Compare the best ERP for steel fabrication in India: heat number tracking, job costing, nesting, job work under GST, cost and a 7-question demo checkl...
Quick answer: The best ERP for a steel fabrication company in India is one that tracks steel by weight and heat number, costs every job from drawing to dispatch, handles job work (galvanising, painting) under GST, and goes live in weeks, not months. Pothera ERP, Udyog ERP and Smaac are built for fabrication. SAP Business One, ERPNext and Tally need add-ons to do the same.
Updated: November 2026 · Written by Riya, Pothera ERP
Most fabrication owners we speak to say the same thing: the order book is growing, but the profit per tonne isn't. Usually the steel isn't the problem. The problem is that nobody can say, job by job, how much material went into scrap, how many hours went into rework, or why the last RA bill went out three weeks late.
This guide is for owners and plant heads of structural, PEB, sheet metal and heavy fabrication units who are moving off Excel and Tally, or replacing an ERP that never fit. It covers what to look for, how the main options in India compare, what it costs, and the questions to ask in a demo so you don't buy the wrong system.
Short on time? Book a 30-minute steel fabrication demo and we'll walk through your own drawings, heat numbers and job costing on Pothera ERP.
A fabricator doesn't make the same product twice. Every job has its own drawing, its own BOM and its own margin. Steel is bought in tonnes, issued in kg or metres, cut into parts, and the leftover pieces go back to stock as offcuts. A standard ERP that thinks in "units" and fixed BOMs loses track of all of this.
| What fabrication needs | Generic ERP | Fabrication ERP |
|---|---|---|
| Stock in kg, MT and pieces, with weight per metre by section | Single unit of measure | Dual units with automatic weight conversion |
| Heat number and mill test certificate (MTC) for each plate and section | Not available, or a free-text field | Heat-wise stock from purchase to dispatch |
| Job-wise costing (material, labour, consumables, job work) | Costing by product | Costing by job, project and tonne |
| Drawing and BOM revisions (Rev A, Rev B) | Fixed BOM | Revision control linked to the shop floor |
| Nesting, remnants and offcuts | Treated as scrap | Offcuts saved as usable stock with size and heat |
| Galvanising, painting and machining sent outside | Manual challans | Job work challans and ITC-04 under GST |
| Project billing (RA bills, per-tonne rates, erection) | Invoice per sales order | Milestone and tonnage-based billing |
Every plate, beam, angle and channel should be traceable by grade (for example IS 2062 E250 or E350), heat number and MTC. When a client or third-party inspector asks for traceability, you should be able to print it in minutes. See how this works in our guide to steel inventory tracking by heat and batch.
You should see estimated vs actual cost per job while there is still time to act, not after the invoice. That means material issued, man-hours, welding consumables, power and job work all booked against the job number.
Plate nesting decides most of your material yield. The ERP should either import nesting output from your CAD or nesting software or record cut lists, and then save usable remnants back to stock with their size, grade and heat number.
The shop floor must always cut from the latest revision. Look for revision history, approval steps, and a warning when production tries to use a superseded drawing.
Cutting, drilling, fit-up, welding, grinding, blasting, painting and dispatch. Each stage should show quantity and tonnage completed, so the owner can see bottlenecks without walking the yard. Read more on ERP for fabrication production planning.
Fit-up inspection, weld visual and NDT records, DFT readings after painting, and final dimensional checks, all linked to the job. See how ERP improves quality control in fabrication.
Material sent for galvanising or machining needs a job work challan, tracking of what came back and what was lost, and the ITC-04 return. This is one of the most common gaps in accounting-first software.
Steel prices move every week. The system should compare vendor rates, plan purchases from confirmed jobs (MRP), and flag when stock on hand can be used instead of buying fresh.
For structural and PEB work, billing is usually per tonne or by milestone (supply, fabrication, erection). The ERP should handle RA bills, retention and e-invoicing without a side spreadsheet.
Open orders by tonnage, jobs running late, margin by job, receivables and stock value. If the owner has to call three people to get these numbers, the ERP isn't doing its job.
Want to check your current system against this list? Ask for a free fabrication ERP gap review. We'll mark what you have, what's missing and what it costs to fix.
Below is a fair view of the options fabricators usually shortlist. Each vendor's details are from its own public website as of November 2026. Always verify in a demo.
| ERP | Best for | Fabrication strengths | Check before buying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pothera ERP (Bsquare Solutions, Noida) | Small and mid-size fabricators, steel processors and multi-site units | Heat and batch tracking, job costing, BOM revisions, job work, quality, MRP. Cloud, on-premise or hybrid. Typical go-live in 8 to 12 weeks. | Ask for a reference fabricator of your size and process type |
| Udyog ERP | Engineering and fabrication job shops | Covers fabrication from enquiry to dispatch, including nesting-driven consumption | Scope and pricing for your number of users and sites |
| Smaac Steel (Gurugram) | PEB and structural steel projects | Covers enquiry to erection for PEB projects | Depth of finance and multi-plant features |
| Vasy ERP | Steel manufacturing and trading on the cloud | Cloud-based steel manufacturing ERP with many standard reports | Fit for make-to-order fabrication vs repeat manufacturing |
| SAP Business One | Larger groups that want a global brand | Strong finance. Fabrication features come through partner add-ons. | Total cost of licence, add-ons and partner implementation |
| ERPNext | Teams with in-house IT that want open source | Flexible and low licence cost | Heat tracking, nesting and job work usually need custom development |
| Tally Prime + add-ons | Very small shops focused on accounts and GST | Familiar to accountants, good GST compliance | No real job costing, heat tracking or shop floor control |
Our view: if job costing and traceability are your main pain, shortlist only fabrication-specific ERPs. If you mainly need accounts and GST, Tally is enough for now, but plan the move before you cross roughly 20 to 30 active jobs a month.
Cost depends on four things: number of users, modules, number of plants or sites, and implementation scope (data migration from Tally or Excel, training, custom reports). Ask every vendor for a written quote that lists each of these separately so you can compare fairly.
For a full breakdown of each cost line and the hidden costs to watch for, read how much ERP costs for a steel fabrication company in India.
A vendor who answers all seven on screen, with your data, is worth shortlisting.
| Weeks | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Process study: yard visit, current Excel and Tally formats, drawing flow, job work vendors |
| 3 to 5 | Setup: item master by section and grade, BOM templates, approval flows, reports |
| 6 to 8 | Data migration (opening stock with heat numbers, open jobs, ledgers) and user training by department |
| 9 to 12 | Go-live, then parallel run and fine-tuning with our team |
Pothera ERP is used by metal and engineering manufacturers such as Durlum India (metal ceilings, wall claddings and lighting), Jagdev Engineering Solutions (Lalru, Punjab), Shri Tirupati Enterprises (continuous cast copper rods) and ZEP Infratech (telecom shelters).
The best choice is a fabrication-specific ERP that handles weight-based stock with heat numbers, job costing, drawing revisions and job work under GST. Pothera ERP, Udyog ERP and Smaac are built for this. SAP Business One, ERPNext and Tally need add-ons or customisation.
Tally handles accounting and GST well, but it doesn't track job costing, heat numbers, offcuts or shop floor stages. Most fabricators keep Tally for a while and move to a fabrication ERP as job volume grows.
A single-yard fabricator usually goes live in 8 to 12 weeks with Pothera ERP. Multi-plant units or heavy customisation can take longer.
A fabrication-ready ERP should store the heat number and mill test certificate for every plate and section, and carry them through cutting, offcuts and dispatch. Pothera ERP supports heat, batch and lot tracking.
Yes. A good fabrication ERP creates job work challans, tracks material sent and received back, records process loss and produces the ITC-04 return for GST.
Cloud ERP is safe when the vendor provides user-level access control, encrypted backups and an Indian data centre option. Pothera ERP is available on cloud, on-premise or hybrid, so you can choose.
Bring one recent job, with its drawing, BOM and the final invoice, to a 30-minute call. We'll rebuild it in Pothera ERP and show you the real cost and margin. Book your steel fabrication demo or check what ERP costs for a fabricator.
Related reading: ERP for steel fabrication: features that matter · What is steel fabrication? · ERP software for the steel industry