Last updated: 6 October 2026 · Independent buyer’s guide · We do not sell rankings or coverage.
The ERP systems that belong on your shortlist depend on your entity structure, how you run payroll, and how much budget certainty you need. For most Australian mid-market companies, a credible starting list is drawn from Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, MYOB Acumatica, Sage Intacct and Odoo, with Pronto Xi added for distributors that trade with major retailers. NetSuite fits multi-entity groups that need automated consolidation but has no Australian payroll. Business Central publishes AUD pricing but also leaves payroll to a separate product. MYOB Acumatica documents native STP Phase 2 payroll. No single system suits every profile, so this checklist shows how to narrow the field to three vendors and test them.
Key takeaways
- Write down the five to ten problems the new system must fix before you speak to any vendor, and score every candidate against that list.
- Decide early whether payroll will run inside the ERP or in a separate product, because NetSuite and Business Central do not document Australian payroll.
- Ask every vendor whether its software lodges BAS through SBR or only produces the figures, and do not accept “yes, we do BAS” as an answer.
- Budget on a five-year total cost that includes licences, implementation, payroll, integrations, support and renewal increases.
- Judge the implementation partner as closely as the software, and speak to at least two Australian customers the partner has taken live.
- Use review sites to find questions to ask, not to pick a winner, and check which reviews were incentivised.
Who this checklist is for
This guide is written for finance directors, CFOs and operations leads at Australian organisations with roughly 20 to 500 staff who are moving off Xero, MYOB AccountRight or an older on-premise system. You need a shortlist you can defend, and a process that surfaces problems before contract signature rather than after go-live. For the general view of how mid-size companies build a shortlist, including US considerations, see our guide to the best ERP for midsize companies. This guide focuses on Australian process and compliance.
Step 1: Define the problems and requirements before you contact vendors
List the specific processes that are failing today, such as month-end consolidation across three entities taking eight days, stock on hand differing between the warehouse app and the ledger, or revenue schedules held in a spreadsheet. Give each one an owner inside your business and a measure of what “fixed” looks like.
Then separate requirements into mandatory, important and preferred. Mandatory requirements rule a vendor out, such as Australian payroll in the same system or automated intercompany eliminations. Keep that list short, because a long one usually reflects current workarounds rather than real needs.
Before you go to market, confirm that you need ERP at all. Many Australian businesses can extend Xero or MYOB with a better integration stack for another one to two years. Our guide to outgrowing Xero and MYOB sets out the signals that genuinely justify the move. Our older article on effective ERP selection covers the general principles of running a selection team.
Step 2: Confirm the Australian compliance must-haves
The table below lists the Australian compliance points to confirm with every vendor and partner, and what the current rules say.
| Requirement | What the rules say | What to ask the vendor |
|---|---|---|
| STP Phase 2 | Gross pay must be reported in separate components such as allowances, overtime, bonuses, paid leave and salary sacrifice (ATO, 12 November 2025). | Does the ERP run Australian payroll and report STP Phase 2 itself, or does it integrate with a named payroll product? |
| Payday Super | Since 1 July 2026, super must be paid with each pay cycle and reach the employee’s fund within seven business days (ATO, 10 August 2026). | Show a pay run with the super payment, the clearing house or fund file and the STP report in one demonstration. |
| GST and BAS | BAS can be lodged directly only from software that supports Standard Business Reporting (ATO, 14 September 2026). | Does the product lodge through SBR, or produce figures that your tax agent or a separate tool lodges? |
| Record keeping | Records must be kept in English, be accessible to the ATO and generally be retained for five years (ATO, 18 June 2026). The rules do not require Australian hosting. | How long is data retained after the subscription ends, and in what format can you export it? |
| eInvoicing | Mandatory targets apply to non-corporate Commonwealth entities, not to private businesses (ATO, 5 August 2026). | Only relevant if your government customers ask for Peppol invoices. If so, ask which access point provider the vendor uses. |
Payroll deserves the most attention. Oracle’s documentation states that SuitePeople Payroll supports only US federal, state and local payroll taxes, so a NetSuite customer in Australia runs a separate payroll product. Microsoft’s Australian local functionality article for Business Central covers GST, BAS and related reporting but does not mention payroll (Microsoft Learn, 26 August 2026). MYOB documents STP Phase 2 changes within MYOB Acumatica (MYOB Enterprise Support, 25 September 2024). Odoo’s version 19.0 Australian payroll documentation says the product is “in the process of becoming compliant” with STP Phase 2 and SuperStream (Odoo, checked 6 October 2026).
Step 3: Budget on a five-year total cost of ownership
Licence fees are usually the smaller part of the first-year cost. A five-year view should include subscription fees, implementation, data migration, payroll and other integrations, ongoing support, internal staff time and price increases at renewal. Ask each shortlisted partner to complete the same cost template so you can compare like with like.
Published pricing differs sharply between vendors. Microsoft lists Business Central Essentials at AU$119.70 per user per month and Premium at AU$164.60, paid yearly and excluding GST (Microsoft, checked 6 October 2026). On list price alone, 20 Essentials users would cost AU$143,640 over five years before GST, implementation or payroll. Oracle does not publish a NetSuite price list, and NetSuite partner Annexa states that most customers sign a three-year term and that Oracle may apply CPI-style increases at renewal (Annexa, updated 21 September 2026). Read our NetSuite pricing guide for Australia before you request a quote.
| Cost line | Published Australian figure | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Business Central subscription | AU$119.70 (Essentials) and AU$164.60 (Premium) per user per month, excluding GST | Microsoft, checked 6 October 2026 |
| NetSuite-based SMB edition | $99, $149 and $249 per user per month billed annually; implementation packages under $10,000 | Jcurve Solutions (NetSuite partner), 6 April 2026 |
| MYOB Acumatica subscription and implementation | $2,000 to $5,000 per month; implementation $50,000 to $150,000; consulting $150 to $300 per hour | Kilimanjaro Consulting (MYOB partner), 10 June 2026 |
| MYOB Acumatica implementation by scope | Finance only $20,000 to $30,000; finance, distribution and manufacturing $55,000 to $75,000 | Leverage Technologies (MYOB partner), 14 September 2026 |
Partner figures come from firms that sell the software, so treat them as reference points for your own quotes. If you use NetSuite or Business Central, add a separate line for an Australian payroll product and its integration, and ask the payroll vendor for its own five-year quote.
A starting shortlist by company profile
The table below summarises the conclusions of our Australian ERP guides. It is a starting point for your long list, not a recommendation to buy. Follow the link in each row for the evidence behind it.
| Your company profile | Start with | Check carefully | Our detailed guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single entity outgrowing Xero or MYOB | Business Central, MYOB Acumatica | Whether better add-ons would solve the problem first | Outgrowing Xero and MYOB |
| Group with entities in New Zealand or Asia | NetSuite, Business Central, Sage Intacct | Whether eliminations are automated or manual | Multi-entity ERP in Australia |
| Australian payroll must sit inside the ERP | MYOB Acumatica | Payday Super handling in a live pay run | NetSuite vs MYOB Acumatica |
| Microsoft-based business wanting published AUD pricing | Business Central, NetSuite as the comparison | Payroll product and three-year cost | NetSuite vs Business Central |
| Wholesaler supplying major retailers | Pronto Xi, Business Central, MYOB Acumatica | Retail EDI accreditation and warehouse licensing | ERP for wholesale distribution |
| SaaS or subscription business | NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Business Central | AASB 15 deferred revenue reports in the demo | ERP for SaaS companies |
| Tight budget with in-house technical staff | Odoo | USD pricing and payroll compliance status by version | Best ERP software in Australia |
Step 4: Assess the implementation partner
Most mid-market ERP systems in Australia are sold and implemented by partners, and the partner’s consultants and support desk will shape your experience more than the product roadmap. ERP Research lists 34 NetSuite partners in Australia (ERP Research, updated 2026), and the quality of delivery varies between them even for the same software.
Ask every partner the same questions and record the answers in writing:
- How many go-lives have you completed in our industry in the last 18 months, and can we speak to two of those customers?
- Which named consultants will work on our project, where are they based, and what share of the work is done offshore?
- Which payroll product do you recommend with this ERP, and how many customers run that integration today?
- How will BAS be produced and lodged, and who checks the first BAS after go-live?
- What is in the fixed-scope statement of work, and what is billed by the hour?
- What does post go-live support cost, what are the response times, and what falls outside the agreement?
Our guide to NetSuite implementation in Australia covers partner selection and statement-of-work structure in more detail.
Step 5: Run scripted demonstrations
A scripted demonstration asks every vendor to run your scenarios with your data, in the same order, so a sales team cannot show only its strongest features. Send the script two to three weeks before the demonstration and ask for your own sample data to be loaded.
A useful Australian script includes these scenarios:
- Raise a sales invoice with GST, receive a supplier bill with mixed GST codes, and produce the BAS figures for the quarter.
- Run a pay cycle that includes overtime, an allowance and salary sacrifice, then show the STP Phase 2 report and the super payment that follows under Payday Super.
- Post an intercompany charge between an Australian and a New Zealand entity, then show the consolidated report with eliminations in AUD.
- Show your most complex inventory, project or subscription billing process from order to cash.
- Produce your current monthly board report from the system without exporting to Excel.
Ask a finance team member who will use the system every day to score each scenario alongside the project sponsor.
Step 6: Check references properly
Ask for a list of Australian customers of similar size and industry, then pick two yourself. Speak to the person who runs month-end, not only the sponsor who signed the contract.
Questions that tend to produce honest answers include how far the final cost moved from the original quote, which processes still run outside the system, how the first BAS and STP finalisation went, and whether they would choose the same partner again.
Step 7: Review contract and renewal terms
NetSuite contracts commonly run for three years, according to Annexa, which also notes that Oracle may apply CPI-style increases at renewal (Annexa, updated 21 September 2026). Kilimanjaro Consulting notes that restrictions apply to scaling down MYOB Acumatica usage (Kilimanjaro Consulting, 10 June 2026). Ask each vendor for the following in writing:
- The subscription term, the price for each year of that term, and any cap on increases at renewal.
- Whether you can reduce user numbers or modules during the term or at renewal.
- Service levels for availability and support, and the remedy if they are missed.
- How you can export your data, in what format, and for how long it is kept after the contract ends.
- The end of mainstream maintenance for the version you are buying. SAP Business One 10.0, for example, is in mainstream maintenance until 31 December 2028.
If your organisation is a small business under the Australian Consumer Law, standard-form contracts may be covered by the unfair contract terms regime. Since 9 November 2023 the protections cover businesses with fewer than 100 employees or less than $10 million in annual turnover, and proposing, using or relying on an unfair term in a standard form contract is banned, with penalties for breaches (ACCC, updated 21 July 2026). If your ERP vendor offers a contract you cannot negotiate, review the renewal, price increase and termination terms with this in mind. Plan the payroll cut-over date as part of the contract timeline. If you change payroll product during a financial year and transfer year-to-date amounts, the ATO requires you to notify it so employees do not receive duplicate income statements (ATO, 13 November 2023).
How to read ERP review sites honestly
The main ERP products tend to score within a narrow range on the large review sites, so headline ratings rarely separate a shortlist. Review sites are more useful for finding recurring complaints that you can test in demonstrations and reference calls.
Check how each site collects reviews. Capterra offers reviewers nominal incentives and marks incentivised reviews with a reviewer source icon, and it states that vendors pay it when they receive web traffic and sales opportunities (Capterra, 4 May 2026). G2 labels incentivised reviews, caps incentives at US$100, and excludes reviews from business partners from its G2 Score (G2 community guidelines, no date shown).
Filter reviews by company size and region where you can, because a review from a 5,000-person US manufacturer says little about a 60-person Brisbane distributor. Read the three-star reviews first, as they usually describe specific limitations. The ACCC states that businesses must not create fake reviews, must disclose incentives, and must not hide genuine negative reviews (ACCC, updated 15 July 2026).
Your printable ERP shortlist checklist
Copy this checklist into your project file and complete it for each vendor.
| Done | Stage | Checklist item |
|---|---|---|
| ☐ | Requirements | Problems listed, each with an owner and a measure of success |
| ☐ | Requirements | Requirements split into mandatory, important and preferred |
| ☐ | Compliance | Payroll approach decided: inside the ERP or a named separate product |
| ☐ | Compliance | STP Phase 2 and Payday Super shown in a live pay run |
| ☐ | Compliance | BAS lodgement method confirmed: SBR or figures only |
| ☐ | Compliance | Data retention and export terms meet the ATO five-year rule |
| ☐ | Budget | Five-year cost template completed by each partner, including payroll and renewals |
| ☐ | Partner | Named consultants, industry go-lives and support terms received in writing |
| ☐ | Demo | Scripted demonstration run with your data and scored by finance users |
| ☐ | References | Two Australian customers chosen by you and interviewed |
| ☐ | Contract | Term, renewal cap, scaling-down rights and data exit terms agreed in writing |
| ☐ | Contract | Payroll cut-over date set, ideally at the start of a financial year |
Our independent take
Most Australian shortlists are decided by two questions that buyers ask too late: where payroll will run, and what the system will cost in year four and year five. Settle the payroll question before demonstrations begin, because it changes which vendors belong on the list. A business that needs payroll in the same system is choosing between a smaller set of products than one that is happy to integrate a specialist payroll product.
We would also limit the final shortlist to three vendors. A fourth vendor adds weeks of demonstrations and reference calls and rarely changes the outcome.
Australian buyer scenarios
A Melbourne food wholesaler with 80 staff. You run one entity, supply independent grocers and have outgrown MYOB AccountRight with an inventory add-on. Your payroll covers award staff in a warehouse, so you want payroll inside the ERP. MYOB Acumatica and Business Central are the natural starting pair, with Pronto Xi added if you need to trade with major retailers through EDI. Test a warehouse pay run with overtime and allowances in every demonstration.
A Sydney professional services group with three entities. You have 150 staff across Australian and New Zealand companies and spend a week each month reconciling intercompany recharges. NetSuite and Sage Intacct belong on the list because consolidation is the main problem, with Business Central as a comparison on cost. Plan for a separate payroll product in either case and include its cost in the five-year model.
A Perth engineering business with 40 staff and a small IT team. You need job costing and basic inventory, have a tight budget, and your IT manager is comfortable with configuration. Odoo and Business Central make a sensible pair. Check Odoo’s USD pricing against your budget and confirm the payroll compliance status for the exact Odoo version a partner proposes.
When NetSuite is not the right choice
NetSuite is a weaker fit if you want Australian payroll in the same system, because SuitePeople Payroll supports only US payroll taxes according to Oracle’s documentation. It is also harder to budget early, because Oracle publishes no price list and every figure comes through a partner quote. If you run a single Australian entity with simple inventory and a modest budget, Business Central or MYOB Acumatica may deliver what you need at a lower and more predictable cost. Our guide to whether NetSuite is worth it in Australia sets out the profiles where it pays back.
How we evaluated
This checklist draws on current ATO guidance, checked on the dates shown in the sources. We reviewed vendor documentation from Oracle, Microsoft, MYOB and Odoo for payroll and tax capability, and published pricing from Microsoft and from Australian partners of NetSuite and MYOB. Where a figure comes from a partner, we name the partner and note that it sells the software. The shortlist table summarises the conclusions of our existing Australian ERP guides. We do not accept payment for inclusion or ranking.
Frequently asked questions
Which ERP systems should be on my shortlist?
It depends on your entity structure, payroll approach and budget. Most Australian mid-market shortlists draw from NetSuite, Business Central, MYOB Acumatica, Sage Intacct and Odoo, with Pronto Xi for distributors serving major retailers. Use the profile table above to choose a starting pair, then add a third vendor that tests a different approach.
Which ERP systems have the best reviews?
The leading ERP products tend to score within a narrow range on review sites, so ratings rarely decide a shortlist. Check whether reviews were incentivised, filter by company size and region, and use recurring complaints as questions for demonstrations and reference calls.
What are the best ERP systems for mid-market companies in Australia?
There is no single best system. NetSuite suits multi-entity groups that need automated consolidation, Business Central suits Microsoft-based businesses that want published AUD pricing, and MYOB Acumatica suits businesses that want STP Phase 2 payroll inside the ERP. Our guide to the best ERP software in Australia compares them in detail.
Does my ERP need to be hosted in Australia?
No. The ATO requires records to be kept in English, accessible to the ATO and retained for the required period, but it does not require Australian data centres (ATO, 18 June 2026). You may still prefer local hosting for your own policy or customer contracts.
Can an ERP lodge BAS directly with the ATO?
Only if the software supports Standard Business Reporting (ATO, 14 September 2026). Many ERP systems produce BAS figures that a tax agent or separate tool then lodges, so ask each vendor which applies.
Sources
- ATO, STP Phase 2 employer reporting guidelines, disaggregation of gross, updated 12 November 2025. ato.gov.au
- ACCC, Contracts (unfair contract terms), updated 21 July 2026. accc.gov.au
- ATO, About Payday Super, 10 August 2026. ato.gov.au
- ATO, How to lodge your BAS, updated 14 September 2026. ato.gov.au
- ATO, Overview of record-keeping rules for business, updated 18 June 2026. ato.gov.au
- ATO, eInvoicing for government, updated 5 August 2026. ato.gov.au
- ATO, Changing your payroll solution or employees’ payroll IDs, updated 13 November 2023. ato.gov.au
- ACCC, Online reviews guidance for businesses, updated 15 July 2026. accc.gov.au
- Oracle, NetSuite help, SuitePeople U.S. Payroll, no date shown, checked 6 October 2026. Oracle sells NetSuite. docs.oracle.com
- Microsoft, Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing (Australia), no date shown, checked 6 October 2026. microsoft.com
- Microsoft Learn, Australia local functionality in Business Central, 26 August 2026. learn.microsoft.com
- MYOB Enterprise Support, Changes in MYOB Acumatica for STP Phase 2, 25 September 2024. enterprise-support.myob.com
- Odoo, Australian payroll localisation documentation, version 19.0, no date shown, checked 6 October 2026. odoo.com
- Annexa, How much does NetSuite cost in Australia and New Zealand, updated 21 September 2026. NetSuite partner. annexa.com.au
- Jcurve Solutions, Jcurve ERP plans, 6 April 2026. NetSuite partner. jcurvesolutions.com
- Kilimanjaro Consulting, MYOB Acumatica pricing guide, modified 10 June 2026. MYOB partner. kilimanjaro-consulting.com
- Leverage Technologies, What does it cost to implement MYOB Advanced, modified 14 September 2026. MYOB partner. leveragetech.com.au
- ERP Research, NetSuite partners in Australia, updated 2026, checked 6 October 2026. ERP comparison site. erpresearch.com
- SAP Support Portal, Maintenance for SAP Business One, no date shown, checked 6 October 2026. support.sap.com
- Capterra, Community guidelines, updated 4 May 2026. Review site paid by vendors for traffic and leads. capterra.com.au
- G2, Community guidelines, no date shown, checked 6 October 2026. Review site. legal.g2.com