How to choose an ERP for a marble, granite or tile business in India

Short answer

A marble, granite or tile business needs an ERP that tracks stock by batch (and by slab for natural stone), converts between the units you buy (boxes, slabs, containers) and the units you sell (square feet), reserves stock against quotations, and handles GST invoicing and freight. Generic ERPs treat every item as a plain quantity, which is where they fall short.

What makes stone and tile different from ordinary inventory

Most inventory software assumes you buy a thing and sell the same thing. Stone and tile businesses do not work that way, and these differences decide whether an ERP fits.

• Units do not match. You may buy in boxes, slabs or containers, store in batches and sell by the square foot. The system must convert between them with conversion factors, per product.
• Batches differ. Shade, size and thickness vary from lot to lot, and customers want the same batch for one job. Stock must be tracked batch by batch.
• Natural stone is slab-level. Each slab has its own dimensions, face and defects, so some businesses need slab-wise identity, not just a lot quantity.
• Stock is promised before it is delivered. Without reservations, two salespeople can quote the same slab to two customers.
• Losses are normal. Breakage, damaged stock and offcuts need their own records with reasons, or stock never matches the yard.
• Freight is part of cost. Transport and freight change your landed cost and margin on every sale.

12 questions to ask any ERP vendor

Ask for a live demo of your own workflow, not a standard demo. These questions separate ERPs that fit from ERPs that need heavy workarounds.

Ready-made ERP or custom: how to decide

A ready-made ERP is the right choice when your process is standard and the vendor can demonstrate your slab, batch and unit workflows without customisation. It is cheaper to start and has support behind it.

Custom starts to pay off when those workflows do not fit: several units per product, batch plus slab tracking, reservations, area-based quotations and freight in one flow. Then you either bend your process around the software or pay for heavy customisation.

A hybrid is common: keep a tool like Tally for statutory accounts, and use a purpose-built system for stock, quotations and sales. Depending on how it is configured, Tally can need workarounds for unit conversion, reservations and area-based quotations, so test your real workflow before deciding.

What a custom stone ERP covers: an example from a live system

We built and maintain an ERP for Dosar Stonex, a marble and stone trading business in India. It runs from first enquiry to payroll in one system.

• Sales: leads, area-based quotations, sales orders, slips, invoices and return orders.
• Purchase and stock: requisitions, purchase orders and returns, batches, stock adjustments, damaged stock and stock reconciliation.
• Stock reservation, so a batch cannot be promised twice.
• Accounts: customer, supplier and freight ledgers and bank accounts.
• Nine built-in reports, including day book, product margin and product ageing.
• Staff: payroll, leave, incentives and time logs.

How to roll it out without disrupting the business

• Start with the part that hurts most, usually stock and quotations, then add purchases, accounts and payroll.
• Load opening stock batch by batch, not as one total per product.
• Run the old and new system side by side for a short period and reconcile stock weekly.
• Train the people who enter data in the yard first; they decide whether the numbers stay accurate.