How do I know whether my business actually needs an ERP yet?
Ask whether your problems are arithmetic or agreement. If the trial balance does not tie or GST filing is manual, that is usually fixable in what you already own. If sales, purchase and production each work from a different stock figure, discipline will not close the gap. Below about fifteen users on one site, a well-run accounting package usually wins on cost.
Is there a good Tally alternative, or should we stay on Tally?
Tally is good at what it does, and if accounting and statutory filing are your only real requirements, replacing it is hard to justify. The case for moving appears when several functions must transact against shared records — stock, production, purchase and sales in one place, with costing that reaches item level. That is an operations requirement, not an accounting one.
What actually migrates from our old system?
Masters, opening balances and open items: ledger, party and item masters, the opening trial balance at cutover, receivables and payables item by item, open purchase and sales orders, and stock quantities with values. Years of posted vouchers, narrations and attachments are normally archived in a read-only copy of the old system, available for audit rather than loaded.
What does an SME ERP really cost, end to end?
We will not quote a number without seeing your entity structure and integration list, but the shape is consistent. Software is often the smallest line. Implementation, migration, integration and testing routinely cost a multiple of first-year software. Then training, the productivity dip after cutover, and annual support thereafter. A cheap licence with a heavy implementation is not cheap.
Should we customise now or later?
Configure to standard now, and be sceptical of phase two. Deferred customisation usually becomes a permanent manual workaround — typically one person maintaining a spreadsheet beside the ERP. Triage every gap: the business genuinely cannot operate without it, it is a preference, or it is an old habit. Build only the first, before go-live, on the supported extension model.
How long does an SME ERP implementation take?
Less time than a tier-one programme, and the difference is mostly process change rather than technology. An implementation on an industry template arrives with bills of material, costing and statutory flows already shaped, so design becomes review rather than invention. What stretches it is master data quality, live integrations, and how many gaps you insist on building.
Why is the first month-end after go-live the risky point?
Because it is the first time opening balances, tax configuration, cost allocations and period-end postings are exercised together against real transactions. Day-to-day entry usually settles within a fortnight; the close is where a wrong opening balance or mis-set tax code surfaces. We plan a supported first close rather than treating go-live as the end.
Who looks after the system once you have gone?
One of three answers, chosen deliberately. An internal super-user is cheapest and closest to the business, but costs a real share of a capable person's week and the knowledge leaves with them. Application managed services cover incidents, statutory updates and small changes at predictable cost. A managed pod suits several entities. In every case, name a data owner for masters.
