A timber ERP is software that keeps the physical side of a timber business on one record: what came in on each consignment, what was sawn, what is in stock by species and size, and what left on which challan. It is not a replacement for Tally or your accountant’s software, and it is not a bigger spreadsheet. For most Indian traders, yards and mills, the useful question is not “ERP or no ERP” but where the line between the books and the yard should fall.
What a timber ERP has to count that a general ERP does not
Generic ERP and accounting packages are built around money and pieces: an item, a quantity, a rate. Timber is bought and sold differently, and the differences are exactly where stock goes wrong.
- Volume comes from measurement. A round log is measured by girth and length, and the quarter-girth (Hoppus) figure is the one most yards trade on. A log with a girth of 60 inches and a length of 12 feet is 60 x 60 x 12 / 2304 = 18.75 CFT, which is about 0.531 CBM.
- Two units live side by side. A supplier may quote in CBM while the yard sells in CFT. One CBM is 35.3147 CFT, so a vessel of 1,000 CBM is 35,314.7 CFT on paper before a single log is checked.
- Sawn stock is a grid. A plank 12 ft x 6 in x 2 in is 1 CFT (12 x 6 x 2 / 144), but the same CFT split across 4×2, 6×2 and 12×6 is not interchangeable when a customer wants a particular size.
- Logs change form. Purchased as a log, sawn into boards, sold as boards: the same wood appears three times unless something links the stages.
Our log CFT calculator shows the formulas if you want to check your own figures.
Where spreadsheets and Tally stop helping
Almost every timber business starts with a register and a spreadsheet, and many keep their stock as a quantity in accounting software. That works while one person remembers everything. It starts to fail at predictable points.
| Question on a busy day | Register or spreadsheet | Accounting software | Timber ERP |
|---|---|---|---|
| How much 4×2 is in the second yard? | Whoever updated last knows | A quantity per item, if it was posted | Live count by species, size and yard |
| Did the whole consignment reach the gate? | Counted by hand, days later | Not its job | Each lorry checked against the packing list |
| Which saw is losing the girth? | Not recorded | Not its job | Purchase against mill, per log and machine |
| Did this lorry leave with a challan? | Paper, checked later | Billing, after the fact | Challan scanned at the gate |
None of this means the books are wrong. It means they are fed by people copying numbers from a yard that moves faster than the register.
What to ask before you choose a timber ERP
- Does it measure the way you trade? Girth, length, hollow, CFT and CBM should be native, not a custom field.
- Can the gateman and the loader use it on a phone? If entry only happens in the office, the register problem has just moved to a screen.
- Does it check against the supplier’s list? A shortage found at the gate can be claimed. A shortage found at month end is a guess.
- Does one order lead to one loading list and one challan? The chain should leave no gap where a lorry can go out untracked.
- Does it sit beside your accounts? You should not have to move your GST and ledgers to adopt it.
- Can you try it on a real consignment? A demo on your own sizes and species tells you more than a feature list.
A small example of the gap
Take a consignment of 400 logs with a supplier’s list totalling 600 CBM. Your books show a purchase of 600 CBM, which is 21,188.8 CFT. If 12 logs never reach the gate, the books are still right about the invoice, and wrong about the stock. Nobody sees the difference until the yard runs short on a customer’s order, and by then the claim window may have closed. This is an example with made-up numbers, but the pattern is the one most yards recognise.
How Timbba does it
Timbba is the timber side of an ERP: consignments, stock, production, orders, dispatch and store, measured by species, size and CFT or CBM. The supplier’s packing list is loaded once and each lorry is checked against it at the gate. Stock changes as timber is received, sawn, adjusted and loaded, and an order becomes a loading list and then a challan that the gate scans before the lorry leaves. Accounts, GST and payroll stay in Tally or your own accounting software, and Timbba’s figures reach your accountant as Excel files. If you trade without sawing, Timbba for timber merchants keeps the sawing screens off; if you run a mill, the sawmill side adds purchase against mill, per log. The wider picture is on the timber management software page. Indian plans start at ₹6,250 a month, billed yearly.
Book a demo and we will walk one of your own consignments through it.
