Digitising a business does not mean replacing all your software at once. It is usually wiser to start with the process that costs the most time or causes the most errors, keep what works and integrate in phases. Changing everything at once concentrates the risk in one moment and demands an effort few SMEs can sustain while still invoicing.
Where the idea that digitising means replacing comes from
Much of the market talks about digitisation as if it were a product: a new platform, a go-live date and a before and after. For a company of twenty or fifty people, that approach has a cost that never appears in the budget: months with two systems running in parallel, key people testing instead of selling, and the risk that the team goes back to Excel at the first difficulty.
Our position is that digitising means deciding which processes will be done differently, and why. The software comes afterwards. If it is not clear which problem you want to solve, no tool will solve it.
Start with what hurts, not with the catalogue
The useful starting point is the process that today generates the most repeated work, the most errors or the most dependence on a single person. Take a distributor in Osona (Catalonia) that receives orders by email, keeps stock in a spreadsheet and invoices with an old program. The first reasonable step is to bring orders and stock into one system and leave the accounting where it is until the financial year closes.
Or take a shop in Andorra with a point-of-sale terminal that works well and that the team knows. Replacing it for the sake of uniformity may make sense later, but at the start, connecting it to stock and invoicing usually brings more than changing it.
This way of working needs one condition: each phase must have an objective you can check. Fewer hours to close the month, orders that are not retyped, stock that matches the warehouse. If a phase cannot be measured in some way, it is hard to know whether it was worth it.
When a component does have to change
There are moments when changing is not optional. The clearest case in Spain is Veri*Factu. Real Decreto 1007/2023 (the Spanish royal decree on the requirements for invoicing software) sets the requirements that the programs supporting the invoicing of businesses and self-employed professionals must meet. After the amendment made by Real Decreto-ley 15/2025 (a royal decree-law), corporate income tax payers must have their systems adapted before 1 January 2027 and all other obliged parties before 1 July 2027. As of 25 October 2026, those are the dates in the consolidated text published in the BOE (Spain’s official state gazette). The regulation applies to corporate income tax payers, to personal income tax (IRPF) payers who carry on economic activities and to non-resident income tax payers with a permanent establishment (Article 3.1). An Andorran company with no permanent establishment in Spain is not listed; if you have one, check with your tax adviser.
Even here, the obligation affects the invoicing program, not the whole company. If the manufacturer of your current program can adapt it in time, updating it may be enough. If it will not, that is the moment to replace that component, and perhaps to take the opportunity to integrate it with sales and stock. What makes no sense is using a tax obligation as an excuse to change everything without having thought it through.
The other case is software that no longer has maintenance or that depends on a single person who knows it. It is not urgent until it fails, and when it fails it is usually at the worst possible moment.
Keep, connect or replace: a criterion for each component
The useful question is not whether a program is old, but whether you can get the data out of it and whether anyone maintains it. An old program with clean, exportable data can be replaced when the time comes; a modern one that traps the data is harder to leave.
| Situation of the component | What makes sense |
|---|---|
| It works, it is maintained and it can be connected | Keep it and connect it |
| It works, but it does not talk to the rest and forces you to key in the data twice | Integrate it; replace it only if there is no way to connect it |
| It is not maintained, it depends on a single person or it does not meet a legal obligation | Replace it, in phases |
| It stores the data in a format that only that program can read | Plan the export before deciding anything |
Data matters more than the program
In any change, the most underestimated part is the data. Duplicate customers, items with three different codes, price lists that only their creator understands. Migrating everything as it stands carries the mess over into the new system. Before moving anything, decide what is kept, what is cleaned and what is left in a reference archive, and test it with the people who will use it every day.
In phases, and with the people who will use it
We declare our interest: at BDR Group we implement the Odoo ERP and we also use it in our own business, so we have a stake in this topic. Odoo is modular and lets you start with the areas that have the most impact and extend it when the business needs it, which is how we prefer to work. Before configuring anything we carry out a diagnosis of the processes, and data coming from Excel or another ERP is prepared and validated before go-live. For companies in Andorra, the reference is erpandorra.ad, with Odoo adapted to IGI (Andorra’s general indirect tax), Model 500 and Andorran accounting.
Training, by user profile, is part of the project and not an annex. A system the team does not understand ends up living alongside parallel spreadsheets, and then you have paid twice for the same work.
What to do now
- List the processes that currently generate the most repeated work or errors, and pick one to start with.
- Define how you will know that phase has worked, using a simple indicator.
- Review which of your current programs work and can be connected, and which are no longer maintained.
- If you invoice in Spain, confirm in writing with the manufacturer whether your program will be adapted to Veri*Factu within the deadline that applies to you.
- Before migrating, clean up the customer, item and price list data.
Frequently asked questions
Can I start with just one area, for example sales or stock?
Yes. With a modular ERP the usual approach is to start with the areas that have the most impact and extend in phases. What matters is deciding from the start how it will connect with the rest.
Does Veri*Factu force me to change ERP?
Not necessarily. It obliges you to use an invoicing program that meets the requirements of Real Decreto 1007/2023. If the one you have is adapted in time, you may not need to change anything else.
How long does a phased digitisation take?
It depends on the scope, the number of users and the state of the data. A bounded phase with a clear objective is easier to plan and review than a project that includes everything.
What about a company in Andorra?
Veri*Factu is a Spanish rule and its scope is that of Article 3.1 of the regulation; an Andorran company with no permanent establishment in Spain is not listed in it. Digitisation follows the same phased approach, with an ERP adapted to Andorran taxation.
Sources
- Real Decreto 1007/2023, of 5 December, approving the Regulation that sets the requirements for invoicing computer systems and programs, Article 3 and fourth final provision (consolidated text, last updated 3 December 2025). BOE no. 291, 6 December 2023. Accessed: 25 October 2026. https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2023-24840
- Real Decreto-ley 15/2025, of 2 December, amending Real Decreto 1007/2023. BOE no. 290, 3 December 2025. Accessed: 25 October 2026. https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2025-24446
Let’s talk about your project
If you want to know where you would start in your case, see the service page: Odoo ERP for companies in Catalonia and the rest of Spain