Every growing business eventually hits the same wall: a sales team on spreadsheets, an accounts department on desktop software, a warehouse running on WhatsApp, and a founder refreshing five browser tabs trying to make sense of it all. The Frappe Framework, the open-source backbone behind ERPNext and a growing ecosystem of business applications, was built precisely to tear that wall down — and the depth of what it offers might surprise you.

262Built-in DocTypes
12Core Modules
3,136Field Definitions
20+Field Types
01
Core Document Management

Your Business Data, Structured Your Way

Custom DocTypes Foundation
e.g. Define a Supplier Contract document with fields for contract value, renewal date, and linked vendor — no code required.
Child Tables Foundation
e.g. Embed line items directly inside a Sales Order — product, quantity, rate, and discount all on one form.
Document Versioning Audit
e.g. See exactly which manager changed a Purchase Order amount from $8,000 to $12,000 — and when.
Submit / Cancel / Amend Lifecycle Foundation
e.g. A Sales Invoice locks after submission, preventing edits — amendments create a clean revision trail.
Document Naming Rules Smart
e.g. Auto-number Job Cards as JC-DAR-2025-0042 based on year, site, and sequence.
Document Share Key Sharing
e.g. Generate a time-limited link so a client can view their Proforma Invoice without creating an account.
Deleted Document Recovery Safety
e.g. Restore an accidentally deleted Customer record from the trash with full field data intact.
02
User Interface

Views That Match How Your Team Works

Kanban Board Visual
e.g. Drag Support Tickets across columns — Open → In Progress → Resolved — so the team sees workload at a glance.
Dashboard Charts Analytics
e.g. Display a monthly Revenue vs. Target bar chart on the CEO's workspace, refreshed automatically.
Number Cards with Conditional Colour Analytics
e.g. Show Overdue Invoices in red when the count exceeds 10, green otherwise.
Workspace Builder Interface
e.g. Give the Warehouse Manager a custom home screen with quick links to Stock Entry, a bin-level chart, and a pending-transfers list.
Print Formats Output
e.g. Design a branded Delivery Note PDF with your logo, Arabic/English bilingual fields, and a QR code — all in HTML/Jinja.
Form Tour / Guided Walkthrough Onboarding
e.g. Walk a new cashier through their first Payment Entry step by step with tooltips at each field.

The difference between a spreadsheet and a business system isn't the data — it's what happens automatically when that data changes.

Automation & Workflow Principle
03
Workflow & Automation

Let the System Do the Repetitive Work

Workflow Engine Process
e.g. Route a Purchase Request through Department Head → Finance → GM approval, with the document locked at each stage until the right role acts.
Assignment Rules Smart
e.g. Auto-assign new Support Tickets to whichever agent has the fewest open cases using round-robin load balancing.
Auto Repeat Recurring
e.g. Automatically create a Monthly Retainer Invoice on the 1st of every month and email it to the client.
Server Scripts Code
e.g. When a Sales Order is submitted, automatically create a corresponding Production Order in the factory module.
Scheduled Jobs Cron
e.g. Run a nightly script that flags all Supplier Contracts expiring within 30 days and sends an alert to procurement.
Milestone Tracker Smart
e.g. Automatically record the date a Project status changed to "Completed" for SLA reporting — no manual entry needed.
Client Scripts Code
e.g. Instantly calculate and show a Gross Margin % field on the Sales Order form as the user types, before saving.
04
Notifications & Communication

The Right Person Knows the Right Thing at the Right Time

Notification Rules Alerts
e.g. Email the Finance team instantly when any Purchase Order above $50,000 is submitted — with a custom Jinja-formatted message.
Document Follow Subscriptions
e.g. Let an account manager subscribe to a specific Customer record and get notified whenever any linked document changes.
ToDo & Assignments Tasks
e.g. Assign a Credit Note review task to the CFO directly from the document, with a due date and priority.
Reminders Smart
e.g. Set a personal reminder on a Lead to follow up in three days — appears in the notification bell at the right time.
Slack Integration Channels
e.g. Post a message to #ops-alerts whenever a Delivery Note is cancelled, so the logistics team reacts immediately.
05
Access Control & Security

Everyone Sees What They Should — Nothing More

Role-Based Permissions Security
e.g. Let Sales Reps create and read Quotations but only Finance Managers submit them and trigger GL entries.
Field-Level Permissions Security
e.g. Hide the Net Profit Margin field on Sales Orders from junior staff while keeping it visible to managers.
User Permissions (Row-Level) Data Isolation
e.g. Ensure the Dar es Salaam branch manager only sees Purchase Orders raised by their own branch — never Nairobi's.
Audit Trail & Access Log Compliance
e.g. Produce a report showing every user who opened or printed a sensitive Salary Slip in the last quarter.
Two-Factor Authentication Safety
e.g. Require the CFO and system admin to confirm login with a TOTP code from their authenticator app.
Session Default Settings Smart
e.g. Automatically pre-fill the Company and Branch fields for every user based on their profile — saving dozens of daily clicks.
06
Reporting & Data

Answers, Not Just Numbers

Script Reports Analytics
e.g. Build an Ageing Receivables report with dynamic columns (0–30, 31–60, 60–90+ days) and interactive chart output.
Query Reports Analytics
e.g. Write a SQL report showing Top 20 Customers by Revenue this year, filterable by region.
Auto Email Reports Scheduled
e.g. Deliver the Daily Stock Summary to the warehouse manager's inbox every morning at 7:00 AM as an Excel attachment.
Data Import Migration
e.g. Upload 4,000 historical Customer records from a legacy system via CSV, with field mapping and error logging per row.
Prepared Reports (Async) Performance
e.g. Run a heavy Annual P&L Consolidation report in the background and get notified when it's ready to download.
SQL Recorder with Index Suggestions DevOps
e.g. Identify that a slow Stock Ledger report is missing an index on posting_date and add it with one click.
07
Integration & API

Connected to the Tools You Already Use

REST API (Auto-Generated) API
e.g. Let a mobile sales app fetch and create Sales Orders using standard HTTP calls — no custom API code needed.
Webhooks API
e.g. Instantly push new Payment Entries to a bank reconciliation service the moment they're submitted.
OAuth2 Provider Auth
e.g. Let a custom e-commerce portal log users in via your Frappe instance without sharing passwords.
Google Calendar Sync Google
e.g. Two-way sync Site Visit Events so field engineers see appointments in Google Calendar on their phones.
S3 / Dropbox Backups Infrastructure
e.g. Automatically push nightly database backups to an S3 bucket so data is safe even if the server fails.
LDAP / SSO Auth
e.g. Allow staff to log into the ERP using their existing company Active Directory credentials — no second password.
Integration Request Log Monitoring
e.g. See every outbound API call to the Payment Gateway — with request body, response, and status — for debugging failed transactions.
08
Customisation Without Code

Adapt the System as the Business Evolves

Custom Fields Extend
e.g. Add a TIN Number field to the standard Customer form without touching any source code or risking upgrades.
Customize Form (UI Override) Extend
e.g. Reorder fields on the Supplier form to put payment terms at the top — because that's what your team checks first.
Property Setters Smart
e.g. Make the Cost Centre field mandatory on all Journal Entries — without modifying the core DocType.
DocType Layout (Role-Based View) UX
e.g. Show warehouse staff a simplified Delivery Note layout with only the fields they need, while accountants see the full form.
Translations i18n
e.g. Display all field labels and status values in Swahili for local staff while keeping the system in English for management.
Tags Organise
e.g. Tag Customers with VIP, Credit Hold, or New Account for quick filtering across lists and reports.
09
Website & Customer Portal

Give Customers a Window Into Their Account

Web Forms Portal
e.g. Let clients submit a Service Request through a public URL that maps directly into the ERP — no email, no manual entry.
Customer Portal Portal
e.g. Allow customers to log in and view their own Open Invoices, Delivery Status, and Support Tickets in one place.
Web Pages & Blog Content
e.g. Publish a Product Catalogue page that pulls live stock data from the ERP and updates automatically.
Newsletter System Marketing
e.g. Send a monthly Promotions Newsletter to a segmented list of customers with unsubscribe tracking built in.
GDPR Data Requests Compliance
e.g. Let end users submit a Personal Data Download or Deletion Request through the portal, logged and tracked to compliance deadlines.
10
Infrastructure & Multi-Tenancy

Built to Scale From One Site to Many

Multi-Site Architecture Infrastructure
e.g. Run separate, fully isolated ERP instances for Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda operations on a single server — each with its own database.
System Health Report Monitoring
e.g. Get a single-screen view of queue depth, worker status, failing jobs, and DB table sizes before a slowdown becomes a crisis.
Background Job Queue (Redis) Performance
e.g. Process 1,000 Salary Slips in the background without locking the browser or making users wait.
Energy Point / Gamification System Engagement
e.g. Award points to sales reps for each Quotation converted to an order — fuel healthy competition on a live leaderboard.

Ready to replace five tools with one?

Frappe's 262 DocTypes aren't just a technical inventory — they represent years of real-world business logic, encoded and made freely available. For businesses in East Africa and beyond, this is infrastructure that was previously out of reach.

Aakvatech implements, customises, and supports Frappe and ERPNext for manufacturers, property managers, distributors, and service businesses across the region.

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