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How to use ERPNext at LuluLocal

1Where things live right now

Three systems, each with one job. Knowing which one owns what saves most of the confusion.

ERPNext reads from the website but does not write to it. Nothing you do in ERPNext can change what a customer sees on lululocal.co.za.

2Five rules for now

1. Website stock is still changed in Shopify, by hand. When a corporate order uses website stock, reduce it in Shopify as you do today. If the order is a job in ERPNext (section 7), the job is the record: do not also put it on the manual adjustments sheet, or the stock comes off ERPNext twice. Only orders that are not jobs go on the sheet.
2. Invoices go in Xero. Do not raise invoices in ERPNext yet. Quotes are made in ERPNext; the invoice is made in Xero.
3. Website orders are handled in Shopify. Fulfil, cancel and refund there as usual. ERPNext follows on its own. Never edit or cancel a website order inside ERPNext.
4. Every new product needs its own SKU. Keep creating products in Shopify. Give every variant a SKU that has never been used before. Without one, ERPNext cannot match the product when it sells.
5. If in doubt, do not delete. Most mistakes can be undone. A deletion usually cannot. Ask first.

3Signing in

1. Go to lululocal.jh.frappe.cloud and bookmark it. It works on a phone as well.
2. Type your work email and password. If you do not have a password yet, choose Login with email link. A link arrives by email and works for 30 minutes.
3. Forgot your password? Choose Forgot password. That link lasts three days.
4. Once signed in, you land on the Lulu home page.

4The Lulu home page

A plain page with the day's numbers and the things you use. You should rarely need anything else.

Open Lulu home

Today

Orders today	Website orders that arrived today.
To pick and send	Orders not yet sent. Turns amber when there are any.
Quotes open	Quotes sent and waiting for an answer.
Orders that failed	Website orders that did not come through in the last week. Should be zero. Red means tell Craig.

What do you want to do?

Tiles for every everyday job: count stock, build a quote, website orders, jobs, quotes, stock on hand, products, customers and suppliers. Click one to go straight there.

Needs a look

A short list of things worth fixing, such as orders waiting more than three days, products with no cost price, or negative stock. When it says "Nothing needs your attention", you are done.

5Building a quote

One screen, top to bottom. The quote is saved in ERPNext with a QC number and a PDF on your letterhead.

Open the quote builder

1. Client. Start typing the company name and pick it from the list. If they are new, choose + New customer. Add their PO or reference if they gave one. "Valid until" defaults to two weeks.
2. Website gift boxes. The boxes on lululocal.co.za. Find one by typing part of its name, or pick a price band. Press Add to quote, set how many boxes, and use Photo to show the client your own picture instead of the website's. Its contents come from the website automatically.
3. Custom curation. For a box made for this client: name it, set how many boxes and the price per box excluding VAT, then add the contents.
   • From stock: type part of the name or code and pick it.
   • Not in stock yet: use "Add a sourced item" with the supplier, cost and selling price. ERPNext creates the product and supplier so it can be ordered if the client says yes.
   Packaging is costed inside the box price, so do not add it as a separate line.
4. Delivery. Describe the arrangement and choose To be advised, Client collects or Quoted now with an amount excluding VAT.
5. Extras. Engraving, branding, printed tags and anything else with its own price.
6. On this quote. Everything you have added, gift boxes, curation, delivery and extras, with the price of each. Use Remove to take anything off.
7. Look and notes. Choose the layout and check the note that prints on the quote.

Layout	Use it for
Quick	The everyday email reply: a photo of each box, what is inside, and the totals.
Presentation	Showing a client options. Each option gets its own page with pictures.
Formal	When procurement needs a PO-ready document. Looks like the old QuickBooks quote.

Press Create quote. You get the quote number, a Preview the PDF link and a link to open the quote in the desk. If you close the preview, open the quote and use Quote PDF (see section 6).

6After the quote

Check and change it

A new quote is a draft, so you can still change anything. Open it from Quotes, edit the lines or prices, and press Save.

Make it final

When it is ready to go, press Submit. The status changes to Open and the quote is locked. To change a submitted quote, use Cancel then Amend. That makes a new version and keeps the old one for the record.

See the PDF again, or change its look

Open the quote from Quotes. At the top is a Quote PDF button:

• View opens the PDF in a new tab, in the layout chosen for this quote.
• Download saves the PDF, ready to attach to an email.
• Change layout switches between Quick, Presentation and Formal and shows the new PDF. This works on a submitted quote too, because the layout only changes how it looks, not what is quoted.

The Lead time on the quote can also be changed after it is submitted.

Send it

1. On the quote, press Quote PDF then Download.
2. Attach it to an email from your own mailbox.

Keep track

The Quote board shows every quote in columns by stage, so you can see what is waiting at a glance.

When the client says yes, or no

Yes: turn it into a job. See Running a corporate job below.

No: press Set as Lost and give a reason. Over time this shows why quotes do not convert.

7Running a corporate job

From the accepted quote to stock on the shelf, ready to pack. The job (a sales order) is the job card: there is no separate one to make.

1. Quote to job

1. Open the submitted quote and press Create then Sales Order.
2. Fill in Date required: the day the stock must be ready. It shows on the job card and on the Stock to order page.
3. Add the client's PO number if they gave one, press Save, then Submit.

2. Choose where each product comes from

On the submitted job, the Job card panel lists every product the job needs. A gift box or curation is broken into what goes inside it, so 30 boxes of 8 products shows 8 lines of 30. For each line press one of:

The Job card menu at the top has Set the rest to From Shopify and Set the rest to To order to do all the remaining lines at once.

3. Allocate from Shopify

Press Job card then Allocate from Shopify. ERPNext moves those products from Website stock to Corporate stock, so they are put aside for this job. If the website has too few, it takes what there is and tells you what is short. Allocate again when more arrives, or switch that line to To order.

4. Order from suppliers

Open Stock to order

Every To order line from every job is here, grouped by supplier and then by customer.

1. Under one supplier, tick the lines going on this order.
2. Press Create purchase order. You get a PO number and a link to print or email it.
3. If a product has no supplier yet (often the ones sourced for a quote), it sits under No supplier on the product. Type the supplier in the box there before you order.

Website stock: use Order stock for the website at the top of the page. Those lines show under the customer Website (Shopify) and can go on the same purchase order as job lines.

5. When stock arrives

1. On Stock to order, type the PO number under Stock arrived and press Show what's on it.
2. Change any quantity that did not all arrive, then press Book this stock in.

Job stock goes into Corporate; website stock goes into Website. Anything still to come stays on the order and can be booked in later.

The colours

To order	Needs buying. No purchase order yet.
Ordered	On a purchase order, not all arrived. "Ordered · 20 in" means part has come.
Received	All arrived. It drops off the To order list.
Allocated from Shopify	Taken from website stock and put aside for this job.
Choose / Not allocated yet	Still needs a decision, or still to be allocated.

6. Pack, print, invoice

Press Job card then Print job card for a checklist with a tick box per product and its status. The invoice is still raised in Xero. Put the Xero invoice number in Xero invoice no. on the job so the two can be matched.

8Counting and receiving stock

One screen for both jobs. Made for a phone in one hand while you walk the shelves.

Open the stock screen

1. Choose what you are doing:
   • I am counting: the number you type replaces what the system thinks is there.
   • Stock has arrived: the number you type is added to what is there.
2. Choose Where: Website stock or Held for corporate jobs. Check the date.
3. Find a product by typing part of its name or its SKU. It shows what the system thinks you have.
4. Type the quantity. If the product has no cost price, a cost box appears. Fill it in while you are there.
5. Add as many products as you like, then press Save once.

9Website orders

Every Shopify order arrives in ERPNext within a minute or two, as a job with the right products and VAT. Nothing is needed from you.

Open website orders

The page shows whether the website is connected, the last 30 days of orders side by side with what Shopify says, and the latest sync activity.

Green	Done.
Amber	Still being processed. Normally clears within a minute.
Red	An order that did not come through, and why. Tell Craig.
Grey	Routine messages from the connection. Ignore them.

Gift boxes sold on the website come in as the products inside them, so stock comes off the components, not the box.

10Finding things

Products	Every product, searchable by name or SKU. Shows prices, cost, supplier and photo.
Stock on hand	What you have and where: Website, Corporate, held for orders and available. Search by name or SKU, filter for running low or no cost price, and click a product to see every movement. "Download for Excel" saves the list.
Customers	Corporate clients from QuickBooks, plus website buyers as they order.
Suppliers	Who you buy from, with contact details.
Jobs	Website orders now, and corporate jobs once we start them.

11Asking Claude about ERPNext

Claude can read ERPNext for you. Ask in plain words, such as "how many of PEP-LL-0091-05 do we have?" or "which website orders haven't gone out?", and it looks up the live numbers. It signs in as you, so it sees exactly what you see in ERPNext and nothing more.

About the Claude connector

What you need

• A Claude account at claude.ai. The website, the desktop app and the phone app all work.
• Your normal ERPNext email and password (section 3).
• On a Claude Team plan, an owner adds the connector once for everyone in Organisation settings → Connectors. Each person then just presses Connect, from step 4 below.

Setting it up, once

Do this on a computer at claude.ai or in the Claude desktop app. It takes about two minutes. Once connected, it works in the phone app too.

1. Click your name at the bottom left, then Settings, then Connectors.
2. Press Add custom connector. Name it LuluLocal ERPNext.
3. For the URL, paste this address exactly, with /mcp on the end:
   https://lulu.2nth.app/mcpCopy
   Press Add.
4. Press Connect next to LuluLocal ERPNext. The ERPNext sign-in page opens. Sign in with your usual ERPNext email and password.
5. ERPNext asks Confirm Access. Press Allow. You are taken back to Claude, and the connector shows as connected.

Using it

1. Start a new chat. Under the + button (or the tools icon) by the message box, check that LuluLocal ERPNext is switched on.
2. Ask your question in plain words. Naming a product, SKU, customer or quote number helps.
3. The first time Claude uses a tool, it asks your permission. For looking things up, Allow always is fine. For anything that creates a draft, choose Allow once so you see each one.

Good things to ask

• How many PEP-LL-0091-05 do we have, and how much is held for orders?
• What's running low on the website? Show me anything with 2 or fewer.
• Why did the stock of TTC-ST-0212-01 drop this week?
• Which website orders from the last three days haven't been sent yet?
• Find me gift boxes under R350 incl VAT with something sweet in them.
• Which quotes are still open, and for which clients?
• Draft a quote for [client] for 40 gift boxes around R400 each, valid for two weeks.
• Which products have no cost price?

What it can and cannot do

If something goes wrong

"Couldn't finish connecting"	Check the URL ends in /mcp. Remove the connector, add it again and press Connect.
Claude says to reconnect	Your sign-in has run out. In Settings → Connectors, press Connect again and sign in.
"Not permitted" or 403	Your ERPNext login is not allowed to see that. Ask Craig if you need it.
Claude doesn't look anything up	Check the connector is switched on for this chat (the + menu), or say "use LuluLocal ERPNext".
A number looks wrong	Check it on the Stock on hand page. Claude reads the same figures, so if they differ, send Craig a screenshot of both.

Switching it off

In Claude, go to Settings → Connectors and disconnect or remove LuluLocal ERPNext. To cut off access from the ERPNext side, for example on a lost laptop, ask Craig to revoke your Claude sign-in. Your ERPNext password is not affected either way.

12What comes next

The stock you counted on 7 October is in ERPNext: 10,600 units in Website stock and 275 Amrod units in Corporate. Every morning we compare ERPNext's stock with Shopify's and explain each difference. The adjustment note from rule 1 is what keeps that quick.

When the two agree for five trading days in a row, corporate holds behave correctly, and someone at LuluLocal owns the morning check, we switch on the stock link. From then on ERPNext keeps the website stock up to date, and the manual adjustments and notes from rule 1 stop. No date is promised: it happens when the evidence says it is safe, and we decide together.

13Words you will see

Job / Sales Order	An order to fulfil. Website orders become jobs automatically; corporate jobs are made from a quote. The job is also the job card.
Purchase order (PO)	An order to a supplier, made on the Stock to order page.
SKU / Item code	A product's unique code, such as PEP-LL-0091-05. In ERPNext the item code is the SKU.
Website stock	Stock available to sell online. The Website warehouse.
Held for corporate	Stock set aside for corporate jobs. The Corporate warehouse.
Draft	Saved but not final. Can be changed freely.
Submitted	Final and locked. Change it with Cancel then Amend.
Desk	The full ERPNext system behind the Lulu pages.
Recipe / Product Bundle	The list of products inside a gift box.

14Help

Stuck, or something looks wrong? Take a screenshot and send it to Craig Leppan: craig@2nth.ai or 082 875 8049. A screenshot with the quote, order or product number in it is the fastest way to a fix.

We walk through all of this together on Friday 9 October. Bring the questions.