The ERP5 Unified Business Model is used for accounting, warehouse management, production and human ressource management in ERP5. All features developed for one module are available in the other modules due to the unified vocabulary which is independent of specific business processes. ERP5's unified approach dramatically reduces the learning curve and reduces the risk of data inconsistencies over multiple modules.
This model is based on five classes :
Resource : a resource describes an abstract resource in a business process like a raw material, a product, a currency or an individual's skill.
Node : a node can receive and send resources. It can relate to physical entities such as a workshop or to abstract entities such as a bank account.
Movement : a movement describes a movement of resources between two nodes at a given time and for a given duration. For example, a movement might send raw material from a warehouse to a workshop or money from one account to another.
Item : an item is a physical instance of a resource. A movement can be expanded into a series of traceable movements through items. Items are typically used to handle serial numbers.
Path : a path defines a way for a node to access a resource it might need. Prices and commercial profiles can be attached to a path to define the default price for a given resource procured by a given maker.
ERP5's design is based on a documentary approach and on the classification of documents. All business information is managed in dedicated documents, just as it used to be a long time ago with paper and folders : Purchase Invoice, Sale Invoice, Person, Product, etc. Categorisation of documents in multiple categories provides the base for reporting and aggregating information. Complex organisations are described as hierarchies of groups, sites, functions, roles, etc. Thanks to this design, a single ERP5 instance can manage a group of companies structured in subsidiaries, representation offices, business units and partner companies, distributed all over the world with exclusive permissions on sensitive documents.
ERP5 is a Simulation based ERP. All future consequences of every business decision are calculated in real time according to configurable business rules and made available to reporting. MRP is an example of a simple application of ERP5's simulation based approach. ERP5 simulation rules can be extended to cover new functional areas.