Before you buy a wire and cable ERP, ask 25 questions across six areas: inventory (lengths, drums and remnants), costing (metal price, yield and cost per km), production, quality and traceability, compliance and finance, and implementation. Ask the vendor to answer each one live in a demo, using one of your own products, and score the answers from 0 to 2. Pothera ERP, built by Bsquare Solutions, is one of the options you can test with this checklist.
Why do wire and cable manufacturers need a special ERP checklist?
Because generic ERP checklists ask about modules, not about the things that make cable plants hard to run: length-based stock, metal price swings, multi-stage yield and drum tracking. A cable moves through drawing, annealing, bunching, insulation, lay-up, armouring and sheathing. Material is bought by weight, made into lengths, cut, and sold by the metre, the kilometre or the drum. A system that cannot follow this chain will give you wrong stock and wrong costs.
How do you use this checklist?
Follow four steps.
- Pick one real product, such as a 3-core armoured cable or a house wire.
- Send it to each vendor before the demo.
- Ask the vendor to answer each question live, on screen, not in slides.
- Score each answer: 0 = not available, 1 = available with customisation or workaround, 2 = works as standard in the demo.
Section 1: Inventory and materials (questions 1 to 6)
- Can the system hold stock in both weight and length (for example kg and metres), and convert between them for each cable size?
- Does it track drums and reels individually, with length, weight and location?
- How does it handle cut lengths and remnants, so leftover pieces stay visible and usable?
- Can you trace raw material batches (copper, aluminium, PVC, XLPE) to the finished drum?
- Does it support multiple units of measure in one item, with conversion rules, without manual calculation?
- Can it manage stock across several warehouses and plants, with transfers and live balances?
Ask to see this on Pothera’s inventory management module or any other vendor’s equivalent, using one drum from your own stock.
Section 2: Costing and metal price (questions 7 to 12)
- How does the system handle copper and aluminium price changes: at purchase rate, at issue rate or at the day’s market rate?
- Does it record yield and scrap at each stage (drawing, insulation, lay-up, armouring, sheathing), not just at the end?
- Can it show cost per kilometre or per metre for each product?
- How does it value scrap and recovered metal, and credit it back to the cost?
- Can it allocate power, labour and overheads to products in a way you can defend?
- Can it prepare quotations and tender costs from the same cost data?
Illustrative example (not actual client data) of why question 7 matters:
| Item | Value |
| Copper in 1 km of cable | 100 kg |
| Copper rate when bought | ₹820 per kg |
| Copper rate when the cable is sold | ₹860 per kg |
| Cost if booked at purchase rate | ₹82,000 |
| Cost if booked at selling-day rate | ₹86,000 |
| Difference per km | ₹4,000 |
(100 × ₹820 = ₹82,000; 100 × ₹860 = ₹86,000.) On 50 km, that is ₹2,00,000 of margin that depends on which rate your ERP uses. The figures are assumptions for explanation.
Section 3: Production and planning (questions 13 to 16)
- Can you define a multi-stage bill of materials and routing for each cable, with each stage’s input and output?
- Can it plan and schedule by machine, using orders, material and capacity together?
- Can you see work in progress between stages, such as drawn wire waiting for insulation?
- Does it handle job work and subcontracting, with material sent out and received back?
Use Pothera’s production and planning management as a reference point when you ask vendors to show the same flow for your cable.
Section 4: Quality and traceability (questions 17 to 20)
- Does it store test results against each batch or drum?
- Can it generate test certificates for customers from those results?
- How does it record rejections and rework, and show their cost?
- Can you trace a dispatched drum back to its raw material batch in one search?
Section 5: Compliance and finance (questions 21 to 23)
- Does it support GST, e-invoicing and e-way bills from the dispatch record?
- Does it keep an edit log (audit trail) for books of account, as Indian accounting rules require? Ask your CA to confirm what you need.
- Can it track dealer credit limits, outstanding payments and tender orders?
Section 6: Technology, implementation and support (questions 24 and 25)
- Is it available as cloud, on-premise or both, and can owners see reports on a phone?
- What are the implementation timeline, data migration plan, support terms and three-year total cost? Ask who does the data mapping, how many trial migrations are included, and what support you get after go-live.
For a budget range, use the Bsquare ERP cost estimator. Most mid-size implementations take about 8 to 12 weeks, depending on data readiness.
How do you score the answers?
Add up the scores. The maximum is 50 (25 questions × 2 points).
| Total score | What it suggests |
| 40 to 50 | Strong fit. Move to references and pricing |
| 30 to 39 | Workable, but check what needs customisation and what it costs |
| Below 30 | Weak fit for a cable plant. Keep looking |
Give extra weight to questions 1, 2, 7, 8 and 20. These are the hardest for generic ERP to handle, and the most costly to get wrong.
What are the red flags in a wire and cable ERP demo?
Watch for five warning signs:
- The vendor shows slides instead of your product on screen
- Length and weight are handled in two separate spreadsheets
- Metal price is entered by hand for every order
- “Customisation” is the answer to most cable-specific questions
- The vendor cannot name a cable or process manufacturer using the system
How does Pothera ERP fit this checklist?
Pothera ERP connects inventory, production, quality and finance in one system, and runs on cloud or on-premise. Cable-specific points such as drum and reel tracking, length-based stock and metal-rate costing are the ones to verify in your own demo, so use this checklist on us as well. To see the platform, visit Pothera ERP or Bsquare Solutions.
For a wider comparison, read our guide to the best ERP software for wire and cable manufacturers in India, and how long ERP implementation takes for a cable manufacturer.
Frequently asked questions
- What should I ask before buying a wire and cable ERP?
Ask about length and weight stock, drum and reel tracking, metal price costing, stage-wise yield, test records, traceability, GST and implementation. Use the 25 questions above. - How do I test an ERP demo for a cable plant?
Send one real product to the vendor before the demo and ask them to show the full flow on screen: stock, production, cost, test record and dispatch. - Why is copper price handling important in cable ERP?
Copper is the biggest cost in many cables, and the rate at which it is booked changes the margin. The system must let you choose and see the method. - What is drum and reel tracking?
It is a record of each drum or reel with its length, weight, product and location, so you know exactly what is in stock and what has been dispatched. - Is Tally enough for a wire and cable manufacturer?
Tally handles accounts and GST, but not length-based stock, stage-wise yield or batch costing. Growing manufacturers usually move to a full ERP. - How much does a wire and cable ERP cost in India?
It varies with users, modules and deployment. The ERP cost estimator gives a range. - How long does a wire and cable ERP implementation take?
About 8 to 12 weeks for most mid-size manufacturers, depending on data readiness. - Should a cable manufacturer choose cloud or on-premise ERP?
Cloud suits owners who want remote access to several plants. On-premise suits plants with weak internet. Ask whether the vendor supports both.
Test your shortlist on your own cable
Take this checklist to your next demo. Book a free demo of Pothera ERP and bring one product to test, or get a quick budget range from the ERP cost estimator.