ERP for Small Businesses Explained and 6 Small Business ERP Software

Date: Aug. 21, 2021

Do you own a small business and want to operate like an enterprise-scale organisation?

Well, chances are high that you are currently juggling quite a few balls. As the volume of tasks goes up, small business owners themselves usually take care of everything starting from production planning to inventory management, employee onboarding/ exit, payroll, finance, sales and much more. The act of juggling gets even more challenging.

For example, you may not be able to maintain consistent data across business areas and can’t find up-to-date financial information when you need it. Productivity and streamlined processes take a backseat when such scenarios start happening. Such scenarios indicate the need of having easy visibility across operations.

ERP for small businesses can mitigate these challenges by streamlining routine operational tasks besides integrating data and processes. This provides you with more time to identify new avenues of growth. With a small business ERP software by your side, you have a sweeping overview of operations at all times and can measure critical performance metrics through dashboards.

If you think your small business needs an overarching system that automates processes and helps you see the bigger picture with real-time reports, this blog on small business enterprise resource planning is for you.

Does Your Small Business Need ERP Software Implementation?

This is probably the first question that comes to mind as you think of ERP software for your business. Well, no business is too small for ERP implementation. In fact, 75% of small businesses are using ERP systems for managing operations. Irrespective of the amount of data your business has to process, ERP can help you eliminate uncommunicative silos and take care of redundant business processes. Now, let’s take a look at a few questions that can help you decide whether you need a small business ERP.

Is Your Business Outgrowing Spreadsheets?

Growing small businesses often reach a point where they can’t simply manage operations with spreadsheets and accounting software. Such circumstances require them to implement an ERP for standardising operations. With a central data hub, you will have a 360-degree view of performance across departments, overlapping processes, and communications.

Is Your Introductory Software System Failing to Sustain?

Small businesses often start their journey with an introductory software system to manage finance and reporting. Often these software can’t keep up with the increasing amount of data that a growing business has to handle. As a result, your spreadsheets start having errors and documents become unwieldy. ERP software for small business comes with robust financial and reporting capabilities while helping you maintain data and accounting integrity.

Are You Spending Way Too Much for Operational Costs?

If you are using disparate systems for managing processes across different departments, you are likely to end spending more for operations. With an ERP system, you don’t have to pay for different systems across locations. It enables you to integrate functions and centralise data in a single system. As a result you can reduce operational costs by up to 23% and administrative costs by 22%.

Is Your Business Suffering from Lack of Insights & Collaboration?

Data-driven insights help small businesses to come up with growth strategies and facilitate departmental collaborations. Without an ERP system in place, businesses can’t fully utilise the available resources and mine effective insights. ERP for small businesses can solve this problem by making data accessible across departments and therefore reducing challenges in collaboration.

4 Ways ERP Solutions Can Transform Small Businesses

There is no doubt that you wear multiple hats as a small business owner. And, so do your employees. At times you may have multiple spreadsheets to track and maintain mountains of data. ERP systems for small businesses help you to automate key business functions and seamlessly integrate the data across departments. Now, let’s look at what your small business can actually achieve with ERP solutions.

1) Transparent Information Flow

Small businesses often use multiple information systems for different departments. This leads to unnecessary silos when you want to have a 360-degree view of business performance or want to facilitate cross-departmental collaboration. With all the data scattered across departments, you may have to re-enter or export data during the process. Small business ERPs can efficiently put an end to this by creating a transparent information flow across departments. As you integrate transactions and business processes with the financial system, you have access to real-time data at all times. This transparent information flow is also necessary for:

  • Viewing and managing financial implications when needed
  • Having visibility across processes including sales, product pricing, inventory, procurement, delivery, and so on

2) Reduced Operating Costs

A growing small business often uses spreadsheets for maintaining data related to business transactions and processes. Every time you manually key data on spreadsheets, you are at a risk of making errors and leaking confidential data. This can also lead to lost orders, missed invoices, poor financial planning, and an uncontrollable chaos. With ERP for small businesses, you can easily save money and reduce chances of such errors. To maximise the benefits, you can also consider combining artificial intelligence and machine learning with ERP.

3) Data-driven Decision Making

Having a holistic picture of business operations is crucial for making data-driven decisions. With enterprise resource planning systems, small business owners have easy access to constantly updated real-time data and other necessary information. Be it forecasting sales figures, financial status of the business, or identifying waste, you can do it all with the available data in your ERP. This makes it seamless for your business to grow and sustain.

4) Enhanced Productivity with Single Source of Truth (SSOT)

Running a small business means you already have more on your plate than what you can actually handle. Adopting ERP systems is a no-brainer under such circumstances as they help you save time and increase productivity. For example, the Single Source of Truth (SSOT) available via your ERP system eliminates the need of going through multiple excel sheets or collecting data separately from vendors and customers. This is crucial for maintaining consistency across processes and doing more in less time.

Did you know 65% of small businesses are leveraging ERP consultation services before implementation? NeeVista, the Australia-based digital consultancy specialises in delivering technology-agnostic ERP solutions for small businesses. Now, let’s take a look at the 6 recommended ERP solutions that small businesses should use.

6 ERP Solutions for Small Businesses to Try in 2021

Designed to store, monitor, and analyse data from different business processes, ERP solutions for small businesses often come with various modules i.e. human resource management, invoicing, sales, inventory control, supply chain, etc. Be it streamlining supply chain management or integrating business processes, choosing the right ERP solution can transform your business. Here are 5 ERP systems for small businesses to consider in 2021.

1) Oracle NetSuite

Being one of the top cloud ERP systems for small businesses, Oracle NetSuite is known for being a unified business management suite. It comes with different modules including financial ERP, CRM, HRM and eCommerce. Designed for businesses of all sizes ranging from startups to enterprises, Oracle NetSuite comes with in-built flexibility and commerce-ready functionalities. It comes with seven modules that can take care of supply chain, orders, finances, production, human capital, orders, procurement, warehouse and order fulfillment. The price of NetSuite depends on the number of users, add-on modules, and other factors. The base license cost starts at $999 per month with user access cost of $99 per user.

Oracle Netsuite comes with 7 modules that work with a shared database and can take care of different business processes:

  • Financial Management: Finance and Accounting, Billing, Revenue Recognition, Financial Planning & Reporting, Global Accounting, Risk and Compliance, and Governance.
  • Order Management: Pricing and Promotions, Sales Order Management, and Returns Management
  • Production Management: Product Data Management, Work Order Management, Planning and Scheduling, and Quality Assurance
  • Supply Chain Management: Planning, Execution, Collaboration, and Support
  • Warehouse and Order Fulfillment: Inbound and Outbound Logistics, Inventory Management, Warehouse Management, and Procurement
  • Human Capital Management: Core HR Functionality, Payroll Management, Employee Management, Custom Dashboards

2) SAP Business ByDesign

SAP Business ByDesign is an end-to-end business suite and is a popular cloud ERP software for mid-market businesses. It offers dynamic solutions configurable for different business sizes. It comes with capabilities that can handle functions such as finance, customer relationship management, human resources, project management, supply chain, localisation, and procurement. While there is no free version available, the pricing starts at $17 per user per month. Now let’s take a look at features that this ERP comes with:

  • Finance: Financial and Managerial Accounting, Cash Flow Management
  • Customer Relationship Management: Sales, Marketing, and Service
  • Human Resources: Onboarding, Attendance management, HR self-services, Payroll, Requests & Approvals
  • Project Management: Real-time Project Collaboration and Monitoring
  • Procurement: Sourcing and Purchasing
  • Supply Chain Management: Product Development, Planning and Control, Supply Chain management Setup, Manufacturing, Warehouse, and Logistics

3) OnCloud ERP

OnCloud ERP is another popular ERP software for small and medium businesses. Helping businesses to take care of wholesale, retail, and distribution, this software comes with different modules including accounting, inventory, production, sales, production, purchase, payroll, etc. The pricing plan starts from $10 per user per month. Now, let’s take a look at some of the important capabilities of this platform.

  • Accounting: Dynamic Charts of Accounts, Payable & Receivable Accounts, Business & Product Accounting Group, and Cost Center Accounting
  • Inventory: Batch Number and Stock Warranty, Negative Inventory Setup, and Stock Aging Reports
  • Purchase: Purchase Analytics and Reports, Purchase Order for Purchase Indent, Vendor Overview, and Service Purchases
  • Production: Production Bill of Materials, Raw Material and Cost Consumptions, Production Reports, and Process Costing

4) ERPNext

ERPNext is a popular open-source ERP that comes packed with powerful features. Widely used across different industries, this platform can help you manage different modules including but not limited to accounting, payroll, CRM, sales, asset management, manufacturing, and website.Besides the ‘Free Forever’ plan, there are two paid plans i.e. managed hosting and enterprise. Now, let’s look at the key functionalities that it can handle.

  • Accounting: Real-time view, Chart of Accounts, Journals and Payments, Billing and Pricing, Multi-currency Accounting, and Auto-invoicing
  • HR and Payroll: Talent Acquisition, Employee Repository, Employee Training, Key Performance Indicators, Expense Management, Automatic Attendance, and Leave Management
  • CRM: 360 degree View of Business, Omnichannel Interactions, Automate Daily Chores, Sales Team Efficiency
  • Production: Production Control, Bill of Material (BOM), Shop Floor Management, Subcontracting, Item Variants, Batched Inventory

5) Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is another ERP software system that is known for being the preferred financial management solution of AICPA. It enables you to meet business challenges, improve efficiency, and boost productivity with various modules in different areas such as finance and people management. Here is what you can do with this ERP:

  • Accounting: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Management, Customer Contract Management, Intelligent General Ledger, Inventory Management, and Dynamic Allocations and much more
  • HR and People Management: Talent Acquisition, People Management, Attendance Management, Performance Management, Global Cloud HR System

6) MYOB

Designed to help businesses manage payroll and resource planning, MYOB is another cloud ERP software that helps businesses manage accounting and payroll from a central platform. Starting from financial management to project accounting to inventory management, this ERP system comes with functionalities suitable for businesses of all sizes. Let’s take a look at the features that the platform comes with:

  • Financial Management: Comprehensive Financial Management and Manage Complex Financial Tasks
  • Inventory Management: End-to-end Inventory Solution and Real-time Data
  • Business Intelligence: 360-degree View of Business, Powerful Visualisations and Reports
  • Manufacturing: Production Management, Material Requirements Planning (MRP)

Now that you know that ERP implementation can bring in a significant number of benefits for your business, the biggest question remains - how to implement ERP? The first step is to identify detailed business requirements and create a project plan. During the next step, you will have to design the workflows and configure the necessary processes. The final and the last phase of ERP implementation involve testing and deployment. Things are bound to get technical during the entire process. And, that’s why don’t hesitate to reach out to NeeVista consultants who specialize in identifying your needs, recommending the best ERP system, and setting it up as well as maintaining it.


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Gaurav Sarin

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Gaurav is the Director and Principal Consultant at NeeVista. He helps enterprises leverage the power of data, digital technology, and automation.

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