A 30 day ERP pilot checklist for a small business
The short answerRun a small, time boxed pilot before you move the whole company. Pick one workflow that hurts, import clean data for it, set roles and approvals, run it beside your current process for 30 days, and decide using measures you wrote down on day one instead of impressions.
Key takeaways
- Start with one workflow that is painful, frequent and contained, not with the whole company.
- Clean the data before you import it, and set roles before anyone logs in.
- Run the new system beside the old process and write down every difference.
- Agree the measures on day one so the decision at the end is about evidence.
Before day one: choose the workflow
The biggest mistake in an ERP project is trying to move everything at once. Choose a single workflow with three properties: it hurts today, it happens often enough to learn from in a month, and it is contained enough that you can run it beside the old way without risk.
- Quote to invoice to payment. CRM, quotes, invoices and payments. See from lead to payment.
- Attendance and leave to payroll. The chain from the clock to the payslip. See payroll, attendance and time off.
- Purchase to stock. Orders, receipts, inventory and the warehouse.
Write down what "better" means for that workflow. Time to produce an invoice, number of corrections per month, hours spent reconciling at month end, and how the team feels about the tool are all reasonable. Fix the list now, before you have seen the new system.
Week 1: data and roles
Bring in only the data the chosen workflow needs. Essentials and Scale include self serve migration tools, and Enterprise adds a migration project run with our team. Before importing, clean what you can: merge duplicate customers, agree one unit of measure per product, and check that tax rates are right.
Then set up who can do what before anyone logs in. Every paid plan has five built in roles (Super Admin, Manager, Employee, Developer and Viewer), plus custom access groups and record level rules. Giving people the narrowest role that lets them do their job is easier to start with than to retrofit.
Weeks 2 and 3: run it side by side
Do the real work in the new system while keeping the old process as the reference. At the end of each week compare the two: do the totals match, do the same customers appear, is anything missing. Keep a plain list of every difference and decide for each whether it is a data problem, a setup problem or a genuine gap in the product.
If you are testing the AI assistant, do it with low stakes first. Use Ask first mode, so every change pauses for your approval, and read what it proposes before approving. Check afterwards that the outcome is in the activity history under the right person.
Week 4: decide with evidence
Return to the measures you wrote on day one. Count the corrections, time the invoice, ask the team. Three outcomes are possible, and all of them are useful:
- It works for this workflow. Move it fully, retire the old process for that workflow and pick the next one.
- It works with changes. Decide whether the changes are configuration, a custom field or module, or something to raise with the vendor. See customizing without a developer.
- It does not fit. You have learned that cheaply, in 30 days, with one workflow.
Questions for the vendor
- What is available today, and what is on a roadmap? Agaro ERP is in its Preview / Pilot phase, so ask for the exact workflow to be confirmed.
- How is the pilot priced? For Agaro, the exact plan, allowances and terms are confirmed with you before anything is billed, and this website does not take payments.
- How do I get my data out again, if I decide to leave?
- Who do I talk to when something is wrong, and how fast do they reply?
Questions people ask
How many people should join the pilot?
Include everyone who touches the chosen workflow and nobody else. Between three and ten people is usually enough to learn from, and it keeps the pilot easy to supervise.
Should we migrate all our data first?
No. Import only the data the pilot workflow needs, after cleaning it. You can add more once the first workflow is working.
What if the pilot shows gaps?
That is what the pilot is for. List each gap, decide whether it is configuration, a custom field or module, or a product limit, and take the list to the vendor. A good answer is specific about what can be done and when.
Does Agaro charge during the pilot?
During the Preview / Pilot we confirm your exact plan, allowances and terms with you before anything is billed. The website does not take payments. Talk to us to discuss your workflow.
Cite or share this guide
Agaro Technologies. "A 30 day ERP pilot checklist for a small business." Agaro blog, November 5, 2026. https://agaro.ai/blog/erp-pilot-checklist-small-business