloud, a private bench group is the environment that can run custom apps.

BOM

Bill of materials: the list of components and quantities, and optionally operations, to make one quantity of an Item. A submitted BOM cannot be edited.

BOM Template

A BOM made for a template Item, usable as the default BOM on Work Orders for its variants.

CM, CMT

Cut and make, or cut, make and trim: the labour charge for making a garment, and a factory model where the buyer supplies the fabric and the factory charges only for making.

Colourway

One colour version of a style, with its own fabric shade and trims.

Customize Form

The ERPNext tool that adds Custom Fields and changes a DocType's form without code.

Cut-over

The planned switch from the old system to ERPNext, around a fixed cut-off moment.

DocType

A Frappe document type, such as Item or Purchase Order, with its fields, permissions and REST endpoint.

docstatus

A document's state in Frappe: 0 draft, 1 submitted, 2 cancelled.

DUPRO

During-production inspection, done once part of the order is packed.

Dye lot

A batch of fabric dyed together; pieces from different dye lots can differ in shade and must not be mixed in one garment.

Ex-factory

The date goods leave the factory for shipment.

FOB

Free on board: the price of goods loaded at the port of shipment; in garment trade, the usual quoted price per piece.

Frappe Cloud

Frappe's managed hosting for Frappe apps, including ERPNext.

Frappe Framework

The Python and JavaScript web framework ERPNext is built on, providing its database layer, authentication and REST API.

GSM

Grams per square metre: the weight of fabric.

Hypercare

The period after go-live when the project team fixes issues daily.

Item template, variant

In ERPNext, the template is the style with "Has Variants" ticked; each variant is a full Item for one combination of attribute values, such as navy, size L.

Job Card

ERPNext's record of the actual work on one operation of a Work Order at one Workstation: time, employee and completed quantity.

Lab dip

A small dyed fabric sample sent to the buyer to approve a shade before bulk dyeing.

Landed cost

Every cost of bringing goods to the factory beyond the supplier's price: freight, insurance, duty, clearing, bank charges.

Landed Cost Voucher

The ERPNext document that adds landed costs to the valuation of received items, distributed by quantity or amount.

Letter of credit (LC)

A bank's promise to pay an exporter when documents matching the credit's terms are presented.

Marker efficiency

The share of fabric in a cutting marker that ends up in garment pieces.

POM

Points of measure: the garment measurements in a tech pack, with a tolerance per size.

PP sample

Pre-production sample: a garment in bulk fabric and trims that the buyer approves as the reference for production.

Ratio pack

A pack or carton holding sizes in a fixed ratio, for example 1 S, 2 M, 2 L, 1 XL.

Serial and Batch Bundle

Since ERPNext v15, the record attached to each stock transaction that lists the batches or serial numbers it moves.

Server Script

Python run by Frappe on document events or as an API method, in a restricted sandbox; not available on public shared Frappe Cloud benches.

Shade band

A set of approved shade references for a fabric colour, used to judge each new lot.

SMV

Standard minute value: the time a trained operator needs for one operation at a normal pace.

Size/colour matrix

A grid of colours by sizes used to enter or show order quantities for each combination.

Strike-off

A sample of a print or embroidery on the actual fabric, approved before bulk.

Subcontracting Order

ERPNext's record of materials supplied to a processor against a subcontracting Purchase Order; the Subcontracting Receipt brings the finished goods back.

Subcontracting Inward Order

ERPNext v16's record for making goods from a customer's material: receipts from the customer, Work Orders and deliveries back.

T&A calendar

Time and action calendar: an order's milestones with planned dates worked back from ex-factory, actual dates and owners.

TOP sample

Top of production: the first bulk pieces, checked against the PP sample.

UCP 600

The ICC's rules for documentary credits, which most letters of credit follow.

Work Order

ERPNext's order to make a quantity of one Item from its BOM, moving material from source to work-in-progress to target warehouses.

Workstation

In ERPNext, a place where operations run, with working hours, production capacity and an hour rate.

·Checklists: an ERPNext apparel implementation on one page

The checklists below repeat the decisions and checks from each part of this guide, in project order.

Discovery

Discovery is complete when every item below is ticked.

• Business type settled for each buyer: CMT, full package, both, or a non-manufacturing brand or agent.
• One decision owner named for each area, including a platform owner for code and hosting.
• One workshop per department, walking a real recent order.
• All 52 fit-gap lines answered with evidence, decision and owner.
• Architecture decided: what ERPNext owns, what runs in an operations layer.
• ERPNext version, hosting and the need for a private bench confirmed against the fit-gap.

Design

Design is complete when every item below is decided and written down.

• Item Groups, valuation method per Item, units and "Must be Whole Number".
• Template level, attributes and abbreviations locked; code pattern agreed.
• BOM approach: template, variant, or generated variant BOMs; subcontracted variants covered.
• Unit design per fabric and yarn; kg-to-metre conversion decided.
• Batch as dye lot or as roll; custom Batch fields; batch picking rule and mixed-lot validation.
• Workstations, operations and minutes; Job Card count checked on a real order.
• Subcontract chains modelled step by step; inward CMT flow on v16 or a tested v15 flow.
• Landed Cost Voucher distribution per charge.
• Inspection templates, AQL source and override rights.
• Packing Slip rules and buyer documents per buyer.
• Currencies, advances, revaluation, LC records, chargeback reasons, country app.

Build, data and testing

Build, migration and testing are complete when every item below is proven on the go-live version.

• Configuration done in dependency order, on the go-live version.
• One custom app in Git holds every customisation; desk changes exported and registered.
• Integrations link on document names, handle amendments, and have one writer per field.
• Migration loaded in order with Data Import, with a cut-off rule and signed totals.
• All 13 end-to-end scenarios passed by key users on staging.

Go-live

Go-live is ready when every item below is in place.

• Training done per role, on the factory's own orders, with workspaces set per role.
• Cut-over rehearsed once in full, and a backup restored at least once.
• Go-live date between seasons, away from year-end, audits and major upgrades.
• Go or no-go point and fall-back defined.
• Hypercare runs at least until the first month-end close in ERPNext.

·Sources

Frappe and ERPNext documentation, release notes and GitHub pages were checked on 26 September 2026. Frappe's documentation pages mostly do not name a version; where a feature belongs to version 15 or 16, the source says so.

1. ERPNext repository, licence (GPL-3.0) and hosting options · github.com
2. ERPNext version 16 features · frappe.io · release notes v16.0.0 · github.com
3. ERPNext documentation, Item variants · docs.frappe.io
4. ERPNext v13 documentation, Item Attribute (abbreviations) · docs.erpnext.com
5. ERPNext documentation, Unit of Measure · docs.frappe.io
6. ERPNext documentation, FIFO and Moving Average valuation · docs.frappe.io · Stock Settings · docs.erpnext.com
7. ERPNext documentation, Batch · docs.frappe.io
8. ERPNext documentation, Serial and Batch Bundle · docs.frappe.io
9. ERPNext documentation, Bill of Materials · docs.frappe.io
10. ERPNext documentation, Work Order · docs.frappe.io · Job Card · docs.frappe.io · Workstation · docs.frappe.io · Production Plan · docs.frappe.io
11. ERPNext GitHub issue #54715, template BOM not picked for subcontracting orders · github.com · pull request #59373, merged into develop 24 Sep 2026 · github.com
12. ERPNext GitHub issue #41950, manufacturing for a large number of variants · github.com
13. Frappe blog, subcontracting with version 14 · frappe.io · Subcontracting in ERPNext · docs.frappe.io
14. ERPNext documentation, Subcontracting Inward (v16) · docs.frappe.io · Customer Provided Items (v12) · docs.frappe.io
15. ERPNext documentation, Landed Cost Voucher · docs.frappe.io · docs.frappe.io
16. ERPNext documentation, Quality Inspection · docs.frappe.io
17. ERPNext documentation, Packing Slip · docs.frappe.io
18. ERPNext documentation, Material Request · docs.frappe.io · Purchase Order · docs.frappe.io
19. ERPNext documentation, Drop shipping · docs.frappe.io · Sales Partner · docs.frappe.io
20. ERPNext documentation, Exchange Rate Revaluation · docs.frappe.io · Advance payment entry · docs.frappe.io
21. ERPNext documentation, Data Import · docs.frappe.io · Customize Form · docs.frappe.io · Server Script · docs.frappe.io
22. Frappe Framework documentation, REST API · docs.frappe.io · token-based authentication · docs.frappe.io · webhooks · docs.frappe.io
23. Frappe Cloud documentation, installing an app · docs.frappe.io · custom apps · docs.frappe.io
24. ERPNext GitHub issue #38816, amended document naming · github.com
25. India Compliance app · github.com
26. Egypt e-invoicing requests on GitHub · #32227 · #35634 · #43565 · Marketplace listings · cloud.frappe.io · cloud.frappe.io
27. ISO 2859-1, Sampling procedures for inspection by attributes · iso.org
28. AQL tables and acceptance numbers · qima.com · tetrainspection.com · inspection levels · qualityinspection.org
29. UCP 600, documentary credits · uscib.org · tradefinanceglobal.com
30. EDI transaction sets · 1edisource.com · celigo.com
31. Odoo facts in the comparison · see the Odoo chapter and its sources

Corrections. ERPNext changes between major versions, and a feature boundary can move in a single release; the subcontracting BOM change in section 14 is an example that moved while this chapter was being written. If you find a statement here that your version contradicts, report a correction with the version and the page you checked; we correct the guide and note the change and its date at the top of this section. We re-check the ERPNext facts in this chapter at least once a year and after each major ERPNext release.

ERPNext and Frappe are trademarks of their owners, used here only to name the products. This guide is not endorsed by Frappe. Odoo is a trademark of Odoo S.A. India Compliance is named as a third-party app. Garment.io is named because MerchandiserOS integrates with it; this guide is not endorsed by Garment.io.