ERP Selection Consultant, Spain

Compliance questions that narrow a Spanish shortlist

Spanish invoicing rules have been moving for some time, and the details depend on your company's size, tax regime and location. That makes them a good first filter. Before any demo, every candidate answers the same questions in writing:

Your asesor fiscal confirms which of these apply to you, because timelines and scope have shifted more than once. I do not give tax advice; I make sure the answers are written, comparable and later reflected in the contract. The requirement lines behind these questions are the kind described on my Spanish ERP business analyst page.

What Spanish companies weigh at different sizes

Once the compliance answers are in, the shortlist follows the shape of the business. In Spanish selections the candidates I see considered usually fall into these groups:

• Small companies and young firms: cloud tools such as Holded or Zoho, or Odoo with a narrow scope. The question is whether they will cope with stock, projects or a second entity in the next stage of growth.
• Growing distributors, manufacturers and service firms: Odoo Enterprise, Business Central, ERPNext, and Spanish-market products from Sage or the a3 range, which many gestorías and advisors already know.
• Groups and subsidiaries: a parent's ERP with a Spanish localization, Business Central across several companies, or Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations where scale and consolidation call for it.

Familiarity with your advisor's tools is a real advantage, but it is one criterion among several. A product that suits the gestoría may struggle with your warehouse, and an international suite may need partner modules for Spanish specifics. I weigh both, and the file records why each rejected candidate left the list. For the wider context of how I work with Spanish companies, see my ERP consultant page for Spain.

Demo scripts built from Spanish transactions

A vendor's standard demo rarely includes the transactions that cause trouble in a Spanish back office. I write scripts from your own data and ask every shortlisted vendor to run them live:

1. Issue an invoice, then a corrective invoice that partially credits it, keeping series and numbering consistent, and show the resulting invoice records.
2. Create a SEPA direct debit remittance for several customers, then process a returned debit and its charges.
3. Pay suppliers through a confirming arrangement with your bank and show the accounting.
4. Sell goods to a customer in another EU country and show how the transaction feeds the recapitulative statement.
5. Where relevant, sell from a Canary Islands entity or invoice from a Basque one, and show the regional handling.
6. Close a month and produce the reports your asesor fiscal uses.

Your department heads mark every scenario with how it was achieved: out of the box, through setup, through an add-on module or only with development. That distinction matters in Spain because compliance features delivered by an add-on have their own owner, update cycle and support contract. Notes, scores and open questions are captured during each session, and follow-up answers are requested in writing. The scoring approach is described under ERP evaluation.

Spanish integrators, add-on modules and who maintains them

In Spain, the same product may be offered by several integrators, and their proposals often differ in how compliance is delivered. One may include its own SII and invoicing system module; another relies on a third-party connector; a third assumes the vendor's standard localization covers everything. When rules change, each route leads to a different party responsible for the update.

I break every proposal into the same lines: licenses, compliance modules, configuration, data migration, bank formats, layouts, training, hosting and support. Against each line I note whether the integrator covers it fully, covers it on conditions, or expects your staff to do it. Gaps I regularly find:

• Compliance modules priced for one company when the group has several.
• No mention of who updates the modules when regulations or tax agency formats change.
• Data transfer quoted for customers, suppliers and items only, ignoring unpaid invoices and pending remittances.
• Training assumed to happen in a few sessions without role-based content.

Every such gap is put to the integrator as a question, and the reply is scored like any other evidence. I also ask for named team members and references in a similar sector. If you already hold proposals and want them reviewed on their own, see my vendor proposal review.

Data protection, the contract and how the work runs

An ERP stores personal data on staff, customers and suppliers, so GDPR and Spain's own data protection law shape the selection. Each vendor answers the same questions: hosting region for production and backups, subprocessors with access, how support access is logged, how a data processing agreement is set up and how all data can be exported at exit. Your lawyer or data protection officer reviews the answers.

In the contract review I confirm that the scope document lists the demonstrated scenarios, ties acceptance to them, assigns responsibility for keeping compliance modules current and sets a change request process with approval steps. Any clause that stays vague is returned for rewording while you still have leverage.

The work runs remotely in English, in the hours that overlap between Spain and India, with written notes after each session; management can ask for an in-person meeting by arrangement. You keep the screening answers, demo scripts, scores, proposal comparison and recommendation. Those documents carry straight into delivery, where my ERP implementation oversight for Spain picks up. The general method is on the ERP vendor selection page, and the Spain overview lists everything else I offer.