ERPNext is the only 100% open-source ERP with ZERO licensing cost. It directly competes with costlier offerings like SAP B1 and Oracle NetSuite in the SME ERP space. Frappe Technologies, the company behind ERPNext, along with the community, brings a new release each year and the same has is about to happen this year as well.
ERPNext version 16 is just around the corner and we tried our hands on its latest beta release recently and decided to share the most important features with our readers.
Let’s explore the top 5 features in ERPNext version 16
1. Stock Reservation in Production Plan: Say Goodbye to Stock-Out Surprises
The new Stock Reservation tool in the Production Plan is a lifesaver for anyone running a manufacturing business. In previous versions of ERPNext, you could see what stock you had, but you couldn’t actually reserve those materials for a specific production plan. This meant one team might check the shelf, see the parts, but then another team could use them up before your scheduled production began—major headaches! ERPNext v16 fixes this by letting you reserve or unreserve the materials you need right in the Production Plan. This makes sure that the material you plan to use are actually there when your team is ready to start work. Less waiting, fewer mix-ups, and production goes much smoother!
2. Company-Specific Manufacturing Warehouses: End of the Global Bottleneck
This is a great improvement for companies that own more than one business or have many
manufacturing units. In earlier versions, the user had to use “Manufacturing Settings” to set various production related warehouses like Work In Progress, Finished Goods and Scrap Warehouses. If you had
different companies, they all had to share these same warehouses, which was not very user friendly. Now, the system allows each company set up its own default manufacturing warehouses separately. This is a huge win for keeping things separate, clean, and correct. It makes running multiple manufacturing companies much easier without mixing up your material locations.
3. Streamlining Outbound Subcontracting with Material Requests
Dealing with subcontracting just got much faster and tidier! In previous versions, including v15,
sending materials to a subcontractor often meant creating a Material Request and then
manually making a Purchase Order (PO) to pay for the service. ERPNext v16 adds a clear
“Subcontracting” choice to the Purpose field in Material Request. The best part? After you ask for the materials, a quick “Create” button appears, which automatically makes the Purchase Order for the subcontractor. This PO already has the correct service item pulled from your product’s Bill of Materials (BOM). It cuts out manual document creation and makes sure you pay for the right service every single time—a much more reliable way to handle subcontracting orders!
4. Introducing “Subcontracting Inward”: Mastering Customer-Supplied Materials
This is a major upgrade for manufacturing businesses that do work using materials supplied by their customers. Previous versions only focused on sending materials out for subcontracting. ERPNext v16 now has Subcontracted Sales Order and Subcontracting Inward Order to manage materials (raw materials) that are customer provided. Before this, tracking the customer-provided materials was complicated and could change your stock value to unwanted values. ERPNext v16 now has special stock entries that let you reserve the customer’s stock, manage the production work, and correctly track the finished product when its delivered, along with the right service invoice. If your business takes on contract jobs, this tool gives you a clear and accurate way to manage all that “borrowed” inventory.
5. Half-Day Holidays: The Small Feature with a Big HR Impact
Finally, a simple fix to a common HR puzzle! In older ERPNext versions, like v15, a holiday was
just a full day off. If your company decided to give employees a half-day holiday (like on
Christmas Eve), the HR team had to manually change with attendance and do calculations to get
it right. Now, when setting up the Holiday List, you now have to just check the “Is Half Day” box. That’s it! The system automatically knows it’s only half a day. This small change makes leave requests,
checking who showed up, and processing payroll much more accurate for those days, saving HR staff a ton of manual work and ensuring everyone gets paid correctly.
Conclusion:
ERPNext v16 isn’t just an update—it’s a major step toward effortless efficiency. By introducing Stock Reservation, Company-Specific Warehouses, and streamlined Subcontracting (both inbound and outbound), this version solves complex manufacturing problems with simple, automated workflows. Add the precise control of Half-Day Holidays in Frappe HR v16, and you have a system built for clarity and growth.
ERPNext v16 is set to release in January first week with release candidates already out and ready to be tested.
Your manufacturing business deserves to be more organized in 2026. Upgrade your manual and out-dated systems to ERPNext today and enjoy the freedom you always wanted. Reach out to us on sales@citrusleaf.in and get a free demo today.