System Integration Consultant, India

Building the integration inventory for an Indian business

Integration work starts with a list, not with code. I document every system the business depends on, what data each one holds, and every way information currently moves between them, including the exports someone emails each evening and the figures typed from one screen into another.

For a typical Indian manufacturer or distributor, that inventory often includes:

• the ERP or Tally, plus any separate inventory or CRM tool
• the route used for e-invoices and e-way bills, whether built into the ERP or through a GST service provider
• corporate banking for vendor payments and statements
• payment gateways and UPI collection accounts
• marketplace seller panels and an online store
• courier aggregators or third-party warehouse systems
• a payroll or HR product that handles PF, ESI and professional tax
• a distributor management system or dealer portal

Each flow gets a line in the inventory with its trigger, direction, rough volume, business owner and the current fallback when it breaks. Together they produce a data flow diagram and a ranked list: flows that carry compliance risk, flows that waste the most staff time, and flows that can wait. It also exposes quick wins, such as a connector already included in a subscription that nobody switched on. The ranking then drives the integration plan and budget, which I set out in terms your finance head and implementation partner can both work with. The general method is described on my ERP integration page.

E-invoicing and e-way bills: designing for the exceptions

Generating an e-invoice for a clean domestic sale is the easy part, and almost every vendor can show it. The integration design has to cover what happens around that sale. I write requirements for the cases that cause trouble in practice:

• the government system is slow or unavailable at dispatch time, so the ERP must queue the request and show a clear status
• a document is rejected for a data error, such as a wrong GSTIN, pin code or HSN code, and the user needs a readable message rather than a raw error code
• an invoice is cancelled within the permitted window and reissued, and both documents must stay linked
• a credit note or debit note references the original invoice
• the vehicle changes partway through a journey and the e-way bill needs updating
• the business has GSTINs in several states, each with its own credentials

A central decision is the route itself. Some ERPs connect directly, others rely on a GST service provider, and some implementers bundle a third-party connector. I compare these on who holds the credentials, how errors are reported, how schema changes are handled and what each option costs to run. The tax treatment of each document remains a question for your chartered accountant; the integration only has to carry their decisions accurately. Testing uses the sandbox where one is available, followed by carefully controlled live documents before full cutover.

Bank files, UPI and payment gateway settlements

Money movements are where integration errors become expensive. On the payments side, Indian banks offer different routes: bulk upload files in the bank's own layout, host-to-host connections for larger account holders, and API banking for some account types. Which routes are available depends on your bank and relationship, so I confirm them early rather than assume. I also design where approvals sit, whether in the ERP, in the banking portal or in both, so a maker-checker control is not accidentally bypassed by an automated file.

Collections need a different design. UPI receipts, card payments and net banking transactions often reach the bank through a payment gateway that settles in batches, after deducting its fees and the tax on those fees. Matching a single bank credit to many customer invoices needs a reliable reference, such as an order number or virtual account, carried from the original transaction to the settlement report.

For each bank and gateway I specify the statement or settlement format, the matching keys, the treatment of fees, refunds and chargebacks, and what goes to an exception queue for a person to review. The aim is that receivables are current every morning without a spreadsheet in between. If you also need help with the commercial flows that create these receipts, the CRM consultant page for India covers the sales side.

Native connectors, middleware or custom code in an Indian setup

There is no single right method, and in India the choice is often shaped by the implementation market as much as by the technology. Many partners build custom apps or scripts for each client. That can work well, but it can also leave you dependent on one partner's code, held on their servers, with documentation that lives in a developer's head.

I compare the options for each flow:

Whatever is chosen, I ask that source code and configuration sit in accounts the business controls, that credentials belong to company users rather than individual developers, and that every interface has a written specification. My role covers the design, requirements, field mapping, review of the builder's approach and testing. The build itself is done by your developers, a freelance specialist or the implementation partner, as described on my system integration page.

Testing, monitoring and who owns the integrations after go-live

A connection that passes one happy-path record has proved very little. I test each flow against business scenarios: a normal order, a partial dispatch, a cancelled invoice, a refund through the gateway, a duplicate webhook, a lost connection and a record with missing data. Your accounts team then reconciles a sample of transactions across systems, because they will notice problems that a developer would not.

Monitoring is designed before go-live, not added after the first incident. Each interface gets an error queue, alerts to a named person rather than a shared inbox, and simple daily checks such as comparing invoice counts and totals between the ERP and the GST reports, or gateway settlements against bank credits.

Ownership is the question most Indian contracts leave vague. The annual maintenance agreement may cover the ERP but not the connectors, and statutory schema changes may be treated as new work. I make sure the contract or support agreement states who fixes each integration, how quickly, and who pays when a government format changes. A short runbook lists common failures and the steps to resolve them.

All of this is delivered remotely, with a site visit possible by arrangement for go-live if it genuinely helps. Testing fits within my ERP testing and UAT method. For other ways I support Indian businesses, see the India overview and my ERP consultant page for India.