The single most useful thing you can do before an ERP project is write down what you actually need. A good requirements list keeps vendor demos honest, makes partner proposals comparable and gives you something to test against before go-live.
Use the checklist below as a starting point. Mark every item as must-have or nice-to-have, and that list becomes your scorecard.
1. Company structure
- Legal entities, branches and locations
- Currencies you trade in and report in
- Inter-company transactions and consolidation needs
- Financial year and reporting calendar
2. Finance and accounting
- Chart of accounts and cost centres or departments
- Approval rules for bills, payments and journal entries
- Bank feeds and reconciliation
- Budgets and budget-versus-actual reporting
- Month-end close steps and timeline
- The reports management actually uses every month
3. Tax and compliance
- GST, VAT or sales tax rules that apply to you
- TDS or withholding tax
- E-invoicing and e-way bills where applicable
- Audit trail and record-retention requirements
4. Sales and customers
- Quotations, price lists and discount rules
- Credit limits and payment terms
- Invoicing, collections and customer statements
5. Purchasing and inventory
- Purchase approvals and vendor management
- Warehouses and stock locations
- Batch, lot or serial-number tracking
- Inventory valuation method and landed costs
- Reorder rules and stock counts
6. Manufacturing, if relevant
- Bills of materials and routings
- Work orders and production costing
- Subcontracting and job work
7. Integrations
- E-commerce platforms and marketplaces
- Payment gateways and banks
- Payroll and HR systems
- CRM or other tools you will keep
8. Data migration
- Go-live date and opening balance date
- How much transaction history to bring across
- Open invoices, bills and orders
- Stock quantities and values, reconciled to the books
9. Users and access
- Number of users by role
- Who can see and approve what
- Remote or mobile access needs
10. Budget, timeline and ownership
- Budget for licences, implementation and ongoing support
- Target go-live date and any hard deadlines
- The person inside the business who owns the project
Once this is written down, shortlisting systems and comparing partners becomes far more objective. You stop asking "which ERP is best?" and start asking "which ERP meets our must-haves at a cost we accept?"
Need help turning this checklist into a full requirements document? Book a free ERP consultation.