Table of contents
- What is in the minimum ERP setup for a shop of up to 20 people?
- What can wait until later?
- Who on the team launches the system?
- What does the week-by-week ERP launch plan look like?
- How many team hours does the launch take?
- How do you avoid stopping the shop during the launch?
- Which mistakes happen most often during a launch?
- What Bimp does and does not do
- FAQ
- ERP for small manufacturing starts with six modules: warehouse, counterparties, sales, purchasing, production with BOMs, and finance with opening balances. Payroll, fixed assets and stage-by-stage production are added later.
- A shop of up to 20 people launches in 5 weeks: setup and data cleanup, directories, BOMs, opening balances over a weekend, and the first week live. The shop keeps working throughout.
- In the example of a 16-person furniture shop, the launch takes 87 team hours, or €1,044 at an assumed rate of €12 an hour. The heaviest load is on the storekeeper: 29 hours.
- All balances are entered with a single date, and the reports are checked against the stock count, the cash count and reconciliation statements before the first working day in the system.
An ERP for small manufacturing can be launched with six modules: warehouse, counterparties, sales, purchasing, production with BOMs, and finance with opening balances. A shop of up to 20 people covers this in 5 weeks without stopping, because balances are entered over a weekend and on Monday everyone already works in the system.
The owner of a 16-person furniture shop keeps records in three Excel files: warehouse, orders and cost sheets. Material runs out on Wednesday, and he hears about it from the foreman on Thursday. He is looking for a system that replaces these three files without stopping the shop for a month. Below is a list of what is needed at the start and a week-by-week plan with the arithmetic of team hours.
What is in the minimum ERP setup for a shop of up to 20 people?
The minimum setup consists of the modules without which you cannot calculate balances, cost price and debts. The module names match the left-hand menu in Bimp, and the system overview describes all of them.
| Module | What the shop does in it |
|---|---|
| Warehouse | Balances of materials, semi-finished goods and finished products, stock count |
| Counterparties | Customers and suppliers, their contracts and debts |
| Sales | Customer order, shipment, payment |
| Purchasing | Purchase order, receipt of materials |
| Production | Product specifications, production orders, assembly with material write-off |
| Finance | Cash desks and accounts, opening balances, cash movement |
| Reports | Stock movement, Cash flow, settlements, cost price |
The base of this setup is the specification: the product’s composition, stages, operations and planned cost price. From it the production order pulls materials, reserves them and calculates cost price. That is why the first eight specifications of the best-selling products take the central place in the launch, and the rest are added during work.
What can wait until later?
Everything not needed for the first month-end close is added after the launch. This takes load off the team in the hardest weeks.
- Payroll and fixed asset accounting. In the Bimp plans they belong to the Business plan, so a shop on the Start plan does not set them up in the first month.
- Stage-by-stage production with production tasks. You can begin with the basic scheme: a production order, then assembly, which writes off materials and posts the product to stock.
- Integrations with banks, delivery services and online stores. They are connected when the core documents are already entered daily.
- The lock date. It is set after balances are reconciled.
Who on the team launches the system?
In a shop of up to 20 people, five usually work in the system. Each gets a role that opens only the needed modules and actions.
| Role | What they do in the launch |
|---|---|
| Owner | Accounting setup, decision on the start date, review of reports |
| Accountant | Accounts and cash desks, opening balances for cash and settlements |
| Storekeeper | Item list, warehouses, stock count, balances |
| Production engineer | Product specifications, cost price check |
| Sales manager | Counterparties, price list, customer orders |
Five users are included in the Start plan. An extra user is bought at $260 a year, as stated on the pricing page. Roles are set up in the Access roles section.
What does the week-by-week ERP launch plan look like?
The launch takes 5 weeks. In weeks 1-4 the shop works the old way, and in week 5 it already enters documents in the system. The order of steps matches the launch checklist and the order of data import: directories first, then balances.
| Week | What we do | Who | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Setup: company, accounting, organization, accounts and cash desks, income and expense items, users and roles. In parallel, Excel cleanup: duplicates, units of measure, SKUs | Owner 3, accountant 5, storekeeper 8, manager 4 | 20 |
| 2 | Directories: products and materials, counterparties, warehouses, import from Excel | Storekeeper 8, manager 6 | 14 |
| 3 | Specifications of the eight main products, cost price check | Production engineer 16, owner 2 | 18 |
| 4 | Stock count on Friday, balances over the weekend, reconciliation with reports, a test sale and a test production order | Storekeeper 10, accountant 6, production engineer 4 | 20 |
| 5 | First week in the system: daily documents, morning check of reports | Five people, 3 hours each | 15 |
| Total | 87 |
Week 1 starts with accounting setup. The accounting currency cannot be changed after documents are entered, so it is checked first. In parallel, the storekeeper and the manager remove duplicates from the Excel files, bring units of measure to one form and assign a SKU to every item. The SKU is needed for import: Bimp uses it to find existing products so that it does not create duplicates.
In week 2 the directories are loaded from Excel. Products and balances go in through “Warehouse → Data import” (up to 9,000 items per file), and counterparties go in with the Bimp template in the directory. For a shop with 120 materials, 25 products and 40 counterparties, that is one evening of work and a day of checking.
Week 3 is devoted to specifications. The production engineer enters the composition and operations of the eight main products, and Bimp calculates the planned cost price. Specifications can also be loaded from an Excel template. Anything that missed the first eight is added later.
In week 4 the shop holds a stock count on Friday evening, and on Saturday and Sunday enters balances with an “Opening balances” document under a single date that matches Friday. The “Inventory”, “Cash” tabs and settlements with customers and suppliers are filled in. After saving, the Stock movement, Cash flow and Settlements reports are reconciled with the stock count, the cash count and reconciliation statements. The procedure is described in detail in the article on entering opening balances. The last step of the week is a test sale and a test production order, to see how stock balance, reserve and customer debt change.
In week 5 all documents are already entered in Bimp. Excel stays read-only. Every morning the owner opens Stock movement and Cash flow and compares them with the actual position in the warehouse. When the discrepancies disappear, the lock date is set.
How many team hours does the launch take?
Under this plan the launch takes 87 hours: 20 + 14 + 18 + 20 + 15 = 87. By role the split is as follows: owner 8 hours (3 + 2 + 3), accountant 14 (5 + 6 + 3), storekeeper 29 (8 + 8 + 10 + 3), manager 13 (4 + 6 + 3), production engineer 23 (16 + 4 + 3). The sum matches: 8 + 14 + 29 + 13 + 23 = 87.
If an employee hour costs €12, team time equals 87 × 12 = €1,044. The heaviest load falls on the storekeeper, and during weeks 2 and 4 it makes sense to free that person from part of the routine tasks.
How do you avoid stopping the shop during the launch?
The shop keeps working if setup and directory loading do not touch current documents and balances are fixed over one weekend. Follow five rules.
- In weeks 1-3, prepare data in Bimp and keep documents the old way.
- Pick one balance date, usually the last working day before the start.
- Do not enter the same balance twice: product import adds balances to existing ones, so each balance is entered either with a document or with an import.
- After entry, reconcile the reports with the actual position and correct the tab where a negative value appeared.
- On Monday enter only new documents and keep the old files for reference.
Which mistakes happen most often during a launch?
Most mistakes concern the order of steps. Three of them are the most expensive, because they are fixed after work has begun.
The first mistake is the wrong accounting currency. After settings are saved and documents entered, it cannot be changed, so in week 1 the owner checks it together with the accountant. The second is balances without directories: in the “Opening balances” document you can select only the products, warehouses and counterparties that already exist in Bimp. The third is balances under different dates. Then the reports begin from scattered snapshots, and reconciliation with the stock count does not match.
A typical sign of a balance error is a minus in the warehouse after the first shipment or a customer debt that is missing from the report. In that case open the balances document and check the relevant tab: a missed line, a double entry or a wrongly set “Advance” checkbox.
What Bimp does and does not do
Bimp is a Ukrainian cloud ERP for manufacturers in which the warehouse, sales, purchasing, production and finance work in one database. The specifications, production orders, assembly, opening balances and reports needed for the launch described above exist in the system and work as the help articles describe. For a shop with five users the Start plan fits: $1,490 a year, 5 users, support included. Quick Start for manufacturing (Production) costs from $2,500 one time, takes 2 weeks and includes setting up routings and cost calculations, 15 hours of training and integration setup.
The limits are these. Bimp does not enter data for you: the storekeeper and the production engineer prepare the item list and specifications, and the system imports them and checks them for errors. The accounting currency cannot be changed after work begins. Payroll and fixed asset accounting are not part of the Start plan. There is no free plan or trial period, but there is a demo, which you can book here.
In the example, a 16-person furniture shop gets the system live in 5 weeks. That takes 87 team hours, or €1,044 at the assumed rate, and not a single day of downtime.
FAQ
Which modules does a small shop need in an ERP?
Warehouse, counterparties, sales, purchasing, production (specifications, production orders, assembly) and finance with opening balances. The Stock movement, Cash flow and settlements reports check the figures from week one.
How long does an ERP launch take in a shop of up to 20 people?
In the example in this article, 5 weeks and 87 hours of team work. The duration depends on the volume of data: most of the time goes on directories, BOMs and opening balances.
Does production have to stop during the launch?
No. In weeks 1-4 the shop works the old way, and balances are entered after a stock count on the last working day before the start, over the weekend. On Monday work continues in the system.
How many users does a small shop need?
Five in the example: owner, sales manager, storekeeper, production engineer and accountant. The Bimp Start plan includes 5 users, and an extra one costs $260 a year. Each person's permissions are set with access roles.
Bimp Quick Start for manufacturing (Production) sets up routings and cost calculation in 2 weeks and includes 15 hours of training. See in a demo what it looks like on your own product.
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