[Roadmap] Path to v9

ERPNext
67

totally agreeing. there has been a discussion (including a procedure as a result) about this here though.

However I found 1 record in the forum it has been applied before 7.2.0 release but only a small comment on the side pre v8 release

So maybe the existing procedure needs to be better enforced.

68

I find it interesting that there isn’t much multi-company support. Yes you can create multiple companies and set different permissions. But in terms of functionality some limitations arise:

  1. “Default” values are available but since many of them are tied to company specifics they aren’t that useful. For example DocType Items have several “default” vaules like “Default warehouse” but since warehouses are tied to companies it’s only useful for one company. We should be able to set the defaults per company.
  2. inter-company/intra-company transactions are non-existant. For example, doing a company to company transfer of stock. There is more than just stock journal entries but accounting entries that might be invoved. ie. This may be considered a purchase order from one company to a sales order to another company. The landed cost is something that needs to take into account.
  3. Consolidates reports for the multiple companies in finance reports.

there are a couple of scenarios I can think of where these are useful:

  1. Sub-contracting: one company sub-contracts to other companies that are related
  2. Drop ship orders: one company is the distributor/retailer and another the manufactured that drop ships the order
  3. Franchise and Franchisee.

I believer erpnext is well suited for doing inter-company transactions. it just needs a little work to get it done. I have some custom code that has some of this functionality. I just don’t know how to submit it and it may need some refining.

Nathan

2 Likes
69

@Tropicalrambler and @revant_one are both looking at multi-company and consolidation efforts, maybe in slightly different directions.

70

You seem to be a very condescending guy. I respect the fact that ERPNext is a great piece of software, even though it’s not perfect. But the point raised about having to do some git stash and reset and some other git incantations just to run an update has happened to me as well even though I didn’t edit any file.

Your responses to some posts are needlessly inflammatory, condescending and sometimes outright unprofessional.

ERPNext has a really shitty upgrade process. I have never ever had a smooth upgrade right from V3. All installs that I have, I have decided to leave them at V7. I won’t bother upgrade. And as I speak, I am scaling down my recommendation of ERPNext to clients.

As a project, I deeply respect the community behind it, but user bkm raised genuine points about upgrade. At the moment, it’s garbage.

As a Java EE developer, I thought I could learn the frappe framework and see if I could contribute to ERPNext. Yes I can program in python quite comfortably. Spent my hard earned mobile data to download the frappe framework, followed the Library Management tutorial to the letter, time to run app, and poof! Crash. I have to run git incantations. Seriously?

If I can’t get a hello world of the framework, how can I be confident to contribute as a programmer? The elitism of the likes of Rushabh will be the end of this project.

3 Likes
71

Just my opinion, stability is the key. After updates, some database for custom app went missing. Also gone were custom naming series and I have to key in all again. Multi currency still need sorting out. There are many other things other users faced I am sure and this does not bode well for an ERP system where it is a mission critical software for businesses. At the end of the day, it is very frustrating for end users, be it developers or not.

Hope the Foundation look at stability of v8 before attempting to v9. The new features of v8 are great and I am sure it will take us quite a while to play around with it.

I like @James_Robertson post to solely focus on making things work for v8. Let it be a year or two. I just want stability especially after an update. It is at the hands of the Foundation to take ERPNext to the next level.

Looking forward to a stable v8.1!

4 Likes
72

I have recently got attracted to ERPNext, so keeping a low profile. Initially I thought this is just a wishlist of items for v9, which will help in creating the official v9 roadmap. However that doesn’t seem to be the case looking at another thread where community developers have already started working on the python migration(First Foundation supported Developer! - #10 by vrms). I can’t question the priority of python 3.0 migration, so merely trying to stress the importance of improving the process and communication. Sometimes we need to slow down in order to move faster later, especially while there are so many voices vouching for quality before features. Discussions take a lot of time, often feels counterproductive for many people. However that is essential when we are trying to scale-out the development with community help. Perhaps v9 roadmap is being discussed officially in community meetings, in which case it would really help to get a glance of meeting minutes.
I was in the recent code-sprint held at Kozhikode, so had the privilege to discuss the reasons behind merging healthcare to erpnext. While I understood the reasons to some extent, it also raised many more questions, like scale-out issues with same approach for other apps, unnecessary increase in upgrade times, stability, additional effort by the app team for merging, upgrades etc. Traditionally, in our design meetings, we used to have a table of advantages and disadvantages with priority for each item when it comes to deciding these things. By opening these discussions to wider community, we are likely to get more inputs which would help in taking decisions based on data.

1 Like
73

Love the enthusiasm and passion of everyone wanting stability. I think this is a great time for all of us to revise the first rule of open source software.

If you don’t like something, fix it.

–

Happy testing and fixing bugs :slight_smile:

7 Likes
74

Yes, but remember very many users of ERPNext are NOT programmers just users. I for one would not have a clue how to start fixing anything - nor would I want to. It would take me away from my real job - running the company that uses ERPNExt software.

  1. Fix the bugs to create a stable system
  2. Use something like Uservoice (or an equivalent open source system) for users to put in requests for enhancements / improvements and to be able to vote on them. That way the most popular requests are processed first
  3. Test each small improvement to death - never lose sight that the software is being used by real people in real businesses on a daily basis we NEED the software to function as it should all of the time
10 Likes
75

Regardless whether users or contributors, remember what rmehta is coping with here…

10 Likes
76

For me, I have to favorite feature requests:

  • import data from bank
    We have a lot of small amount invoices. I get a csv export from my bank account and it would be lovely to import the bank statements and create payment entries and link them to the invoices and set the status to “payed”.

  • usability:
    When I create a new customer, for example, I have to enter customer detail in the form. Then I have to create a new contact in a new form, save it and come back to the customer. Finally I have to create the Address details in a new form, save it and come back.
    → I would really like to have a possibility to enter contact and address details within one form (e.g. when selecting “create new contact” the new contact form will be shown inline the customer form)

This would help me to save a lot of time :slight_smile:

5 Likes
77

Some thoughts from my end:

###Framework

  1. Allow more columns to be displayed in Grid for “desk” view i.e if a user is logged in from desk,it should allow more than 4 columns to be shown in the grid. This can be detected based on the form factor of a device.

###Manufacturing

  1. Process based manufacturing, sequencing & bulk movement of stock from one process to another.

###Finance

  1. Inter-company transactions
  2. Bank Reconciliation

###Integrations

  1. Quick Books
  2. Tally
5 Likes
78

  • It would be nice the system send customer statment based on if theres is an outstanding.

  • On Accounts Receivable when convert to pdf, apears age(days)

  • Create a form to make sales partner payment, and clear the statement after the payment

79

@Dany_Carvalheiro It seems that this could be “easily” done by customizing …

80

I have not looked at this thread for a while, but now that @Chude_Osiegbu is leading the Roadmap group for ERPNext Foundation, and I’m his able(?) Deputy, this is a lot of excellent inputs we can work with.

I fear that we will not be able to meet all expectations and therefore there will be some disappointments and heartache to go around. But hopefully it will be minimal and I hope that we can all still be on talking terms a few (and many) years into the future.

I can’t claim that I’ve looked at each post, but I get the gist:

  1. Yes, the current upgrade process sucks and we (please note the WE here) need to get better.

  2. Everybody talks about stability. We need to get more stable.

These two are easy to find agreement. Where we may vehemently disagree is the new features, but we hope to put in a process that is transparent.

I saw a lot of big words being used and calling people names, even if such names are not Terrible names, it can still dampen the enthusiasm.

PLEASE NO PERSONAL ATTACKS PLEASE! Yes, I thought that sentence required two pleases. :slight_smile:

As far as fixing existing issues or adding new features is concerned, a lot of people have ideas. These ideas will be harnessed and we will come up with a roadmap. If your idea is up for execution on the roadmap soon, you’ll be happy.

What avenues do you have if your need or requirement is not on the Roadmap or is on the roadmap, but is not for immediate execution:

  • Build that yourself and contribute the code back to ERPNext.

But, I’m not a developer:

  • Find a developer and fund her/him to develop that fix or feature and contribute that code back to ERPNext

I can’t find a developer

  • Fund the development through Foundation developers - Only for those features that are on the roadmap

If you cannot do any of the three and we build a transparent and reasonably democratic way of building the roadmap in the first instance, would it be fair to expect you to wait till somebody (and it could be the Foundation) fixes it or develops that feature.

If you’ve lasted this long, it can only mean one thing: You are really keen on this roadmap thing. How about volunteering your time on the Roadmap committee?

Thanks

Jay

9 Likes
81

How do we volunteer? Some specifics would be great. I spent some time building an app for choosing the roadmap items based on community discussion. Happy to spend more time if that is going to be useful.

82

Not sure about the app. But not ruling it out either. If the app doesn’t pan out, how about helping us in other ways?

Thanks

Jay

83

I am certainly open to that. If the new Roadmap committee has any planned meetings, I am happy to attend and contribute.

2 Likes
84

Me too! sign me up.

2 Likes
85

I agree with this 100%, as all of us aren’t developers to decipher the error codes and I’ve done a fresh install, run bench update and it’s given me errors about commit my changes where there hasn’t been any.