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2. Setting up the partner's company
Back to the case study · Previous: 1. The deal · Next: 3. Planning the project
Nimbus runs its own business in OSERP: its consultants' time, its suppliers, its invoices and its projects. This chapter is the one-time set-up behind the project. If your company is already on OSERP, check each table against your own settings and move on.
2.1 The company
Administration > Company > Company Profile (or the setup wizard for a new company).
| Field | Entered | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Name / Legal name | Nimbus ERP Consulting Pvt Ltd | Printed on every invoice. |
| Country / State / City | India / Kerala / Kochi | The state decides whether a supplier's GST is IGST or CGST and SGST. |
| GST state code | 32 | Kerala's code, used for the place-of-supply split. |
| Base currency | INR | The currency every ledger balance is kept in. It cannot be changed once anything has posted. |
| Tax system | Indian GST (from the country) | |
| GSTIN / Tax label | 32AAHCN5521Q1Z6 / GSTIN | Printed on invoices. |
| Extra print line | Export of services under LUT, without payment of IGST | Required on every zero-rated export invoice. |
| Fiscal year starts | April | India's financial year. |
Administration > General Settings: switch on Projects, Budget, Cost centres, Payroll and Approvals. Projects must be on for the Projects menu to appear. Budget must be on for budget control.
2.2 The project manager's login
Administration > Users & Access > User Master: Meera Nair, with the Company Administrator role limited to this company. A role can be granted for one company, so a person who works in only one company sees only that company. See the Roles & Access panel on the user.
The other five people do not need full access. If they enter their own timesheets, they need a role holding the self-service permission Clock in and out for yourself (hr.attendance:self). This permission opens People & Payroll > Timesheet for their own hours only. Under Administration > Users & Access > Roles, duplicate the built-in Viewer role, add the permission, and name the copy Consultant.
2.3 The client
Business Partners > Partner Master > New:
| Field | Entered |
|---|---|
| Name | Klipvallei Wine Estates (Pty) Ltd |
| Type | Organization |
| Role | Customer (added for this company) |
| Country / City / Province | South Africa / Stellenbosch / Western Cape |
| Registration no. | 2009/014522/07 (the CIPC company number) |
| Email / Phone | accounts@klipvallei.test / +27 21 880 4410 |
| Preferred currency | INR, because the contract is priced in rupees |
A foreign customer and GST
A customer whose country is outside India puts the invoice outside the CGST/SGST split. Nimbus also sets Tax % = 0 on every billing line (chapter 4), because the invoices are zero-rated exports under LUT. The 0% must be deliberate. If it were left blank, the invoice would fall back to the company's standard rate.
2.4 The suppliers
The same screen, with the Vendor role. For an Indian supplier, the GSTIN and state code decide how its GST is split:
| Supplier | City / State | GSTIN | GST on its bill |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appforge Mobile Studio LLP | Bengaluru / Karnataka (29) | 29AAPFA1234K1Z3 | IGST 18% (another state) |
| Signalbird Messaging Pvt Ltd | Kochi / Kerala (32) | 32AACCS4321M1Z8 | CGST 9% + SGST 9% |
| Kestrel Security Labs Pvt Ltd | Thiruvananthapuram / Kerala (32) | 32AAHCK7788L1Z2 | CGST 9% + SGST 9% |
| Skyline Travel Services Pvt Ltd | Kochi / Kerala (32) | none | none (air fares and the stay passed on at cost) |
2.5 The people whose hours are costed
People & Payroll > Employees: one record per person, with an employment in this company and a designation. The employee record is what links a person's timesheet to a cost rate on a project. Somebody who is not an employee (a freelancer or a subcontractor) can still join a project team, but their hours cannot be booked, so their cost arrives through a supplier bill instead.
| Code | Name | Designation |
|---|---|---|
| NEC-001 | Meera Nair | Project manager |
| NEC-002 | Arjun Menon | Finance and tax consultant |
| NEC-003 | Kavya Pillai | Supply chain and production consultant |
| NEC-004 | Rahul Varma | Retail, POS and online shop consultant |
| NEC-005 | Sanjay Kurian | Technical and integration consultant |
| NEC-006 | Ananya Thomas | UI/UX consultant |
Salaries are not entered here. Payroll posts them to salary expense each month. The project receives each person's time at their cost rate, which is set on the project's team (chapter 3).
2.6 The website and the client portal
Nimbus's own website runs on OSCom, the same storefront it sells to clients. It doubles as the place where clients follow their projects.
- Ecommerce > Stores & Domains: a store for Nimbus's domain, currency INR, with Client portal switched on.
- Ecommerce > Templates: the Software & Solutions template. It is a company website rather than a shop, with products and services, "Request a demo", and a Client login in the header.
- Integrations > Notifications: an email gateway, so portal invitations and messages reach clients.
The client never sees cost, budget or margin. The portal reads its own short list of fields: progress, updates, documents, invoices and approvals. It does not reuse the staff screens.
What this chapter meant for the money
Three settings protect the money later. The export print line and the 0% tax keep the invoices compliant. The suppliers' GSTINs make their GST claimable as input credit. And because every consultant is an employee, their hours will be costed to the project.