What an ERP Health Check Involves - and What It Costs

An ERP health check is a structured review of your ERP system: its data, configuration, licensing, security, integrations and how people actually use it. A good one ends with a short, prioritised list that tells you what is wrong, how much it matters and what it would take to fix.

This guide explains what a health check should examine, what you should get out of it, and how to think about cost, including our own free check.

What a health check examines

A real review is a checklist, not a conversation. Here is what a thorough one looks at, and the kind of warning sign each area tends to surface.

Area examined	What it checks	Typical warning sign
Data quality	Duplicates, orphaned records, blank mandatory fields, stale master data	Duplicate customers and items set up without posting groups
Chart of accounts and dimensions	Account structure, dimension design, posting rules	Dimensions used as a substitute for a proper chart of accounts
Configuration	Setup against the standard for your version	Manual workarounds left in place because setup was never finished
Licensing	Licence types, user counts, unused seats	Users on a fuller licence than their work needs
Security and permissions	Permission sets, administrator accounts, segregation of duties	One shared administrator login; no split between paying and approving
Integrations	Connectors, sync failures, error logs	A bank feed or connector failing silently
Reporting	Report accuracy, manual rekeying, conflicting versions	Several versions of the same profit and loss that do not agree

For Business Central, Microsoft's licensing page sets out the Essentials, Premium and Team Members licences, and its guide to assigning permissions explains the permission sets a review should check.

Key PointKey point: The point is not a long audit nobody reads. It is to find the handful of issues that cost real time, money or risk, and to rank them.

What you should get out of it

The output should be a prioritised list, not a lecture. For every finding, a good report gives you:

The issue, in plain terms, with evidence such as a screenshot or a record count.
The impact, whether financial, operational or compliance, rated high, medium or low.
The effort to fix, and whether it is configuration, data clean-up or development.
A recommendation: do it now, plan it in, or leave it alone.

That ranking of impact against effort is the whole value. It lets a finance director say which few changes would make the biggest difference, and why.

Pro TipPro tip: Ask to see a sample report before any review starts. If it does not rank findings by impact and effort, it will not help you decide what to do first.

What it costs

Our own ERP Health Check is free. You tell us where your system is letting you down, and we send a short, tailored report on where to focus first, with no obligation and no hard sell. It scores six areas: reporting and month-end, data and integrations, real-time visibility, process and automation, key-person risk, and fit for growth.

A deeper, hands-on review, where a consultant works inside your system, is a consulting job priced on scope. The main drivers are the number of companies, users and integrations. Ask any provider for a fixed, written quote before work starts.

Watch OutWatch out: Be wary of anyone who will not describe the scope and the deliverable in writing before they start. You should know exactly what you will receive and when.

When you do not need one

Skip a deep review, or start with the free check, if:

You already know the problem. If month-end is slow because you close manually, read our guide to how to speed up your month-end close and act on it.
You went live recently with a reputable partner. Give adoption time to settle before auditing it.
You are already committed to replacing the system. Spend the effort on requirements for the new one instead.
It is a training problem, not a system problem. If the software works and people are not using it well, you need enablement.

A full review earns its place when you have several nagging symptoms, no clear cause, and a decision to make about whether to invest in the current system or move on. Our guide to the signs you have outgrown your ERP helps with that decision. For independent guidance on finance systems, the ICAEW technology resources are a useful reference.

Frequently asked questions

What does an ERP health check cost? Ours is free. A deeper, hands-on review is priced on scope, so ask for a fixed written quote.

What does the free check cover? Six areas: reporting and month-end, data and integrations, real-time visibility, process and automation, key-person risk, and fit for growth.

Will it just be a pitch to sell me more work? No. The free check is a short report on where to focus first, and many findings are things you can fix yourself.