Thirty-one questions to ask any ERP vendor.
Print our checklist, take it into every demo, and compare the answers side by side. The pattern in what vendors avoid answering is more informative than anything in their brochure.
Vendor demo · sample questions
- What does this system deliberately not do?
- What exactly comes across, and what does not?
- Who owns the integration when it breaks at 6pm on a Friday?
- What does hypercare cover, and for how long?
- What is the annual price escalation, and is it capped?
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Use it on everyone
Including us. A vendor who resents the list is answering it.
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The biggest tell
“What does this system deliberately not do?” reveals more than any brochure.
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Six categories
Scope, data, integration, delivery, commercial terms and risk.
The list
Six categories.
No wrong answers, just revealing ones.
Ask them in order. Take notes on hesitation as well as content — you are testing candour as much as capability.
01 · Scope and fit
- Which of our processes does the system handle out of the box, and which need configuration?
- Show us the transaction we described, in the software, on this call.
- What does this system deliberately not do?
- Which of your existing customers looks most like us?
- Is the demo environment the shipping product, or a build we will not receive?
02 · Data and migration
- What exactly comes across, and what does not?
- Who cleans the item and customer data, us or you?
- How much transaction history is migrated, and what does more of it cost?
- How are opening balances reconciled and signed off?
- What does the data extract look like if we leave in three years?
03 · Integration
- Is the accounting integration two-way, and at what frequency?
- What happens to a transaction that fails validation mid-sync?
- Which storefront and marketplace connectors are standard versus bespoke?
- Is there a published API and sandbox, and what are the rate limits?
- Who owns the integration when it breaks at 6pm on a Friday?
04 · Implementation and training
- Who implements: you, or a partner we have not met?
- Name the consultant and tell us how many deployments in our industry they have run.
- Is implementation fixed-scope or time-and-materials?
- How is training delivered, to which roles, and on whose data?
- What does hypercare cover, and for how long?
05 · Commercial and contract
- Total first-year cost: licence, implementation, integrations, training, support.
- How does licence cost change as we add users, locations or entities?
- What is the annual price escalation, and is it capped?
- What are the published support response targets, and what are the remedies?
- What are the exit terms, notice period and data-return obligations?
- Which costs in this proposal are estimates rather than fixed?
06 · Risk and operations
- Where is our data hosted, and under which jurisdiction?
- How are permissions structured, and can we restrict by location?
- How and when are updates applied, and can they break our configuration?
Our answers We publish ours across this site — pricing structure, implementation method, support targets and integration detail. If anything is missing, ask and we will add it.
Book a demo
Try the list
on us first.
Book a session and work straight down it. We would rather answer thirty-one hard questions now than discover a mismatch in week three of an implementation.
- 60 minutes, run by an implementation consultant
- Your data and your workflows, not a demo company
- Straight answer on fit, cost and timeline