Your SAP rollout passed UAT, then the OQLF flagged every English-only screen in Montreal
A custom or heavily extended ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) in Montreal runs $95k to $220k over 6 to 9 months. The line that breaks off-the-shelf SAP, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics here is not finance logic, it is that every field label, dropdown value, error message, and PDF a customer or employee sees has to default to French under Bill 96, and bolting that on after an English-first rollout costs more than building it in.
NetSuite, SAP, and Odoo all have French language packs. None of them make French the default that the OQLF actually checks for, and none translate the custom fields your aerospace supplier portal or pharma batch-record module added. So your finance team closes the month fine, and then a contractor opens a purchase order and the line-item descriptions, the approval workflow buttons, and the emailed PO confirmation are all in English.
For a Montreal aerospace tier-one feeding Bombardier or Pratt & Whitney Canada, the ERP also has to carry AS9100 traceability, ITAR and Controlled Goods segregation, and dual-currency (CAD/USD) costing. The packaged systems handle one or two of those well and force spreadsheets or a second tool for the rest, which is exactly where bilingual consistency falls apart.
Where the off-the-shelf tools fall short
- Custom fields added to NetSuite or SAP stay English even when the base UI is set to French, so OQLF audits flag your own extensions
- AS9100 lot and serial traceability for aerospace suppliers gets bolted onto an ERP that was never built for it
- Controlled Goods Program and ITAR segregation forces a parallel access model the packaged ERP can't express cleanly
- CAD/USD dual-currency costing on cross-border aerospace and pharma orders rounds inconsistently across modules
Custom erp: what Montreal teams actually get
You build when the ERP is the system of record for regulated traceability and a compliance regime, not just accounting. A Montreal manufacturer that has to prove French-first to the OQLF, AS9100 lineage to an auditor, and Controlled Goods segregation to a federal inspector is carrying three rule systems the off-the-shelf product treats as add-ons. Custom lets French be the data-model default and lets traceability and access control be first-class, not plugins fighting each other.
- Your ERP must default to French at the field level to satisfy the OQLF, not just offer a language toggle
- You carry AS9100, Controlled Goods, or GxP obligations the packaged system treats as plugins
- You operate cross-border CAD/USD and current rounding mismatches are causing reconciliation pain
- Spreadsheets sit between your ERP and your traceability or compliance reporting
- Standard bilingual back-office accounting covers you and no regulated traceability is in scope
- You are a single-currency operation with no aerospace or pharma compliance overlay
- A NetSuite or Odoo French pack genuinely covers your customer-facing surfaces
- You lack internal staff to own a long-lived custom system
- French as the default rendering language at the data layer, so custom fields and PDFs pass OQLF review without a translation step
- AS9100 lot, serial, and certificate-of-conformance traceability built into the order and inventory model, not a bolt-on
- Controlled Goods and ITAR access segregation enforced in code, with auditable trails for federal inspections
- One ledger for CAD and USD aerospace and pharma costing, with consistent rounding rules across every module
- Direct, governed feeds to your warehouse management system and business intelligence dashboards instead of nightly CSV exports
- A custom ERP is a multi-year ownership commitment, you are now responsible for tax-table and compliance updates SAP would have shipped
- Build timelines of 6 to 9 months mean you run the legacy system in parallel through at least two month-end closes
- You lose the large third-party ecosystem of pre-built NetSuite and SAP connectors for niche tools
- Hiring a replacement team later is harder than hiring certified NetSuite admins off the Montreal market
Feature priorities for Montreal teams
What we build under ERP in Montreal
Digital Heroes builds the full ERP stack for Montreal teams. Typical engagements cover ERP implementation, ERP integration, NetSuite customization, SAP integration, Odoo development and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
The honest cost picture for Montreal
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Bilingual ERP extension layer over existing SAP or NetSuite | $60k to $110k | 4 to 6 months |
| Custom aerospace ERP with AS9100 traceability and Controlled Goods | $150k to $220k | 7 to 9 months |
| GxP-aware pharma manufacturing ERP module | $120k to $180k | 6 to 8 months |
Timeline: what happens, and when
Exactly what you get
A working ERP where French is the default a contractor sees when they open a purchase order in your Montreal plant, where lot and serial traceability links straight to a certificate of conformance for the part you ship to Bombardier, and where Controlled Goods access is enforced in code and logged for the next federal inspection. Reporting feeds your BI dashboards and warehouse management system directly, no nightly CSV. You also get the migration tooling to move off legacy without a blind month-end close.
How to choose a developer in Montreal
Pick a team that has shipped bilingual software the OQLF actually accepted, not a firm that adds a French toggle at the end. Ask to see an aerospace or pharma traceability data model they built, and ask how they handle CAD/USD rounding across modules. The right Montreal partner talks about French at the schema layer, AS9100 lineage, and Controlled Goods segregation in the first call, because they know those three regimes are what break the packaged products here.
- !They treat French as a translation pass at the end, ask instead how French lives in the data model
- !They have never shipped against OQLF requirements, ask for a Quebec bilingual reference
- !They quote AS9100 traceability as a configuration, ask to see a traceability schema they built
- !They wave off dual-currency rounding, ask how they keep GL and inventory consistent across CAD and USD
- !No plan for parallel running across month-end, ask how they cut over without a blind close
Most Montreal teams pricing erp end up comparing notes on internal tools, shopify, inventory management too; the systems share one data spine.
Rohan advises mid-market and enterprise teams on ERP, CRM and custom software, and has led delivery on dozens of business-software builds.
Writes for Digital Heroes, shipping business software for 2,000+ brands across 55+ countries since 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Does NetSuite or SAP already satisfy Bill 96 in Montreal?
Their base UI translates, but the custom fields, dropdown values, and document templates your industry adds stay English unless you build for it. The OQLF checks what your users and customers actually see, including your extensions, which is where off-the-shelf ERPs get flagged.
How long does a custom aerospace ERP take?
Plan 7 to 9 months for a build that carries AS9100 traceability and Controlled Goods segregation. You run your legacy system in parallel through at least two month-end closes before cutover.
Can we just extend our existing ERP instead of replacing it?
Often yes. A bilingual extension layer over SAP or NetSuite runs $60k to $110k and fixes the French-first and traceability gaps without a full rebuild, which is the right move if the financial core works.
What makes Montreal ERP projects different from elsewhere in Canada?
Quebec's Charter of the French Language makes French the legal default for customer-facing and employee-facing software, so the ERP has to render French first at the field level, not just offer a toggle most other provinces accept.