Trade Node — frequently asked questions

About Trade Node

What the platform is, who it serves, and how its core and optional modules fit together.

What exactly is Trade Node?

Trade Node is a modular operating platform for Indian B2B businesses that trade physical goods. It connects product and party masters, daily rates, quotes, orders, credit, dispatch, GST billing, inventory, payments and buyer self-service. Optional modules extend the same business record into CRM, projects, ERP books, HR, AI, factory production, contracts, staff benefits, enterprise finance and governance.

Is it only for steel traders?

No. Trade Node is built for any business that trades physical goods on rates and credit — building materials, agri commodities, chemicals, textiles, electricals, FMCG wholesale, pharma distribution, auto parts, paper, paints, tyres and more. The Industries page shows how it fits each trade.

Does it replace Tally?

Trade Node can run operational records and, when the ERP module is enabled, built-in double-entry accounting, vouchers, ledgers, trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet and GST summaries. Businesses that retain Tally can instead use the Integrations module’s Tally / ERP Sync workflow. The right approach depends on the modules and accounting process selected for your business.

Can my dealers and customers use it too?

Yes. Approved buyers can use their own portal for today's rates, ordering, ledgers and statements. Additional functions such as delivery tracking, announcements and support tickets appear when the relevant Operations or Engagement features are enabled.

Which modules are included?

The marketplace currently contains 20 modules and 81 named features. Your plan determines which modules are included, and optional modules can use free, recurring or one-time commercial terms shown on the live Pricing and Marketplace pages. The buyer and dealer portal, business website, roles and permissions, and automated backup capability are platform-core services rather than separate catalog modules.

Can we start small and add capabilities later?

Yes. A business can begin with the modules needed for its immediate workflow and add others as operations grow. Module access is controlled centrally, while all enabled areas continue to use the same tenant, users, masters and permissions.

Platform services

Core services available outside the optional module catalog.

How does buyer & dealer portal work?

Approved buyers sign in to their own portal for live rates, ordering, ledgers and statements, so routine updates do not depend on phone calls.

How does your business website work?

Publish a themed public website with your catalog and enquiry forms; submitted enquiries arrive as leads inside Trade Node.

How does roles & permissions work?

Give staff per-module view or full access, review active sessions, and retain a who-changed-what audit trail.

How does automated backups work?

Schedule verified backups to configured storage destinations and retain recovery records so restore readiness can be checked.

What can buyers do in their portal?

Approved buyers can sign in against the correct business, view published rates, place and review orders, and see their ledger and statements. Additional screens are shown only when the business has enabled the corresponding module and the buyer is allowed to use it.

What can we publish on our business website?

A business can choose a website theme, publish its company and catalog content, connect enquiry forms, review leads and use a Trade Node address or configured custom domain. Draft changes stay separate from the published site until an administrator publishes them.

Onboarding & support

Moving your business, team and opening records onto Trade Node.

How long does it take to go live?

The timeline depends on master-data quality, opening balances, integrations, modules and approval requirements. A typical rollout starts with the business profile, product and party masters, users and roles, then opening stock and balances before live transactions. Modules can be introduced in phases rather than all at once.

Can I bring in my existing data?

Trade Node supports structured imports for common business records and opening data. The exact migration scope is agreed during onboarding; source files are validated and staff review imported masters, opening stock and balances before relying on them for live work.

Will my staff be able to use it?

Administrators can assign standard or custom staff roles and grant view or full access by module. This keeps each person focused on the screens needed for their work and prevents the interface from implying permission the server has not granted.

Does it work on phones and tablets?

Trade Node is browser-based and its main workflows are responsive for current desktop, tablet and mobile browsers. Hardware-specific workflows such as kiosks, NFC, cameras, RFID readers or gate devices require compatible equipment and the relevant module configuration.

What training and help are available?

The product includes page-level guidance and a staff assistance experience, while onboarding covers setup of masters, roles and the chosen workflow. Tenant administrators can contact the platform team through platform support; customer-facing support tickets are part of the Engagement module.

Can different branches or teams work in the same business?

Yes. Users share one tenant-scoped business record while permissions, warehouses, assignments and operational ownership control what each team works on. If separate legal or business entities are required, the account and enterprise-finance design should be confirmed during onboarding.

All modules & features

A complete guide to all 20 current modules and their 81 named features.

What is included in the Trade module?

The trade desk your mornings already run on — formalised. Publish today’s rates once, let buyers order against them, and keep quotes and dealer schemes moving without digging through chat history. It includes Daily Prices, Orders, Quotes, Schemes. Daily Prices: Publish the day’s price list once and every approved buyer sees it instantly in their portal. Full rate history stays on record, so yesterday’s rate is one click away when billing is questioned. Orders: Buyers place orders online against the published rates; staff approve with the party’s outstanding and credit limit on the same screen. Every order carries its full lifecycle — placed, approved, dispatched, billed. Quotes: Quote requests from buyers and website enquiries land in one queue. Staff issue quotations from the same screen, and every revision stays on the thread. Schemes: Slab-based dealer incentive schemes with live progress tracking — dealers watch their own slab position in the portal instead of calling for balances.

What is included in the Catalog module?

Every rate, stock entry and invoice line starts from the same product master. Set it up once and stop reconciling three different item lists. It includes Products. Products: One product master with sections, brands, units, HSN codes and GST rates. Every price list, order, dispatch and invoice line reads from it, so a change made once follows through everywhere.

What is included in the Work Management module?

The unglamorous work between an enquiry and a dispatch — followed up, assigned and visible. CRM for the pipeline, tasks for the day, projects for the long jobs. It includes CRM & Sales Pipeline, Tasks, Projects. CRM & Sales Pipeline: Leads with source, stage and next follow-up date, calling campaigns against dealer lists, and one-click conversion of a serious enquiry into a quotation. Funnel, forecast and win–loss reports read straight from the pipeline. Tasks: Assign work with due dates, priorities and comments — who is doing what is visible to the whole team instead of living in verbal instructions. Projects: Longer jobs — supply-and-install, site work — tracked with milestones and task rollups so slippage shows up early, not at handover.

What is included in the Finance module?

Billing that starts from the dispatch, not from re-typing. Invoices carry the right GST, ledgers stay current, and returns become proper credit notes instead of pencil adjustments. It includes Invoices, Sales Returns, Ledger, Payments, Documents, Enterprise Finance & Consolidation, MCA XBRL Statutory Reporting, Corporate Secretarial Governance, In-House Legal Operations. Invoices: GST invoices generated from dispatch challans — quantities, rates, HSN and tax breakup flow through without re-typing. Where turnover requires it, e-invoices register with the portal and print with IRN and QR code. Sales Returns: Goods coming back become credit notes tied to the original invoice — stock returns to the warehouse, the buyer’s ledger is credited, and GST reports net off the return automatically. Ledger: A running ledger per party — every invoice, payment, credit note and adjustment with a live balance staff can read out on the phone. Payments: NEFT, UPI, cheque and cash receipts recorded against invoices, with part-payments and advances kept visible. Online gateway checkout is supported where enabled. Documents: Invoices, challans and account statements print from the same records that sit in the books — no parallel Word files to maintain. Enterprise Finance & Consolidation: Run group reporting and the finance close without mixing entity books: controlled trial-balance snapshots, inter-company matching, consolidation adjustments, Schedule III mappings, audit and direct-tax workpapers, maker-checker sign-off, budgets and forecasts in one governed workspace. MCA XBRL Statutory Reporting: Prepare MCA XBRL filings (AOC-4 XBRL, CFS and NBFC) on immutable, version-addressed taxonomy packages: applicability assessment, filing workspaces that freeze signed-off financials, reusable versioned mappings, typed facts with full lineage, deterministic validation and instance XML generation, review with maker-checker submit/approve/lock, roll-forward and taxonomy migration impact. Corporate Secretarial Governance: A statutory secretarial workbench built on the same group-entity foundation: effective-dated, immutable compliance rule packs (MCA with SEBI LODR and RBI overlays) that carry their source references, require an authorised applicability confirmation and always ship a professional-advice disclaimer. Maintain the corporate profile, office-holder, committee and beneficial-owner registers; run maker-checker capital transactions that post tamper-evident member, charge and SBO registers with as-of exports; hold board and general meetings with quorum, attendance, interest/abstention and voting checks through to signed minutes; manage disclosure requests, a compliance calendar with evidence and escalation, and ROC filing workspaces (AOC, MGT, DIR, PAS, SH, CHG, DPT, BEN, MSME) with review, approval, lock, SRN, challan and acknowledgement — all on an append-only audit trail. Seeded reference content is operator-confirmed descriptor material, never invented statutory rules or due dates. In-House Legal Operations: A confidential workbench for your own legal team. Every matter is walled off behind explicit membership — view, edit or lead — so even administrators cannot read matter content unless they are members, and a guessed link simply returns nothing. Staff raise structured legal intake that stays private to them until a legal member triages and converts it into a matter. Inside a matter, track contracts with immutable, hash-locked versions and their obligations, disputes and litigation with hearing dates, provisions and contingent liabilities, notices and correspondence, and external-counsel budgets against spend, all on an append-only, tamper-evident audit trail. Maintain an IP, licence and regulatory portfolio with renewal reminders, and keep effective-dated, immutable applicability rule packs that carry source references, need an authorised confirmation and ship a professional-advice disclaimer — never presented as legal advice.

What is included in the Operations module?

From “material ready” to “delivered and signed”, with the stock ledger and the gate register in the same system as the dispatch. It includes Dispatches, Logistics, Import / Export, Front Desk, Premises Security, Inventory, Warehouses, Transporters, RFID Gate & Readers. Dispatches: Dispatch challans with vehicle, transporter and e-way bill details, through to delivery confirmation — the paper trail from godown gate to buyer’s signature. Logistics: Vehicle trips tracked from loading to delivery, with transporter webhooks for live status where the transporter supports them. Import / Export: Import and export consignments with customs milestones, forex values and trade document references — international legs of the trade on the same system as the domestic ones. Front Desk: Visitor gate passes and inward/outward courier registers as searchable records instead of a paper register at reception. Premises Security: A live CCTV camera wall beside gate activity and visitors on site — security and operations in one view instead of two separate screens. Inventory: Live stock by warehouse fed by goods receipts, transfers and dispatch movements. Counts and adjustments post properly, so stock stops being a month-end surprise. Warehouses: Warehouse and godown master data — locations that stock, transfers and dispatches all reference consistently. Transporters: Transporter master with contact and vehicle details, referenced on every dispatch and e-way bill record. RFID Gate & Readers: RFID/NFC readers at the gate log material and vehicle movement; the same device family powers staff attendance badge punches.

What is included in the Partners module?

Your dealer network as proper accounts, not phone contacts. Credit limits, GSTINs and history in one place — with self-registration so onboarding doesn’t start on paper. It includes Dealers, Customers, Registrations. Dealers: Dealer accounts with GSTIN, addresses, contacts and per-dealer credit limits that order approval actually enforces at the moment of exposure. Customers: Direct and project customers served alongside the dealer network — same orders, billing and ledger flow without a parallel process. Registrations: New buyers self-register from your website into an approval queue — staff verify and approve, and the buyer gets portal access the moment they’re cleared.

What is included in the Engagement module?

The conversations around the trade — announcements to buyers, complaints from them, coordination between staff — moved out of personal phones and into the system. It includes Announcements, Support Tickets, Team Chat. Announcements: Rate circulars and scheme announcements published to buyers with read receipts — you see exactly who has opened what. Support Tickets: Buyer complaints and requests become tickets with owners, status and history — a real queue instead of favours remembered by one person. Team Chat: Staff chat groups with file sharing and audio/video calls, on company record — coordination that survives a phone change or a resignation.

What is included in the Insights module?

What moved, what’s stuck and who changed what. Reports for the business, a security console for the owner. It includes Reports, Security Console. Reports: Sales, stock and outstanding reports on demand, including year-on-year comparisons, exportable whenever the CA or the bank asks. Security Console: Sign-in history, active sessions with force sign-out, account lockouts and a who-changed-what audit trail — the owner’s answer before the argument starts.

What is included in the ERP module?

The buying side, the books and the company finance team’s close, with control built in. Purchase orders route through maker-checker approval, ledgers remain separate by entity, and authorised finance staff can prepare consolidated, Schedule III-ready numbers with a complete audit trail. It includes Suppliers, Purchase Orders, Purchase Bills, Expenses, Accounting, Financial Statements & GST Reports. Suppliers: Supplier master with GSTIN, payment terms and a running supplier ledger — the purchase side of the party book, always current. Purchase Orders: Purchase orders through goods receipt into warehouse stock, with amount-based maker-checker approval chains available so a maker can never clear their own order. Purchase Bills: Supplier bills booked with GST breakup and TDS deducted where sections apply — including lower-deduction certificates with live headroom tracking — and payments recorded against them. Expenses: Categorised business expenses with GST, routed through the same approval chains as purchases when they cross your thresholds. Accounting: Full double-entry under the trade: chart of accounts, journal vouchers, opening balances, recurring entries that post on schedule, cost centres and budgets with variance alerts, a fixed-asset register with scheduled depreciation runs, period locks against back-dated edits, and a guided year close that carries balances forward — and can be reopened exactly if something surfaces later. Financial Statements & GST Reports: Trial balance, P&L and balance sheet with last year alongside, plus GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B summaries — exportable for filing.

What is included in the Integrations module?

Trade Node doesn’t ask you to abandon the accountant’s Tally or the GST portal — it feeds them. And when partners or devices need data, they get scoped keys, not your password. It includes Tally / ERP Sync, GST Portal Sync, API Keys, Drive & Dropbox. Tally / ERP Sync: Invoices and masters export as Tally XML through an outbound queue, so the accountant’s existing workflow survives untouched. GST Portal Sync: Push GSTR-1 and pull GSTR-2B through a GSP connector, then reconcile purchases against 2B inside the app instead of across two portals. API Keys: Scoped, revocable API keys for partners who need read access to agreed data — plus device-key rotation for RFID and attendance readers. Drive & Dropbox: Link the business’s own Google Drive or Dropbox to browse old files inside Trade Node and receive scheduled data backups — spreadsheets of the ledgers and registers with recent document PDFs zipped alongside.

What is included in the HR module?

The people side of a trading company — godown staff, drivers, office team — with attendance that can come from an NFC badge and payroll that follows from it. It includes Employees, Attendance & NFC Badges, Leave, Payroll. Employees: An employee directory with departments and designations — godown staff, drivers and office team in one register instead of scattered files. Attendance & NFC Badges: Monthly attendance with NFC/RFID badge punch-in and punch-out feeding the summaries automatically — no paper muster. Leave: Leave types, applications, approvals and balances — applied and approved in the app, visible to both sides. Payroll: Salary structures and monthly payroll runs that read the attendance you already captured, generating payslips employees can see.

What is included in the AI module?

Point a camera at the paperwork instead of typing it. The AI add-on reads purchase documents and challans into drafts, recognises faces for attendance and reads number plates at the gate — and an assistant inside the app answers “how do I…” questions from the product manual. It includes AI Recognition. AI Recognition: Vision AI across the daily grind: photograph a supplier bill or challan and get a draft purchase order or stock transfer with unknown products created along the way; upload PDF paperwork and it lands as staged rows for line-by-line review; a kiosk marks attendance from a face or ID card; and vehicles are logged in and out at the gate from the number plate.

What is included in the Factory module?

For traders who also make — recipes define what goes in, work orders move through stations, waste is weighed honestly, and machines carry their maintenance history. It includes Production. Production: BOM recipes so every batch consumes and yields consistently, stage-wise work orders on a live station board, a waste ledger that shows trends instead of month-end shocks, and a machine register with maintenance history.

What is included in the Contracts module?

For businesses that win jobs, not just orders — break a contract into work packages, put subcontractors on proper orders with retention, watch site costs against budget, and bill the client stage by stage. It includes Contracts & Site Billing. Contracts & Site Billing: Tender and contract jobs run properly: work packages with budgets and dates, a planning board, subcontract orders with progress certification and retention, site costs tracked against budget, RA (stage) bills raised as real GST invoices, and a live progress link the client opens without a login.

What is included in the Staff Benefits module?

Everything the company owes its people beyond salary — provident fund contributions computed from payroll and deposited on challans, PPF savings tracked to the rupee, and the insurance you offer staff (medical, accident, life) with family members, premiums and claims in one register. It includes Provident Fund & PPF, Staff Insurance & Medical. Provident Fund & PPF: Per-employee PF profiles with UAN, VPF and nominee; monthly contribution runs computed from completed payroll — wage ceiling, EPS split, EDLI and admin charges included — with the employer share posted to the books and EPFO deposits recorded on numbered challans with TRRN. A PPF register enforces the yearly cap, ESI contributions compute alongside, and gratuity and statutory bonus accrue as service builds, with optional monthly provisions and exit settlements. Staff Insurance & Medical: Group medical, accident and life policies with covered family members, premium payments flowing into the books, claim tracking and renewal reminders before a policy lapses.

What is included in the Batch & Quality module?

Batch numbers stop being something written on a pack and become part of the stock record. Each lot carries its manufacture and expiry dates, its lab results and its own balance in every warehouse, so picking follows the earliest expiry, dispatch cannot take an untested lot, and a complaint months later can be traced to the exact goods and the exact buyers. It includes Batch Tracking, Shelf Life & Expiry, Lab Testing & Release, Recall Trace. Batch Tracking: Give every lot a batch number at goods receipt, production or opening stock, and the same stock you already track splits by batch and warehouse. Picking suggests the earliest-expiry lot first, dispatch records which batch actually left, and every batch carries its own movement ledger. Shelf Life & Expiry: Set a shelf life once per product and each new batch gets its expiry from the manufacture date, or enter the date printed on the pack. Near-expiry and expired lots are flagged before the material turns dead, so it is sold, reworked or written off while there is still time. Lab Testing & Release: Define the parameters a product must be tested against, with limits or expected values, and record measured results per batch. A new lot stays in quarantine and cannot be dispatched until it is released, a failed lot is rejected with the reason on record, and any released lot prints a certificate of analysis for the buyer. Recall Trace: Trace a batch both ways: upwards to the input lots and suppliers that went into it, downwards to the work orders, dispatches, invoices and customers that received it. When a complaint arrives, the affected lots and the people to call are one screen away instead of a day in the files.

What is included in the Farm & Mill Intake module?

A mill, ginnery, dairy or collection centre buys from hundreds of people who arrive by tractor, not by purchase order. This module follows that reality: the weighbridge slip, the quality reading, the rate card it maps to, the deductions everyone argues about, the advance taken in March and recovered in November. Each delivery lands in stock as its own lot and as an amount owed, and the settlement run turns a fortnight of tickets into one payment with the arithmetic already shown. It includes Farmers, Societies & Agents, Weighbridge Tickets, Quality Rate Charts, Gate Intake & Payables, Advances & Settlements, Milling Runs & Yield. Farmers, Societies & Agents: The people who unload at your gate are not trade suppliers, and they stop being squeezed into that list. Farmers, co-operative societies and commission agents get their own master with village, phone, ID and the bank or UPI details the payment will actually go to, so a settlement run knows where to send the money and your creditors ledger keeps meaning what it means. Weighbridge Tickets: Record the loaded and empty weights as they happen, with the vehicle number and the time of each weighing, and the net is worked out for you on a numbered ticket. The ticket is the physical fact and it can be priced later — but only once: two clerks opening the same slip at the same moment cannot both turn it into a delivery. Quality Rate Charts: Publish the rate card you actually pay on: slabs against the reading that matters — fat, moisture, starch, staple — with a base rate for anything outside them, effective from a date. Deduction rules handle the rest, cutting a percentage of weight or value, a per-unit amount or a flat sum when a reading crosses the line you set. Gate Intake & Payables: One screen turns a weighment ticket and its quality readings into a priced delivery: the rate comes off the chart, the deductions are itemised so the farmer can be shown exactly why, the goods go into stock under their own lot, and the net amount is booked as owed to that supplier. Advances & Settlements: Money handed out before the crop arrives is recorded as an advance against that supplier and carries a running balance. Run a settlement for a period and every unsettled delivery in it is gathered up, oldest advances are recovered first, and the balance payable is posted to the books when it is approved and paid. Milling Runs & Yield: Feed intake lots into a run and record what came out of it — main product and by-products such as bran, husk or cake — each landing back in stock with its own lot. Recovery is computed against what you expected, so a mill that is quietly losing two percent shows up in the numbers instead of in the year-end.

What is included in the White-Label & Contract Manufacturing module?

Contract manufacturing brings someone else’s brand, specification and material into your factory without making them your stock or your sale. This module keeps the agreed pack and approved formulation attached to the run and finished lot, tracks client-supplied material on its own ledger, and follows each order from quantity promised through production, delivery, reconciliation and conversion billing. It includes Client Brands, Pack & Label Specs, Versioned Formulations, Client-Supplied Material, Contract Manufacturing Orders, Reconciliation & Conversion Billing. Client Brands: Keep every client-owned brand against the account you manufacture for, with its specification reference, contact and active status. Staff can see whose brand they are handling without treating it as one of your own. Pack & Label Specs: Set the pack size, units per case, declared MRP, label claims, artwork reference and version, and shelf life for each SKU under a client brand. The chosen specification is frozen onto every finished lot, preserving exactly what was agreed for that production. Versioned Formulations: Keep each recipe as numbered versions with an effective date, change note and approval. Approval updates the live recipe, while every contract run and finished lot retain the exact version used. Client-Supplied Material: Record material received on the client’s challan in a separate ledger covering receipts, issues to runs, wastage and returns, with a live balance by client and product. It is tracked without entering or being valued as your own inventory. Contract Manufacturing Orders: Capture the agreed brand, product, quantity, per-unit conversion rate, material and packaging responsibility, delivery terms and due date in one job order. Raise production runs against it and track produced, delivered and billed quantities as work progresses. Reconciliation & Conversion Billing: Reconcile each product supplied by the client against what was consumed, wasted, returned and remains, then raise a GST conversion-charge invoice under the job-work SAC. Cumulative billed quantity is hard-capped at the order quantity, and client-branded lots cannot leave through ordinary sales as your own stock.

What is included in the Export Desk module?

Export Desk keeps the commercial and accounting record of a shipment together, from the buyer’s order and proforma invoice to the commercial invoice, packing list and document pack. When the bank credits the proceeds, it records the actual rate, bank charges and exchange gain or loss in the rupee books. It supports export paperwork and accounting, but does not file with customs or DGFT. It includes Exporter Identity & Origin, Overseas Buyers & Export Orders, Export Commercial Invoice, Packing Lists & Cartons, Consignment Document Pack, Realisation & Exchange Difference. Exporter Identity & Origin: Keep your IEC, AD code, LUT number and validity, default currency, incoterm, port and bank in one exporter profile. Products carry their ITC-HS code and country of origin into the export paperwork. Overseas Buyers & Export Orders: Maintain overseas buyers with their currency, payment terms, discharge port and notify party. Record the agreed order and print a proforma invoice for an advance or letter of credit. Export Commercial Invoice: Raise the commercial invoice in the buyer’s currency and record the exchange rate used. The rupee books post at that rate, whether the export is under LUT without tax or with IGST paid for refund. Packing Lists & Cartons: Build the packing list from carton number ranges, marks, batch numbers, net and gross weights and CBM. Packed quantities stay within what the commercial invoice ships. Consignment Document Pack: Keep the invoice, packing list, bill of lading or airway bill, shipping bill, certificate of origin, insurance and other uploads together for each consignment, with missing documents visible. Realisation & Exchange Difference: Record what the bank credits at its actual exchange rate, clear the receivable at the invoice rate, and post the difference as an exchange gain or loss along with bank charges. Invoices nearing the 270 day FEMA realisation window are flagged.

What is included in the Capital Equipment & Service module?

A business that builds plants and machines does not sell from a price list and does not stop earning at dispatch. Capital Equipment & Service follows a unit from the configured quotation and its revisions, through the delivery project and site acceptance that starts the warranty, into an installed base with maintenance contracts, service calls and spares. Coverage is decided by the warranty and the contract in force, so a visit is billed only for what the customer actually owes. It includes Equipment Families & Options, Configured Quotations & Revisions, Delivery, Commissioning & Acceptance, Installed Base & Warranty, Maintenance Contracts & Renewals, Service Calls, Parts & Billing. Equipment Families & Options: Define the machine families you build and the option groups a customer chooses from — control system, tonnage, feeder, safety package. Each option carries what it adds to the price and to the build time, and each family its standard warranty period. Configured Quotations & Revisions: Assemble a quotation from the options selected and get the price and lead time from the configuration itself. Negotiation creates a new revision that keeps its own frozen prices, and the revision it replaces is marked superseded instead of being edited away. Delivery, Commissioning & Acceptance: A won quotation opens a delivery with build, dispatch, installation, commissioning and acceptance milestones, each with an owner and dates. Commissioning checks are recorded at site, and handover cannot be signed while any check has failed. Installed Base & Warranty: Every unit delivered is registered with its serial number, customer, site and the configuration that shipped. Site acceptance is the day the warranty starts, so the cover end date follows the handover, and machines about to fall out of warranty are visible in advance. Maintenance Contracts & Renewals: Create maintenance contracts against an installed unit with coverage scope, period, entitled visits and value. Visits consumed are counted as calls are completed, and contracts approaching their end date are listed for renewal before cover lapses. Service Calls, Parts & Billing: Log a breakdown, preventive visit or spares supply against a unit and see immediately whether it is covered by warranty, covered by a live contract or chargeable. Labour and parts are recorded on the call, spares leave stock, and only the chargeable part reaches a GST invoice.

Daily operations & books

Upgraded answers for rates, credit, stock, dispatch, GST, returns, approvals and close.

How do daily rates work?

You publish rates per item and grade each day. The buyer portal and new orders pick them up instantly, and every booking permanently records the exact rate it was made at — so there are no disputes later about who was quoted what.

How are credit limits enforced?

Every buyer has a live credit position — limit, outstanding, and what's already booked. An order that would cross the limit is blocked or held for approval at the moment of booking, not discovered at month end.

What about GST invoices?

The Finance module generates GST invoices from dispatch records using product HSN and tax settings, with printable documents from the same source records. E-invoice registration, e-way bill workflows and GST-portal synchronization depend on business applicability, enabled modules and configured provider connections.

Can I track stock across multiple godowns?

With Operations inventory and warehouse features enabled, stock movements are recorded by warehouse for receipts, dispatches, transfers and adjustments. Availability and movement history are derived from those records rather than a manually overwritten quantity.

How are sales returns handled?

A return is recorded against the original invoice as a credit note. The workflow restores eligible stock, adjusts the buyer balance and nets the return into the relevant finance and GST reporting rather than deleting or rewriting the original sale.

What happens at month end?

The ERP accounting workflow supports period locks, review of books and controlled corrections. Posted accounting records are corrected through traceable reversal or follow-on entries rather than silent replacement; additional close, consolidation and statutory workspaces are provided by the relevant Finance features.

Can transactions require approval before they take effect?

Yes. Maker-checker approvals can be configured for supported high-risk workflows. Depending on the transaction, Trade Node either holds the record in a pending state or defers the financial or operational effect until an authorized approver releases it.

How do dispatch, logistics and proof of delivery connect?

The Operations module connects dispatch records with transporter and trip information, gate activity, delivery tracking and proof of delivery where configured. Buyer-visible tracking is curated and does not expose internal operational or pricing data.

Pricing, plans & account

How platform plans, add-ons, billing cycles, checkout and cancellation work.

How is Trade Node priced?

Pricing is shown through the live Pricing and Marketplace pages. A business has a platform plan, while catalog modules may be included in that plan, free, or available on recurring or one-time terms. Displayed commercial amounts are in Indian rupees and identify whether GST is additional.

Are modules monthly add-ons only?

No. The configured catalog can contain free, monthly, yearly and one-time module terms, and a platform plan may already include selected modules. The current Marketplace and My Account pages are the source for availability and billing cycle.

When does a paid module become active?

Paid access becomes active after the required checkout or approved offline-payment flow completes successfully. A failed, abandoned or still-pending payment does not silently grant the paid module.

Can I cancel an add-on?

Eligible recurring add-ons can be scheduled for cancellation through My Account. The screen shows the effective end of access; one-time purchases and plan-bundled modules follow their own displayed terms.

Where can I see invoices and subscription status?

An authenticated administrator can use My Account to review the current plan, enabled and pending modules, invoices, checkout status, renewals and cancellation state. Access or payment problems are surfaced there rather than hidden behind a generic success message.

Is there a trial or demo?

You can request a guided demo from the marketing site. Any trial period or promotional plan is shown in the current pricing or account terms for that business; the FAQ does not promise a universal trial.

Security, data & continuity

Access control, tenant isolation, auditability, backups and evidence-backed safeguards.

Who can see and do what?

Access is role-based and tenant-scoped. Administrators choose module grants and view or full access for custom staff roles, while sensitive platform and business operations are also checked by server-side authorization.

How is one business kept separate from another?

Trade Node is multi-tenant: authenticated business context is applied to tenant routes and records, cross-business identifiers are rejected, and public or capability-based endpoints return deliberately limited payloads. Interface visibility is not treated as the security boundary.

Can posted records be quietly changed?

Critical posted workflows use controlled status transitions, reversals, approvals and audit records rather than unrestricted in-place edits. The exact correction method depends on the document type, and authorized master-data edits remain possible where the workflow requires them.

What if two staff act on the same stock, credit or payment at once?

Critical stock allocation, credit, payment and accounting paths use transactional checks, locks and idempotency controls appropriate to the workflow. These controls are designed to prevent the same availability or captured payment from being consumed twice during concurrent actions.

How do backups and recovery work?

Automated backups create manifests with SHA-256 integrity information and retain recovery evidence. Configured storage destinations, schedules, retention and restore procedures depend on the deployment and provider settings; a backup is not treated as recovery proof until it has been verified.

Who owns and can export the business data?

The business controls its tenant data and can use available reports, documents and exports for operational use and migration. Export scope and retention depend on the enabled modules, account status and applicable legal obligations.

Is Trade Node certified for HIPAA, RBI or SEBI compliance?

No certification or blanket regulatory-compliance claim is made. Trade Node maintains an evidence-backed control mapping, including mapped HIPAA safeguards and documented RBI and SEBI alignment where technically relevant, but applicability and organizational compliance remain the customer’s responsibility with professional advisers.

AI, integrations & deployment

Provider-assisted workflows, external connections, human review and hosting choices.

What can Trade Node’s AI actually do?

The AI module’s recognition workflow can extract supported document images and PDFs into reviewable drafts and assist configured camera workflows such as face, ID-card or number-plate recognition. Node Assistance answers product how-to questions from the help content. Availability depends on the configured provider, relevant module, device permissions and workflow.

Does AI post documents without review?

No. Recognition results are presented as drafts or suggestions for an authorized user to review and correct before the related business action is confirmed. Provider output can be incomplete or wrong, so it is not treated as accounting, tax, identity or legal advice.

Which AI provider and key are used?

Provider selection follows the configured business and platform AI settings. Supported provider options and model names can change, and keys are stored as protected configuration rather than returned to users after saving. The settings screen shows the active source without exposing the secret.

What does the Integrations module connect?

The current Integrations module covers Tally / ERP Sync, GST Portal Sync through configured providers, scoped API keys, and Drive & Dropbox access. Each connection has its own authorization, mode and operational limits; the module does not imply universal real-time synchronization with every third-party product.

Can Trade Node connect to devices and external systems?

Yes, where the relevant feature is enabled. Scoped API or device keys, webhooks and provider-specific settings support defined integrations such as gates, RFID, transport telemetry, storage and accounting workflows. Keys can be limited or revoked, and non-session endpoints still enforce business and feature status.

Is cloud or self-hosted deployment available?

Trade Node supports managed and documented self-host deployment patterns. Exact modules, infrastructure responsibilities, storage providers, updates, monitoring and support terms should be confirmed for the selected edition before purchase; this FAQ does not claim that every environment has identical provider capabilities.