ERP Requirements Gathering Template

What is an ERP Requirements Gathering Checklist?

An ERP requirements list, ERP RFI & RFP template or ERP selection template (as it is widely known) is a document which catalogues the requirements for an ERP project. The ERP template is used during request for information (RFI) and request for proposal (RFP) interactions between organisations and ERP suppliers.

The document outlines ERP vendor selection criterias and specifies the features and functions that a company needs it's enterprise resource planning solution to cover. It also acts as an ERP evaluation template and includes information on other topics that are important for an ERP evaluation, including data security, integration and user experience. The ERP requirements specification document should also provide an area for potential solution providers to give feedback on the functionality their solution provides including functionality, implementation, license and services costs.

We recommend that your ERP business requirements template provides as much detail as possible to potential ERP suppliers and vendors, so that they can accurately respond. It's also important that you have internal agreement amongst your ERP project team on what the ERP requirements template is asking for.

What is an ERP functional requirements document?

An ERP functional requirements document is used to gather the modules and features a business needs from an ERP system. These documents are typically used when an ERP transformation or evaluation process is happening. An ERP functional requirements document is typically distributed to ERP software vendors and partners.

What is an ERP Requirements Template?

An ERP requirements list, ERP RFI template or ERP selection template (as it is widely known) is a document which catalogues the requirements for an ERP project. The ERP template is used during request for information (RFI) and request for proposal (RFP) interactions between organisations and ERP suppliers.

The document outlines ERP vendor selection criterias and specifies the features and functions that a company needs it's enterprise resource planning solution to cover. It also acts as an ERP evaluation template and includes information on other topics that are important for an ERP evaluation, including data security, integration and user experience. The ERP requirements specification document should also provide an area for potential solution providers to give feedback on the functionality their solution provides including functionality, implementation, license and services costs.

We recommend that your ERP business requirements template provides as much detail as possible to potential ERP suppliers and vendors, so that they can accurately respond. It's also important that you have internal agreement amongst your ERP project team on what the ERP requirements template is asking for.

How to Build an ERP Requirements List

Our ERP requirements template and ERP functional requirements document is the perfect place to start your ERP evaluation process.  Here are the recommended best practices for your ERP evaluation:

1.  Decide your ERP Deployment Model

Firstly it's important to consider whether you are purchasing and evaluating Cloud ERP or On-Premise ERP software. This is the starting point of your ERP requirements gathering process. Our ERP requirements template includes criteria for selecting both On-Premise and Cloud ERP software.

2. Finalise the scope of your ERP Project

Before evaluating ERP software, it's critical to ensure you have a firm understanding of your ERP project scope. This means you need to understand which ERP modules and features will be part of your ERP evaluation and requirements selection. Common ERP features can include the likes of:

Financial Management & Accounting

Finance is often the core feature of an ERP system and is a key requirement for your accounting executives and team.

Popular finance and accounting ERP requirements include features such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, financial consolidation, cash management, treasury management, budgeting, multi-GAAP, invoicing, invoice automation, bank reconciliation, multiple legal entities, accounting localizations, expenses and travel management, approval processes and auditing.

If your organisation operates in multiple countries then you'll also need to investigate the localization capabilities of your chosen ERP system to ensure tax compliance, VAT reporting and more.

As well as typical finance functions like general ledger, AP & AR, you'll also want to evaluate how your finance function performs more specialised accounting duties and whether these are part of your core ERP requirements or fall into seperate solutions. For example, how do you perform financial planning and analysis? Where does your financial reporting happen and how do you generate board packs? How do you consolidate financial transactions and reports from multiple legal entities? These are all considerations for your finance team when generating your list of finance ERP needs specification.

Human Resources Management

Typically, ERP systems do not include comprehensive HRIS features and these capabilities are usually delegated to specific HR tools. Despite this, ERP and HR systems typically have some crossover in their requirements and will be required to interface. Whereas a purpose built HR system will include recruitment, applicant tracking (ATS), onboarding, compliance, learning and development, career progression, payroll, benefits, intranet, employee wellness and wellbeing. ERP systems typically include skills matrixes, time recording and tracking, expenses and more.

Sales & Distribution

Sales order generation and invoicing is typically an ERP function and is a key part of your ERP requirements document in most cases. As well as invoicing, you may wish to consider e-commerce or integration into online shops and platforms, as well as  customer portals, sales and marketing automation. These functions typically sit outside of your core ERP system, but considering your entire IT architecture is key when selecting an ERP system as you will need to think about the flow of data and end to end processes.

Project Management & Professional Services Automation

For professional services organisations, engineering and construction firms, project and programme management and/or professional services automation are often key ERP requirements. You should think about how you capture and record time, materials and costs as well as forecast lead times, your supply chain and more. You may also wish to record employee expenses, mileage and bill these costs internally or back to your clients. Finally, if you perform commercial project management for your clients, you may require project milestone billing. 

Stock & Inventory Management

Picking and packing, barcode scanning, RFID tracking, first in first out FIFO.

Manufacturing & Production

Production scheduling, bill of materials management, materials requirements planning and more.

Robotic Process Automation & Artificial Intelligence

Automate manual processes in your ERP system and other applications.

Analytics & Business Intelligence

Realtime business analytics and analysis, database, data management.

3. Document & Prioritise your ERP Requirements

It's important to document your ERP requirements and prioritise them properly using our ERP requirements template. This allows you to speed up your ERP selection process by ensuring your organization is aligned on the most important features and elements.

4. Distribute your ERP Requirements to ERP Vendors

Once you have tailored and finalised our ERP requirements template, it can be circulated to potential ERP vendors such as SAP, Oracle, Netsuite and Microsoft Dynamics.  Alternatively, you can also circulate your ERP requirements checklist to specialised partners depending on your organization. If you are a small or midsized business, you may prefer to work with a local ERP boutique partners.