TMS vs ERP
A TMS (Transport Management System) and an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system are often pitched as alternatives, but they answer different questions. A logistics operator usually needs both — and the real question is which one owns which part of the workflow.
In one line
- ERP keeps the company running: accounting, HR, procurement, sales ledger.
- TMS keeps the transport running: orders, planning, fleet, freight cost.
Side-by-side
| Topic | ERP | TMS |
|---|---|---|
| Customer master | ✅ | ✅ (often synced from ERP) |
| Sales orders | ✅ | ✅ (transport-specific) |
| Quotations | Sometimes | ✅ (with route/tariff logic) |
| Dispatch / planning | ❌ | ✅ — core function |
| Vehicle and driver management | ❌ | ✅ |
| Maintenance | ❌ | ✅ |
| Cost per trip / margin per shipment | ❌ | ✅ |
| General ledger | ✅ — core function | ❌ |
| Outgoing invoices | ✅ | ✅ (transport-grouped) |
| Payroll / HR | ✅ | ❌ |
| Procurement | ✅ | ❌ |
| CO₂ per shipment | ❌ | ✅ |
Where the conflict usually is
Three areas, in order of how often they cause trouble:
1. Invoicing
Both systems can produce invoices. The TMS knows what was actually moved and what each line costs. The ERP owns the customer’s financial ledger. The clean split: TMS produces draft invoices from approved revenue lines, ERP posts them and tracks payment.
2. Master data
Customers, vendors, products and tax rates live in the ERP. The TMS needs them but should not own them. Sync direction: ERP → TMS for accounts and tax/GL data; TMS → ERP for invoices and (optionally) cost lines.
3. Cost lines
The TMS knows the cost per trip and per shipment in real time. The ERP only sees it when the carrier invoice arrives. Best practice: TMS owns operational cost (per trip, per shipment), ERP owns financial cost (per supplier invoice). They reconcile, not duplicate.
When you only need an ERP
- You don’t run transport — you buy it like any other service.
- Volumes are small enough to handle in a spreadsheet.
- You don’t care about per-shipment margin or CO₂.
In that case, a transport module inside the ERP (or a freight broker) is usually enough.
When you need a TMS on top
- Transport is your product (carrier, forwarder, 3PL).
- You need to plan vehicles, drivers and shipments daily.
- You want to see margin before the carrier invoice arrives.
- Customers ask for CO₂ data per shipment.
- You need a dispatch board, not a sales order screen.
In that case, the ERP keeps doing finance, and the TMS owns operations.
How Routix integrates with an ERP
Routix is built as a TMS-first system that complements, not replaces, your ERP.
- Customer and vendor master data can be synced inbound via the REST API.
- Outgoing invoices are produced in Routix and can be pushed to the ERP for posting.
- Tax rates, payment terms and GL accounts are configurable per organisation and can mirror the ERP setup.
The boundary is deliberate: Routix doesn’t try to be your ledger.
Related concepts
See this in Routix
If you want to evaluate the split in practice, start on www.routix.com and then review Invoices, the API and the operational modules in Routix. They show where transport execution stays in the TMS and where finance or master data can hand off to an ERP.
