Why a CRM alone does not cover it
A CRM tracks leads and follow-ups. Good ones do that well. If your only problem is lost enquiries, buy a CRM and stop there.
A developer or marketing company has a different problem. The plot is the product. Its status, price, buyer, payment plan and dealer all change over time, and every change involves money.
When these live in separate Excel files, the same file gets sold twice. Receipts do not match schedules. Commission disputes take days to settle. An ERP puts all of it in one set of records.
The modules
The exact list depends on your society or company. These are the ones we are usually asked for.
Inventory
Projects, phases, blocks, streets, plots and files. Each unit has a size, category, rate and status: available, on hold, booked, allotted, transferred or cancelled. A hold can carry an expiry date, so stale reservations go back to stock instead of blocking a plot for months.
Bookings and allotments
A booking records the buyer, CNIC, nominee, unit, payment plan and the dealer who sold it. It becomes an allotment when your conditions are met, for example a minimum amount received.
Transfers, merges, cancellations and refunds are recorded as events with an approval step. Nobody overwrites an old row. Every society has its own transfer and cancellation rules, so we configure the system to yours.
Installments and receipts
Payment plans cover down payment, monthly or quarterly installments, balloon payments and possession charges. The schedule is generated when the booking is confirmed.
Receipts are posted against specific installments. Cash, cheque and bank transfers are all recorded, with serial-numbered receipts. If your policy charges a late payment surcharge, the system can calculate it. Overdue lists can be pulled by buyer, dealer or project.
Dealer and agent commissions
Commission rules can differ by dealer, by project, and by tier. Commission becomes payable on a trigger you define, such as a percentage of the price received. Agents can sit under a dealer.
Each dealer gets a statement showing what is earned, paid and pending. That ends most arguments before they start.
Accounts
Receipts, refunds and commission payments post to the ledger. You get a chart of accounts, vouchers, bank and cash books, payables, a trial balance and project-wise results.
This does not replace your accountant. If you already use an accounting package you like, we can export to it rather than replace it.
Management reporting
The owner or director needs a few answers quickly:
- What was sold this month, by project, dealer and branch?
- What was due, and what was collected?
- What is still unsold?
- Who is overdue, and by how long?
These come from the same records as everything else, so they match the books.
How the modules connect
The chain is: unit, booking, schedule, receipt, ledger, commission.
When a receipt is entered against installment three, the balance on the schedule drops. A ledger entry is created. The dealer's commission entitlement updates. The overdue list gets shorter. Nobody retypes anything.
The reverse works too. Cancel a booking and the unit returns to stock. The refund and any commission reversal are queued for approval. This is the main reason to use an ERP rather than several tools: one change, one place, every report agrees.
Moving from Excel
The hard part of this project is the data, not the software.
Our usual sequence is:
- Collect your current files: inventory lists, booking registers, receipt books, dealer sheets.
- Clean and map the columns to the system's fields.
- Import into a test copy.
- Reconcile with you: unit counts, total receivable, amount received per buyer, commission owed per dealer.
- Go live from an agreed opening-balance date.
Expect problems. Plots listed in two files, receipts with no matching installment, buyers spelled three ways. We flag these and you decide how each is settled, because only you know the history. If you prefer, run the old sheets alongside the new system for a short period before switching off.
Hosting on your own server
The system can be installed on a server you own, or on a cloud account in your name. You hold the credentials, the database and the backups.
For a developer, this matters. The data includes buyer identity, payments and legal status of plots. Many owners do not want that on a vendor's infrastructure.
There is a trade-off. Someone has to look after the server and check that backups run and can be restored. That can be your IT person, or we can maintain it under a separate agreement. Branches connect over your internal network or a secured internet connection.
What we built for a Lahore marketing company
We built three connected pieces for a property marketing company in Lahore: an ERP, a task system and a plot map.
The ERP holds the records described above. The task system tracks work between staff. The plot map shows the layout, so people can see where each plot is and where it stands. The three work from the same data rather than as separate tools that need reconciling.
That is the stack this page describes. You can read what we can share on the case studies page.
Starting point: ready-made or custom
We have a base ERP that we install and adapt, described on the TechNova ERP page. For real estate, most of the work is adapting plans, commission rules, transfer procedures and reports to how you operate. Where your process is unusual, we build custom parts under our ERP development service.
When you do not need this
If you run one small project, sell directly and give your accountant the numbers monthly, a tidy spreadsheet and a CRM may be enough for now.
An ERP starts to pay for itself when several people edit the same data, when dealers are paid on collections, or when the owner cannot get a reliable recovery figure without a day of phone calls. If you are not there yet, say so on a call and we will tell you.
Talking to TechNova
On a first call we ask how you sell, how you collect and how you pay dealers. We also ask to see one or two of your current Excel files. After that we tell you what we would build, what we would leave alone, and what the migration looks like. Contact us to arrange it.