ERP for Small Businesses: Why You Need One

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Most large companies have computerized systems to record, integrate and automate their work processes — sales, inventory, finance, invoices... However, contrary to what many people think, this modernity is not restricted to large businesses: there are several ERP options for small companies, practical and affordable.

ERP stands for enterprise resource planning in Portuguese. The acronym designates this type of system that centralizes information for companies, whether small or large.

In small companies, business management tends to be much more dynamic. The owner, with a few employees or partners, takes care of all the daily tasks. This is very different from large companies, with well-defined processes and several people involved in each decision. Therefore, ERP systems need to be different for each type of company.

The problem is that many small businesses operate without an ERP system — either because they don’t know the ideal solution for their profile or because they want to “save money.” So they organize themselves as best they can, with handwritten notes or spreadsheets.

However, this is not the ideal way to work, as we will vietnamese number explain throughout the article. Without an ERP, you may lose information, have inconsistent data, and spend much more time filling out spreadsheets or writing things down by hand. Putting off hiring an ERP for small businesses is bad, especially if you have ambitions to expand your business.

With all this in mind, you have already taken the first step on this subject by clicking on our content on ERP for small businesses. Below, we will explain everything about it, how it can help your company on a daily basis and what its main functions are.

What is an ERP for small businesses like?
An ERP for small businesses must be different from the computerized systems that large corporations use — especially because the needs of SMEs are very different from the reality of large corporations.

As we said in the introduction, working in a small business tends to be much more dynamic: each person takes care of several processes, from customer service to order preparation, as well as financial and administrative tasks. Therefore, it is common for people to be always busy, with no time to organize papers, notes or information in the system.

In view of this, the features of ERP for small businesses need to be adapted to this reality — prioritizing speed and practicality, but fulfilling all the functions you need. Speaking of which, the main functions of ERP for small businesses are:

control of the company's finances,
registration of orders or service orders,
inventory control,
issuing of bills and invoices,
reports for decision making,
customer registration.
In addition to these important functions, there are other aspects that you need to pay attention to when choosing your ERP. We have listed them below.

1. Practicality of use
To begin with, the essential quality of an ERP for small businesses is practicality . After all, you are hiring the system to improve your daily work and not to make it more complicated, right? Therefore, the system cannot demand too much time or too many steps for each task. Everything must be quick and simple.

In a good ERP system for small businesses, you need to access basic functions — such as generating invoices for customers, issuing service orders or issuing invoices — with just a few clicks, without having to navigate through multiple screens or fill out many forms.

In this regard, it is also important that the system is intuitive , so that you can learn to use it quickly and then get it working.

2. Support availability
Even if you choose a practical and simple-to-implement system, questions or problems can always arise. In these cases, you need to have a support team prepared and available to help you — especially since you need the ERP to continue working.

With this in mind, the ERP system for small businesses should offer a high-level technical team to answer your questions and solve your problems. Ideally, contact with the support team should be practical and quick, through channels such as chat, email and WhatsApp. Also, find out about the average response time for requests.

Speaking of which, research the opinions of current customers of the system. If people remain satisfied, then the company probably offers good after-sales support.

3. Adaptability to different situations
Above, we listed the main functions of any ERP for small businesses — sales, orders, inventory, customer registration, financial management, tax… But even among small businesses, there are differences that may require specific functions .

Think about restaurants, clothing stores, and auto repair shops. Even though these businesses are the same size, they have very different processes. A restaurant, for example, needs to keep track of tables and orders, a clothing store needs to create product grids (by size and color), while an auto repair shop will work with service orders.

Therefore, before hiring any ERP for small businesses, find out if it adapts to your segment , with the functions you need.