So what's that?

WebERP (Website) is one of many solutions for businesses who want to take advantage of the huge amount of Open Source Enterprise software out there.  WebERP is basically a WEB-based "Enterprise Resource Planning" (ERP) software.  So in essence, if you want to run a manufacturing company on a limited budget (or just cost-efficiently) this piece of free software installed on a server running MySQL and using PHP is basically all you need.  Problem solved.  In our case, I set up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server, unpacked the tar file, logged into the web page and followed the instructions.  Simple.

Actually it is that simple.  

To explain, the installation is almost too easy.  You simply download the script from the website and unzip or untar it in the directory you wish to run it from.  There is an installer script which basically just walks you through the set up.  You set up a few permissions, set up a MySQL user and the rest is fairly automated.  

The system is pretty 'turn key' but if you know PHP you can modify it extensively to fit your needs even more.  (Open Source, remember?)  It has a built in themes system, or you can create your own.  Or you can also alter the CSS controls if you are real daring and want to completely customize the appearance. 

WebERP covers everything from Order Entry to Inventory as well as Billing and Time Management.  It is a complete solution.  While it is focused on manufacturing, as I said before, it is customizable.  Note, as with any unfamiliar software there is a learning curve, and implementation can be a bit time consuming if you are transitioning from another software package.  You will need to either key in your existing data or convert your data to the corresponding MySQL tables.  The conversion is usually not too difficult and there are many freelance programmers who are well versed in SQL (Structured Query Language) available to help. In our case, the data conversion for our customer file, process list and inventory took about a week.  

One bit of advice, store the SQL files you use to insert your data into the MySQL database so that the process can be repeated.  This affords you the opportunity to do a dry run or two where you can test the function of the software then set things back to your start point for implementation.

Also, a quick Google search will reveal several sites online that offer video training and additional documentation.