How to choose an ERP in India: a buyer's checklist

A vendor-neutral ERP selection checklist for India: GST, operations fit, AI level, permissions, data export, hosting, pricing and implementation.

To choose an ERP in India, check every vendor against the same nine areas: GST and statutory compliance, fit with how your operations actually run, what the AI genuinely does, permissions and audit, data ownership and export, hosting and data location, pricing model, implementation path, and references from companies like yours. This checklist gives you the questions to ask in each area, with no product in mind. AxisIQ, which publishes this guide, appears once near the end and is scored against the same list, including where it falls short.

Use it as a working document. Score each vendor 0 (no), 1 (partly, or with a workaround) or 2 (yes, shown in a demo on your data) for each line, and keep notes on anything a vendor would only promise in writing.

1. GST and statutory compliance

For most Indian companies this is the first filter, because your CA will veto anything that cannot produce clean statutory output.

• Does it generate GST e-invoices (IRN) and e-way bills, or integrate with a tool that does?
• Does it prepare GST returns and handle TDS, or does your CA do that elsewhere?
• Does it sync with Tally, or export in a form your CA can import?
• Who is responsible when a statutory format changes: the vendor, a partner, or you?

Decide first whether you want compliance inside the ERP or kept in your existing accounting tool with a clean hand-off. Both are legitimate; mixing them without a plan is what causes month-end pain.

2. Operations fit

Software that fits your process beats software with more modules.

• Can it model your actual records (your order stages, your stock units, your job types) without customisation code?
• Does it handle stock across several locations: godown, store, branch?
• Is there barcode scanning for receiving, picking and dispatch?
• How does it collect money: UPI, payment links, card? Does a payment settle against the invoice automatically?
• Can it send WhatsApp, SMS and email from your own accounts?
• If you manufacture: does it do MRP, BOM explosion and production planning, or only job tracking?
• Does it need payroll and HR inside it, or will you keep those separate?

Ask for the demo on your own data: a real order, a real stock transfer, a real customer. A demo on the vendor's sample company tells you little.

3. AI capability: which level is it?

Every vendor now says "AI". The useful question is which level:

Questions to ask:

• Does the assistant work on the live system, or on exported files?
• Can it see data the person asking cannot see?
• Which actions need an explicit confirmation?
• Is AI included in the price, or billed as credits or units?

4. Permissions and audit

• Can you grant access per module at levels like view, edit and full control?
• Can you hide individual fields (cost price, salary, margin) from a role?
• Is there an audit trail of who changed what, with before and after values, that nobody can edit?
• Does it support two-factor sign-in or passkeys?
• Do automations and integrations run with limited permissions, or as an all-powerful system user?

5. Data ownership and export

• Can you export all of your data yourself, at any time, without a fee?
• In what format: CSV, a database dump, an API?
• If you use a partner, whose account holds your database?
• What happens to your data if you stop paying?

6. Hosting and data location

• Where is your data stored? Is it hosted in India?
• Is your company's data isolated from other customers', or in a shared database?
• Is it encrypted at rest and in transit? How often is it backed up, and have restores been tested?
• Does it hold the certifications your customers ask about (SOC 2, ISO 27001)? Ask for the report, not a logo.
• Does it work in a browser from anywhere, and is there a native mobile app or offline mode if your floor needs one?

7. Pricing model

• Per user, per module, or a platform fee with users included?
• Do floor, warehouse or counter staff need a full licence?
• Are AI features metered separately?
• Is it billed in INR with a GST invoice?
• What is the price at renewal? Put a three-year number in writing.

Our ERP implementation cost guide has a worksheet for totalling this properly.

8. Implementation path

• Who implements it: you, the vendor, or a certified partner?
• How many partner days are quoted, and what happens when they overrun?
• Which of your requirements are configuration, and which need custom code?
• How is data migrated, and how many trial loads are included?
• Can you start with one team and expand, or is it all at once?

9. Reviews and references

• Ask for two or three references of your size and industry, and call them.
• Ask the reference what took longer than planned and what they would do differently.
• Read reviews on G2, Capterra, SoftwareSuggest and Techjockey, looking for patterns in the complaints rather than the star rating.
• Ask your CA which systems they find easy to work with at month end.

Red flags in an ERP sales process

• The demo never uses your data.
• "That is just a small customisation" without a written estimate.
• Pricing that only appears after a discovery workshop.
• No clear answer about exporting your data.
• AI features that turn out to be a separate paid tier.

How AxisIQ scores against this checklist

AxisIQ is business operating intelligence: one live model of the company with Axis, an assistant that answers, notices and does the work. Here is how it scores on the same nine areas.

Read that table the way you would read any vendor's: if GST filing, MRP or payroll must live inside the ERP, AxisIQ is not your answer. If the problem is operations scattered across spreadsheets and WhatsApp, and you are happy to keep statutory accounting with your CA, it is worth a trial. ERP software for growing companies in India explains the fit in detail, and the comparisons with Zoho One, Odoo and traditional ERP are written to the same standard. You can book a demo built on your own business.

FAQ

How do I choose the right ERP software for my company? Score every vendor on the same nine areas: statutory compliance, operations fit, AI level, permissions and audit, data export, hosting, pricing model, implementation path and references. Insist on a demo using your own data and a written three-year cost.

What should an ERP selection checklist include? At minimum: GST and Tally hand-off, multi-location stock, payment collection, field-level permissions and audit, full data export, data location, renewal pricing, who implements it, and calls with references of your size.

Should GST compliance be inside the ERP? Not necessarily. Many Indian companies keep statutory accounting in Tally or their CA's tool and run operations in a separate system, with a clean export between them. What matters is deciding which pattern you want before you choose.

How do I evaluate AI features in ERP software? Ask which level it reaches: extraction, answers, drafts or actions. For anything that acts, check that it runs under the asking person's permissions, confirms before money or messages, and records every change in an audit trail. Also ask whether AI is billed separately.

What questions should I ask an ERP vendor? Who implements it and for how many days; which requirements need custom code; how we export all our data; where our data is hosted; what year two and year three cost; and which three customers like us we can call.