ERP or business system – what is the difference?
- Author:
- Christos Potamitis
- Published:
- 2 min read
Short answer
An ERP (affärssystem) is usually an off-the-shelf package for finance, invoicing, stock and purchasing, such as Fortnox, Visma or Business Central. A business system (verksamhetssystem) is the system for the daily work itself, such as bookings, work orders or projects, and can be built for exactly how you work. Many companies need both, connected to each other.
What is an ERP?
An ERP brings together a company's finances and the workflows tied to them:
- Bookkeeping and VAT
- Invoicing and accounts receivable
- Stock and purchasing
- Financial reports
Common ERPs in Sweden include Fortnox, Visma, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Monitor and Pyramid.
What is a business system?
A business system is where the actual work happens. What it contains depends on the industry:
- A construction company: change orders, timesheets and site registers.
- A service company: work orders and job planning.
- A warehouse: picking, stocktaking and orders.
- A property manager: fault reports and contracts.
The difference in short
- The ERP starts from the finances and is usually the same package for many different companies.
- The business system starts from the daily work and is often tailored to the industry or built for the company.
Do we need both?
Often, yes. The ERP is best at the finances, and most companies want to keep it. The business system handles the work. Connect them and, for example, a finished work order becomes invoicing data in the ERP automatically.
Small companies sometimes manage with just an ERP, as long as the daily work fits in it. When the work starts ending up in spreadsheets on the side, it is a sign a business system is needed.
How to choose
- Start from the work, not the software: what gets in the way day to day?
- Keep the ERP if the finances work.
- Choose a business system that follows your terms and steps.
- Make sure the systems can talk to each other.
Naexit builds business systems around how you work, connected to Fortnox, Visma or the ERP you already have. Read more about business systems.
Frequently asked questions
- Yes, Fortnox is usually counted as an ERP for smaller companies, with bookkeeping and invoicing and add-ons for stock and orders, among other things.
- Enterprise resource planning, the English term for affärssystem.
- Rarely, and it usually isn't needed. Bookkeeping and VAT are best handled in an ERP. The business system connects to it instead.
- It depends on how much it should do and what it connects to. A system for a single workflow is much smaller than one covering the whole business.
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