ERP
What is an ERP?
One piece of software to run the whole business: sales, purchasing, stock, accounting, payroll. The definition, what it changes day to day, and how to choose yours.
The definition
ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. It is software that brings the operations of every department into a single database: sales, purchasing, the warehouse, accounting, human resources.
The principle fits in one sentence: a piece of information is entered once, then flows from one department to the next. The quote becomes an order, the order becomes a delivery and an invoice, the invoice becomes an accounting entry, with no re-keying.
What an ERP covers
Sales and customers
Quotes, orders, invoices, lead and customer follow-up.
Purchasing and suppliers
Purchase requests, purchase orders, receipts, supplier bills.
Stock and logistics
Receipts, issues, stock counts, stock valuation, deliveries.
Accounting
Journal entries, bank, VAT, returns, balance sheet and income statement.
Payroll and HR
Employees, contracts, attendance, leave, payslips.
Management reporting
Dashboards and reports fed by the data of every department.
What it changes day to day
Enter it once
Data entered by one department is reused by the others. No more double entry between the notebook, the spreadsheet and the accounting software.
A real-time view
Stock, receivables and cash can be read at any time, without waiting for a month-end report.
Fewer errors
Every operation leaves a trace: who did what, and when. Discrepancies show up straight away.
Decisions backed by numbers
Reports rest on the real figures of the business, not on estimates.
ERPs are for SMEs too
Long reserved for large companies, ERPs are now within reach of SMEs: rented by subscription, hosted in the cloud and rolled out module by module, starting with what hurts (often invoicing and stock) before extending to the other departments.
At Senedoo we work on Odoo, a modular, open-source ERP. For an SME, Odoo Enterprise is the most complete solution; for a shop of 1 to 4 people, Baobi, our phone ERP, covers the till, the stock and the money. The My business page shows which offer fits your activity and size.
How to choose your ERP
- 1
Start from your needs
Describe your processes as they happen today and where they jam. Involve the people who will do the data entry every day, not only management. List the functions you cannot do without and those that can wait.
- 2
Check the features
Accounting, payroll, stock, sales: each area must be covered on your concrete cases, with your local rules (VAT, collective agreements, tax returns). Ask for a demo on your own examples, not on a generic data set.
- 3
Judge the ease of use
An ERP the teams find complicated ends up abandoned. Look at the screens, the number of clicks for an everyday operation, the use on a phone. Plan training into the project from the start.
- 4
Think about growth and integrations
Your business will change: new outlets, new companies, new countries. Check that the ERP keeps up, and that it connects to your other tools: bank, website, mobile money, tax authority.
- 5
Count the full cost and the support
Licences, hosting, implementation, data migration, training, support: compare the cost over several years, not the subscription price alone. And choose the integrator as carefully as the software: they are the ones who make the project succeed.
Weighing several options? A meeting with a Senedoo consultant looks at how you run the business today and tells you what an ERP would change, concretely, for you.