Finance

The finance and accounting module is the most important ERP module because it allows businesses to understand their current financial state and future outlook. Key features of this module include tracking accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) and managing the general ledger.

Procurement

The procurement module, also known as the purchasing module, helps an organization secure the materials or products it needs to manufacture and/or sell goods. Companies can keep a list of approved vendors in this module and tie those suppliers to certain items, helping with supplier relationship management.

Manufacturing

The earliest version of ERP, material requirements planning (MRP) systems, were designed for manufacturers, and manufacturing remains a key piece of ERP. Today, ERP systems typically have a production management or manufacturing execution system (MES).

Order Management

An order management module tracks orders from receipt to delivery. This piece of the ERP feeds all orders to the warehouse, distribution center or retail store after customers place them and tracks their status as they’re prepared, fulfilled and shipped to the customer.

Inventory Management

The inventory management module enables inventory control by tracking item quantities and location down to individual SKUs. This module offers a complete picture of not only current but also incoming inventory, through an integration with the procurement tool.

Warehouse Management

A warehouse management module can deliver a rapid return on investment for businesses that operate their own warehouses. This application can efficiently guide warehouse employees through all warehouse processes based on the layout of the facility, from putaway when shipments arrive to picking to packing and shipping.

Supply Chain Management

A supply chain management module tracks each step in the movement of supplies and goods throughout the supply chain, from sub-suppliers to suppliers to manufacturers to distributors to retailers or consumers.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The customer relationship management (CRM) module stores all customer and prospect information. That includes the company’s communication history with a person—the date and time of calls and emails, for example—and their purchase history.

Professional Services Automation

A professional services automation (PSA) module, also called a service resource management module, allows an organization to plan and manage projects. Services-based businesses often use this module.

Workforce Management

A workforce management module is similar to a human resource management module but is designed for companies with more hourly than salaried employees. It can monitor workers’ attendance and hours and measure things like employee productivity and absenteeism.

Human Resources Management

A human resource management (HRM) or human capital management (HCM) module usually encompasses all the features of a workforce management application and offers additional capabilities. HRM could be viewed as CRM for employees.

Ecommerce

Certain ERP vendors offer an ecommerce module for businesses that want to sell online. This module allows companies to quickly launch a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce website.

Marketing Automation

Like with ecommerce, certain software providers have developed a marketing automation module. A marketing module manages marketing campaigns across digital channels like email, web, social media and SMS.

SAP Financial Accounting (FI)

SAP Financial Accounting (SAP FI) module is the back bone of SAP accounting as it records financial transactions of all movements of goods, services and all other business transactions between the company and its customers and vendors.

SAP Controlling (CO)

SAP Controlling (CO) is another important SAP module offered to an organization. It supports coordination, monitoring, and optimization of all the processes in an organization.

SAP Sales and Distribution (SD)

SAP Sales and Distribution (SAP SD) is a core functional module in SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) that allows organizations to store and manage customer- and product-related data.

SAP Production Planning (PP)

Production Planning is the process of aligning demand with manufacturing capacity to create production and procurement schedules for finished products and component materials.

SAP Materials Management (MM)

SAP MM (Materials Management) is a module of the SAP ERP software package from SAP AG that is used for Procurement Handling and Inventory Management.

SAP Quality Management (QM)

SAP QM is an integral part of several key business processes of SAP like production, sales, procurement, material management, etc. It helps businesses to reduce defects, implement and conduct quality control programs, and continuously improve the business processes.

SAP Human Capital Management (HCM)

SAP human capital management (HCM) solutions provide strategic, innovative solutions for core HR and payroll, time and attendance, talent management, employee experience management.