A structural steel fabricator swaps SAP Business One for ERPNext without losing a day of production
Eleven years of SAP Business One data moved to ERPNext, with nesting, job costing and MTD-ready VAT for a 140-person fabrication shop.
- steel scrap per tonne fabricated
- −22%
- steel scrap per tonne fabricated
- of history migrated
- 11 yrs
- of history migrated
- days of production lost at cut-over
- 0
- days of production lost at cut-over
- lower annual licence cost
- 60%
- lower annual licence cost
The client
Brannock fabricates structural steel for commercial buildings and bridges. Every job is made to order, priced per tonne and delivered against tight site programmes, so accurate job costing and material control decide whether a contract makes money.
The challenge
- ✕SAP Business One licences and partner fees kept rising while customisation requests sat in a queue for months.
- ✕Plate and section offcuts were not tracked, so scrap was only visible in the year-end stock take.
- ✕Job costs were rebuilt in spreadsheets after each project closed, too late to fix pricing on the next tender.
- ✕Workshop hours were written on paper timesheets and keyed in weekly by the office team.
The solution
Data migration with reconciliation
Items, open orders, BOMs, customers, suppliers and eleven years of ledgers migrated in three rehearsals, each signed off against SAP trial balances and stock valuations.
Job costing by contract
Every contract became a project with budgets for steel, consumables, labour and galvanising, updated live from purchases and timesheets.
Offcut and remnant stock
Offcuts are booked back into stock with dimensions and heat numbers, so the nesting team can use them before cutting new plate.
Shop-floor time capture
Tablets at each bay record operator time against job cards for cutting, drilling, welding and painting.
UK tax and reporting
MTD-compatible VAT returns, CIS deductions for subcontractors and a management pack the directors review every Monday.
How we delivered
- 01Two-week discovery with the workshop, estimating and finance teams before any configuration.
- 02Three migration rehearsals, each reconciled to the penny against SAP.
- 03A weekend cut-over with SAP kept read-only for 90 days as a safety net.
- 04Four weeks of on-site and remote hypercare after go-live.
The results
- ✓Scrap per tonne fabricated fell 22% in the first two quarters as offcuts were reused.
- ✓Job margin is visible while a contract is live, not after it closes.
- ✓Annual licence and support spend dropped by around 60%.
- ✓Timesheet keying, previously a day a week for the office, disappeared.
“We expected a painful migration. Instead the numbers matched on day one, and for the first time we can see a job losing money while there is still time to do something about it.”