Questions
What buyers ask us before they sign.
Straight answers on cost, timelines, Tally migration, GST compliance and who owns what — the things worth settling before a project starts.
How much does a custom ERP cost for a small business in India?
Cost is driven by three things: how many modules you run on day one, how many users and branches you have, and how much legacy data needs cleaning before it moves. A single-branch billing and stock rollout sits at the lower end; multi-branch ERP with purchase, credit control and outside integrations sits well above it. We quote a fixed scope after a discovery call.
How long does it take to go live with a custom ERP?
Plan in months, not weeks, for a full ERP — but you should see working software far earlier. We ship in short loops, so a first usable module, usually billing or stock, lands early and the rest follows while your team is already using it. What actually stretches timelines is messy legacy data, unclear internal approvals, and adding scope mid-build.
Can you migrate our data from Tally or Busy?
Yes. Masters, ledgers, stock items and opening balances move across; we map fields with your accountant and reconcile balances before cutover. Two practical points: migrate at a financial year-end or quarter-end so you are not splitting a year across two systems, and budget time for cleanup, because duplicate parties and dead SKUs should not come with you. Keep Tally read-only as a fallback initially.
Why build custom instead of buying Tally, Zoho or ERPNext?
Buy off-the-shelf if your process is standard — plain accounting, simple stock, no unusual pricing. Custom ERP earns its cost when the software has to match how you actually trade: grade- and size-wise stock, weight-based rates, part-loads, committed versus free quantity, credit limits checked before an order is confirmed. If you are bending your business to fit the software's screens, that is the signal.
Is SteelERP GST compliant? Does it handle e-invoicing and e-way bills?
Yes. Invoicing is GST-compliant, with e-way bill support, credit notes and ledger posting in the same step as the invoice. Dispatch captures actual weights, vehicle details and part-loads, so what leaves the godown and what appears on the bill match. Because GST rules change, compliance handling is something we keep updated rather than treat as a one-time build.
Where is our business data stored, and who can see it?
You choose — your own cloud account, an Indian cloud region, or your on-premise server. Access inside the system is role-based and multi-tenant, so sales sees quotations, stores sees stock, and accounts sees ledgers, not everything. During development we work on test or masked data wherever possible. Under India's DPDP Act you remain accountable for customer data, so this gets written down, not assumed.
Can an AI agent handle customer enquiries without giving wrong answers?
Only if it is built to refuse rather than guess. We ground agents in your own documents and data using RAG, restrict them to a defined scope, and hand off to a human the moment a question falls outside it — so AI Counsellor qualifies and books, it does not improvise policy. Every conversation is logged so you can audit what it said.
Who owns the source code and the data once the project is done?
Ownership is agreed in writing before work starts, and for custom builds we hand over source code, database and documentation on completion. Your business data stays yours throughout and is exportable in standard formats, so there is no lock-in if you ever change vendors. If confidentiality matters, ask for an NDA before you share process details — that is normal here.
Will our staff actually use it? They are used to Excel and paper.
Adoption is the real risk in an SME ERP, not the technology. We keep the daily screens close to the words your team already uses — grade, size, godown, party, loading slip — instead of importing generic ERP jargon. Rollout is module by module with training on your own data, and we stay close through the first billing cycle, when the real questions appear.
Still deciding? Thirty minutes is usually enough to tell whether software is the answer.
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