ERP RFP Template: NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, Workday (2026)
An ERP RFP that gets at the things sales decks hide: industry-template fit, honest implementation timeline, full integration scope, and 5-year TCO. Section structure designed to make sales reps actually answer the questions, not paste their standard collateral.
Section 1: Organisation context
- Industry and sub-industry (NetSuite SuiteSuccess, SAP IS-* solutions, MS D365 industry accelerators are pre-built for specific industries; mismatch costs you 6+ months).
- Company size: total headcount, FTE finance, FTE supply chain or operations.
- Geographic footprint: entities by country, currencies, statutory reporting requirements (US GAAP, IFRS, country-specific).
- Current ERP and what is broken about it. If greenfield, what you currently use for GL, AP, AR, inventory, and what is becoming untenable.
- Year-1 budget envelope (give a range - it tells vendors what tier to quote).
Section 2: Required ERP modules and capabilities
2.1 Core financials
- General Ledger with multi-entity, multi-currency, intercompany eliminations.
- Accounts Payable with PO matching, approval workflows, vendor portal.
- Accounts Receivable with revenue recognition (ASC 606 / IFRS 15).
- Fixed Assets with depreciation by book (corporate, tax, IFRS).
- Cash management and bank reconciliation with file or API connectivity to our banks.
- Period close: target 5-day close, document the steps the platform supports natively.
2.2 Supply chain / inventory / operations (if applicable)
- Inventory management: lot / serial tracking, FIFO / LIFO / standard costing.
- Warehouse management: bin / location tracking, mobile receiving and picking.
- Order management: B2B order entry, drop-ship handling, returns.
- Procurement: requisition, PO, vendor catalogues, supplier scoring.
- Manufacturing (if applicable): BOM, work orders, MRP run cadence, shop-floor capacity.
2.3 Industry-specific requirements
List your industry's specific accounting / operational quirks here. Examples: project accounting for services firms, percentage-of-completion for construction, multi-element revenue recognition for SaaS, lot-genealogy for food/pharma, store-level reporting for retail, multi-club / multi-program rev rec for fitness or membership.
Section 3: Integration scope (the section everyone underspecifies)
List every external system that will exchange data with the ERP. For each, specify: direction (push / pull / bi-di), frequency (real-time / hourly / daily / monthly), record volume, what happens when the integration fails.
- CRM: [your CRM] - typically Opportunity-to-Order, Customer-to-Account, Quote-to-Invoice.
- E-commerce: [your platform] - product catalogue, order, inventory sync.
- Banking: [your banks] - file-based or API-based; statement import + payment initiation.
- Payroll: [your provider] - GL journal posting, headcount and dept allocation.
- Expense management: [your tool] - approved expenses to AP.
- EDI partners: [list trading partners] - inbound 850, 855, 856, 810 and outbound counterparts.
- Data warehouse: [your tool] - daily or near-real-time replication.
- Identity / SSO: [Okta / Azure AD] - SCIM provisioning.
Section 4: Pricing format required
- License or subscription cost broken down by user type (Full User, Self-Service User, Read-Only, Employee Self-Service).
- Platform / tier fee separately.
- Module costs separately (most ERPs sell modules à la carte; bundle the ones you need only).
- Year-2, 3, 4, 5 price uplifts in contract.
- Implementation services: rough cost range, partner-led or vendor-led, what is included.
- Sandbox / dev / UAT environment cost.
- Storage / API call overage rates.
- 5-year TCO summary line.
Section 5: Implementation
- Proposed implementation timeline by phase (discovery, design, build, test, train, go-live, stabilisation).
- Who leads: vendor team, certified partner, our team. Named resource bios for the lead consultant and project manager.
- Methodology: SuiteSuccess, SAP Activate, Sure Step, etc. - which one and where you tailor it.
- Reference customers in our industry, same size band, who went live in the last 24 months. Three references minimum, each available for a 30-minute call.
- Cutover risk: data migration approach, dry runs scheduled, rollback plan.
- Post-go-live support: hyper-care period length, ongoing managed services option.