Engineering ERP Consultant, Canada

How a Canadian engineer-to-order job runs

For a Canadian engineering firm, a typical job starts with a request from an owner, an EPCM firm or a general contractor. Sales engineering prepares a quote combining design hours, purchased equipment, fabrication, controls, freight and an allowance for field installation and commissioning. Once awarded, approval drawings go to the customer, detailed design is released in packages, and purchasing orders long-lead items such as drives, gearboxes and instrumentation, often from the United States or Europe.

Fabrication and assembly happen in the shop, followed by a factory acceptance test. Then the equipment is shipped, sometimes in modules sized for the route to site, and a field crew installs and commissions it. On mining and energy projects, that site phase can be long, weather-dependent and expensive.

The problems I see most often follow from that shape:

• Field costs coded to overhead, so job margin looks better than it is until the credit card statements arrive.
• Change requests from site handled by phone and never priced.
• Purchasing working from a BOM spreadsheet that lags the latest drawing.
• Job cost in one system, progress billing in another and cash in a third.

I map this end to end in a process mapping session before any platform is discussed.

Engineering seals, electrical approvals and drawing control

Canadian engineering work carries professional obligations that an ERP should respect. Depending on the province and the type of work, drawings and design documents may need to be sealed by a licensed professional engineer before they are issued for construction or fabrication. Electrical equipment sold or installed in Canada generally needs certification or field evaluation by a recognized body before it can be energized. The rules are set by provincial regulators and authorities, and your engineering leadership knows which apply.

For the ERP, the practical requirement is status control. I usually specify:

• A drawing or document status that distinguishes draft, issued for approval, sealed and issued for fabrication.
• Items and BOMs released to purchasing and production only at the agreed status.
• A record of which revision each purchase order and work order was raised against.
• A checklist step for electrical approval before shipment or energizing, linked to the job.
• Change notices that reopen the status when a sealed design is revised.

Whether this lives in a PLM or document control tool with an integration, or in the ERP's own document features, depends on volume and the tools your engineers already use. I set out the options and the boundary between systems in the integration design.

Export permits, controlled goods and US-origin parts

Engineering firms in Canada that supply defense, aerospace, nuclear or certain industrial technologies can face export controls. Canada maintains its own export control list and permit system, and firms handling certain defense-related goods or technical data may need to be registered under the Controlled Goods Program. Separately, equipment containing US-origin parts or technology can carry US re-export obligations. I do not interpret any of these; your compliance lead or advisor does.

The ERP's job is to make those decisions stick across the business. Typical requirements include:

• Control classification and permit references stored on items, assemblies and drawing records.
• Country of origin captured for purchased components, so US-origin content can be identified.
• Restrictions on who can view controlled drawings, including visitors and contract designers.
• Shipment holds and an approval step for controlled items.
• An audit report of controlled shipments and drawing transfers.

Few mid-market platforms handle all of this without configuration or an add-on, so I treat it as a scored requirement during ERP evaluation rather than an afterthought.

SR&ED evidence and engineering change control

Many Canadian engineering firms claim SR&ED credits on development work, and the quality of the claim depends on records made at the time: who worked on what, which technical uncertainty they were addressing, what they tried and what changed. Too often those hours are reconstructed after year-end from memory and calendars.

An ERP can help without turning engineers into clerks. I set up:

• A short list of timesheet tasks that separates routine design, development, prototyping and testing on each job.
• Engineering change notices that record the reason for a change, which naturally documents iterations.
• Project notes or attachments for test results kept against the job, not in personal folders.
• Reports that group hours and materials by project and activity for your claim preparer.

Eligibility and the claim itself belong to your SR&ED preparer and accountant. My part is the structure.

The same change records serve job cost. When a revision affects open purchase orders or work in progress, the change notice shows who approved it and whether the change is chargeable to the customer. The rules are written into the solution design, which becomes the brief the implementer builds against.

Holdbacks, migration and remote collaboration

When your scope includes installation, provincial construction and prompt payment legislation can apply, with holdbacks withheld from progress payments until set conditions are met. The rules differ by province, so your lawyer or accountant confirms how they affect your contracts. In the ERP, I make sure holdbacks are tracked by job and customer, with expected release dates, and that GST/HST or provincial sales taxes follow the customer's location as advised.

Migration from QuickBooks, Sage or an older shop system focuses on open jobs: contract value, approved changes, budget, commitments, cost to date, billed to date, holdback held and remaining milestones. Completed jobs can stay archived in the old system.

If you mostly build repeat products, my Canadian manufacturing ERP page is the better fit, and my broader guide to ERP for engineering firms sets out the general approach. Collaboration is remote and spans Canadian time zones, from the Atlantic provinces to British Columbia, using online workshops and shared requirement documents. Engagement formats are described on the Canadian ERP consulting page and the Canada overview.