The problem: every panel is a small project
An electrical panel shop does not sell from a catalogue. A customer sends a single-line diagram, a GA drawing or a photo of an old panel, and expects a price in days. Then the order has to be engineered, bought, built, tested and delivered — usually against a deadline set by someone else’s project.
In most panel shops this runs across disconnected tools:
- BOMs and costing in Excel, rebuilt for each enquiry.
- Supplier price lists as PDFs in someone’s inbox, out of date by the time they are used.
- Purchase raised from memory of what the job needs.
- Job status tracked on a whiteboard or a WhatsApp group.
- Invoicing and GST in an accounting package that knows nothing about the job.
The result is slow quotes, missed components, material bought twice and margins nobody can confirm. We have written about why this happens in Why generic ERPs fail electrical panel manufacturers.
How the panel business works
Whether you build distribution boards, MCC panels, APFC panels, VFD panels or PCC and AMF panels, the flow is similar:
- Enquiry with a drawing, specification or photo.
- Estimation — a BOM of switchgear, enclosures, busbar, cabling and accessories, priced from current supplier rates in the brand the customer wants.
- Quotation with GST, often revised several times.
- Order — the accepted quotation becomes a sales order.
- Material — check stock, raise requisitions for shortages, place POs and receive goods.
- Production — fabrication, assembly and wiring against a work order.
- Testing and QC before dispatch.
- Dispatch and invoice — delivery note, GST tax invoice and collection.
What to look for in panel builder ERP
- BOM templates for panel types, with brand tiers, charges and margin.
- Help reading drawings and specs, without trusting AI blindly.
- Current supplier prices that are easy to import and update.
- Sales orders that drive material: shortages straight to requisitions.
- Purchase discipline — PO approval, goods receipt and a three-way match before paying suppliers.
- Job tracking on the floor, with QC that actually blocks dispatch.
- GST invoicing with HSN, correct CGST/SGST or IGST and clean numbering.
Questions to ask in a demo
- Show me a quotation built from one of my own drawings. Which lines did the system get wrong, and how did it tell me?
- When a supplier’s price list changes, how do I update a few hundred prices without editing them one at a time?
- An order is confirmed. How do I see which components are short and raise purchases for them?
- Can a panel be dispatched before QC passes?
- What happens to the invoice number sequence when two people raise invoices at the same time?
How Zaptiz Electrical runs a panel shop
Zaptiz Electrical is built around that flow.
Leads and quotations
A drag-and-drop lead pipeline with custom stages, win probability and a weighted forecast. Each lead has a workspace holding its timeline, tasks, drawings, BOMs and quotations. My Day lists overdue and upcoming follow-ups and deals with no next step.
BOMs from drawings, photos or text
The BOM Generator has templates for DB, MCC, APFC, VFD, AMF and other panels, with brand tiers, charges and margin. The drawing analyser reads PDF and image drawings and marks every line matched, needs review or no match — you confirm. Photo analysis turns a picture of an existing panel into a component list priced across low, mid and premium tiers. Panel Design Studio lets you trace and measure on a drawing and count components with AI detection. See Panel BOM software for more detail.
Quotations and price lists
Quotations carry per-line GST and discounts, a missing-price guard that warns about ₹0 lines, and 12 print layouts; send them by print, email or WhatsApp and convert to a sales order. Supplier price lists can be imported from PDF, Excel or a photo, and prices bulk-edited with a dry-run preview.
Purchase and stores
Sales orders show material readiness and send shortages to requisitions. Requisitions carry a supplier per line and convert to POs by vendor. Confirming a GRN is the single, auditable way stock enters. Supplier invoices are matched across PO, GRN and invoice. Inventory supports multiple warehouses, reservations against jobs, transfers and reorder levels. The guide Purchase to stock in Zaptiz Electrical walks through it.
Production, QC and dispatch
Jobs are created from sales orders with a BOM, and work orders follow automatically, with material issue. A shop-floor board shows live job status, with job cards for printing. The QC checklist records pass, fail and rework, and dispatch is blocked until QC passes. Delivery notes carry transport details and the invoice can be raised straight from the delivery.
Finance
GST invoices with CGST/SGST/IGST and HSN, gap-free numbering per financial year, proforma invoices, Pay-Now links through your own Razorpay or Stripe, TDS/TCS on sales invoices, receivables ageing, and P&L, balance sheet, cash flow and trial balance.
What it does not do
No DWG/DXF reading, no Tally connector, no e-invoice (IRN) or e-way bill generation, and no batch or serial-number tracking.
Get started
Start the 9-day free trial — no card needed — and build one real quotation from a recent enquiry. Book a demo for a walkthrough, or compare plans on the pricing page.