Learn
A guided, ordered path through this site for a reader with no starting point — five stages from orientation to design decisions.
Modules and Reference are organised for retrieval — the right shape once you already know what you’re looking for. This path is organised for a first read: five short stages, each ending with links into the reference material rather than repeating it.
Who this is for
Someone designing an ERP-shaped system who wants to see how ERPNext solved the problem before making their own calls — not someone who already knows what a DocType is and just needs a fieldname. If that’s you, Reference or the module pages are the faster route in.
The five stages
1. Orientation
What a DocType is, the four entity kinds, and how to read the ERDs.
2. The core model
Universal columns, the three ledger patterns, and the polymorphic party.
3. The core four
Why Accounts, Stock, Selling and Buying carry most of the mass.
4. Where behaviour lives
Schema stops at the field; runtime behaviour is documented separately.
5. Designing your own
The decisions ERPNext made that your design has to accept or reject.
How long this takes
Stages 1–3 are a single sitting — under an hour if you follow every link once. Stage 4 depends on how many of the 73 system designs you read; budget 10–15 minutes per document. Stage 5 is a starting list, not a checklist — expect to stop and think about each one, not click through it.