ERPNext Onboarding Guide: Get Your Business Running
Your complete guide to setting up ERPNext and the HR module — from first login to daily operations across finance, sales, inventory, and HR.
Welcome to the ERPNext onboarding guide. Whether you're migrating from spreadsheets or replacing a legacy system, this guide walks you through every step — from running the setup wizard on day one to managing payroll, inventory, and your workforce in daily operations. Work through the sections in order or jump straight to the module your team needs first.
ERPNext Setup
Start here to understand the platform, choose your deployment method, and run the setup wizard.
Finance
Configure your chart of accounts, taxes, payment terms, and run your first transactions.
HR Module
Set up your company structure, onboard employees, and manage leave and attendance policies.
Payroll
Define salary components, build salary structures, and process your first payroll run.
Your Onboarding Journey
Follow these five stages in order to get from a fresh ERPNext install to a fully operational system. Each stage builds on the last, so completing them in sequence will save you from having to backtrack.
On your first login, ERPNext launches the setup wizard automatically. You'll configure your company name and abbreviation, select your base currency, define your fiscal year start and end dates, and choose a chart of accounts template for your country.
Invite your team members by email, set their user type (System User or Website User), and assign the roles that match their job function — for example, Accounts Manager for your finance lead and HR User for your HR team.
Use the Data Import tool to bulk-upload your existing customers, suppliers, items (products and services), and employee records from CSV files. This avoids manual data entry and gets your master data in place before your first live transaction.
Tailor each module to your business: set up your warehouses and item groups for stock, define tax templates and payment terms for accounting, and configure leave types and attendance policies for HR.
Create your first real transactions — a sales order, a purchase invoice, or a payroll entry — review the auto-generated accounting entries, and confirm everything looks correct before opening the system to your full team.
Explore the Modules
Once your core setup is complete, these guides take you deeper into the day-to-day workflows your teams will use most.
Sales & CRM
Manage leads, opportunities, quotations, and sales orders from a single pipeline view.
Inventory
Create warehouses, define item valuation methods, and track stock movements in real time.
Recruitment
Post job openings, track applicants through interview stages, and make job offers directly in ERPNext.
Attendance & Leave
Define shifts, configure leave types and allocations, and automate attendance marking.
If you run into questions that this guide doesn't answer, the ERPNext community is active and welcoming. Post your question at discuss.frappe.io to get help from other users and Frappe team members.