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ERP budget template

How much should you budget for your ERP project? Start with the e21erp® budget template.

Create a comprehensive ERP budget

Establish a thorough budget early in the project

Calculating and developing an ERP project budget is one of the first steps in the ERP software selection process. The budget is necessary to create the business case, calculate an estimated return on investment, and compare potential software suppliers. Having a comprehensive budget is also critical for securing management support and financial backing for the project.

Consider both external and internal costs in your ERP budget

During the ERP selection process, there will come a time when potential vendors respond to a set of detailed system requirements and provide in-depth price proposals via an ERP RFP. While these price proposals cover a fair fraction of the overall ERP project cost, elements often overlooked in an ERP budget include many of the internal costs associated with the project.

Below are a few examples of these budget impacts that are often overlooked.

Staffing. Internal resources will need to dedicate time to the project, thus taking time and resources away from their regular daily tasks that still need to be performed.
Infrastructure. Depending on the current state of your company’s infrastructure, you may need to make additional investments. Infrastructure costs to support the ERP system may include improvements to Internet bandwidth, network security, printers, client PC configurations and operating system upgrades, and more.
Travel. If your team would like to visit an ERP vendor’s customer to see the software in action, you may need to allocate funding for travel costs.

The need for some of these items will largely depend on the selected ERP system. Even so, accounting for potential costs like these in the ERP budget ensures you haven’t overlooked anything that may be essential to your ERP implementation's success. Using a software project budget template can help you identify all the necessary costs for your ERP implementation.

Our E21 ERP Software Budget Template is free to download. It’s a great place to start, as it covers the full scope of an ERP project budget.

More ERP project planning resources

Needs Analysis

Are you beginning to see warning signs that your current systems are starting to breed operational inefficiencies?

Lessons Learned

ERP selection projects have seen successes and failures. Learn from others to make your project a success.

Selection Criteria

Knowing the right questions to ask is critical. Go beyond software requirements, and get to know the ERP vendor.

User Calculation Worksheet

Before calculating a budget, you’ll need to know how many user licenses are necessary for the new system.

ROI Analysis

Can you justify your ERP selection project budget through a return on investment (ROI) analysis?

ERP selection process steps

Successful ERP software selection projects must follow the right system evaluation process and methodology. Following and executing these five steps of the ERP selection process will provide your organization with the necessary information to make a well-informed, quantitative software selection.