DEV Community: DipanshuTech

Building a Field Sales App for Indian Distributors: Features That Matter

DipanshuTech — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 01:33:09 +0000

Distributors and FMCG companies often have sales reps visiting 20-40 retailers a day. A field sales app replaces paper order books and WhatsApp photos with structured data.

Must-have features

Beat planning: daily routes assigned to each rep, with retailer lists.
GPS check-in: visit proof with location and time.
Order booking offline: reps often work in low-network areas, so orders must sync later.
Scheme and price lists: current discounts applied automatically.
Collections: record payments and outstanding balances per retailer.
Manager dashboard: visits, orders and collections by rep, in real time.

Nice to have

Retailer photos, stock checks at shelf, WhatsApp order confirmations, and ERP/Tally sync.

Build or buy?

Off-the-shelf apps work for standard flows. If you have unique schemes, multi-level distribution or need deep ERP integration, a custom app often pays back within a year.

DipanshuTech builds field sales and distribution apps for Indian businesses.

How to Plan an HRMS and Payroll Rollout for a 50-Person Company in India

DipanshuTech — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:22:52 +0000

Moving HR and payroll out of spreadsheets is one of the highest-return software projects a growing company can take on. It is also one of the easiest to get wrong, because payroll mistakes hit people's bank accounts. Here is a practical rollout plan that works for teams of roughly 30 to 150 employees.

1. Fix your master data first

Before choosing any tool, clean up the basics: employee codes, joining dates, departments, reporting managers, bank details, PAN, UAN and ESIC numbers. Most payroll errors after go-live come from bad master data, not bad software.

2. Write down your salary structure

List every component you pay: basic, HRA, special allowance, conveyance, bonus, overtime, incentives, and every deduction (PF, ESI, professional tax, TDS, loans, advances). Note which components are fixed and which change monthly. This document becomes the spec for configuration.

3. Decide what attendance feeds payroll

Will attendance come from biometric devices, a mobile app with geo-tagging, or manager approval? Decide leave types, carry-forward rules and late-mark policies now. Payroll is only as accurate as the attendance data behind it.

4. Run parallel payroll for two months

Never switch over in one go. Run the new system alongside your old sheet for at least two cycles and compare every payslip. Investigate every difference, even small ones. When two months match, you can retire the spreadsheet with confidence.

5. Give employees self-service early

Payslips, leave balances, tax declarations and reimbursement claims in a self-service portal remove a huge share of HR's daily questions. Launch it in the first month so people get used to it.

6. Plan statutory reports

Make sure the system produces PF ECR files, ESI contribution data, professional tax summaries and Form 16 without manual edits. Test them before the first filing date, not on it.

Off-the-shelf or custom?

Ready-made HRMS products work well when your policies are standard. If you have multiple locations, shift-based pay, piece-rate workers or unusual incentive rules, a custom or customised HRMS usually pays for itself quickly. Teams like DipanshuTech build HRMS and payroll systems around a company's actual policies rather than forcing the policies to fit the software.

Whatever you choose, the order matters: clean data, documented rules, parallel runs, then go-live.

Custom ERP vs Off-the-Shelf ERP: A Practical Checklist for Small Indian Businesses

DipanshuTech — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 01:16:47 +0000

Most small and mid-sized businesses in India hit the same wall around 20–50 employees: Excel sheets, WhatsApp groups and a Tally file stop talking to each other. Stock numbers don't match, invoices go out late, and the owner spends evenings reconciling data instead of growing the business.

The obvious fix is an ERP. The hard question is which kind: a ready-made product (Odoo, Zoho, SAP Business One, ERPNext) or a custom ERP built around your workflow. Here is a checklist we use when advising clients.

1. Map your processes before you look at software

Write down how an order actually moves today: enquiry → quotation → order → purchase → production or dispatch → invoice → payment follow-up. Note who touches each step and where data is re-typed.

If 80% of your flow looks like a "standard" trading or services business, an off-the-shelf ERP will probably fit. If your margins come from something unusual (job-work tracking, multi-stage manufacturing, batch-wise pricing, field teams), that is where generic tools start forcing workarounds.

2. Count the real cost over 3 years, not the first invoice

Ready-made ERPs look cheap per user per month. Add up:

Licences × users × 36 months
Implementation partner fees
Paid add-ons for GST e-invoicing, e-way bills, WhatsApp alerts, mobile apps
Customisation that breaks on every major upgrade

A custom ERP has a higher upfront cost but no per-user licence. For a 40-user company the lines often cross somewhere in year two or three.

3. Check Indian compliance on day one

Whatever you pick must handle GST returns, e-invoicing, e-way bills and TDS without manual exports. Ask for a live demo of these with your own sample data, not slides.

4. Insist on integrations you already use

Tally (for your CA), payment gateways like Razorpay, WhatsApp Business API, and your website or ecommerce store. An ERP that can't push and pull data from these just creates one more silo.

5. Plan for mobile and offline

Sales teams, warehouse staff and site supervisors work on phones, often with weak networks. A mobile app with offline sync matters more than a beautiful desktop dashboard.

6. Own your data

Make sure you can export everything (masters, transactions, documents) in a usable format at any time. With custom software, ask for the source code and database ownership in the contract.

7. Start small, then expand

The most successful rollouts we've seen start with one module, usually inventory + billing or CRM, run it for 6–8 weeks, then add HR/payroll, production or accounts. Big-bang launches fail mostly because people stop using the system.

Quick decision rule

Standard workflow, under 15 users, tight budget → start with a ready-made ERP.
Unique workflow, 25+ users, plans to scale or sell to other businesses → custom ERP is usually worth it.
Somewhere in between → a ready-made core with custom modules on top.

I work with the team at DipanshuTech, where we build custom ERP, CRM and HRMS software for growing businesses in India. Happy to answer questions in the comments about choosing or migrating an ERP.