Your ERP knows the Welshpool yard but goes blind past Newman
For most Perth mining-services and construction firms, a full custom ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) runs AUD $120k to $280k over 5 to 9 months. You usually do not need to replace NetSuite or SAP wholesale. You need a custom layer that connects site cost capture to your general ledger so a Pilbara job stops being reconciled by hand three weeks after the crew flew home.
NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics and Odoo all assume the work happens where the network does. In Perth that assumption fails on day one. A maintenance crew flies into Newman, racks up labour, plant hire and consumables against a work order, and that cost data lives on a paper ticket in a ute until someone keys it into Dynamics back in Welshpool. By then the invoice is late and the margin is a guess.
The deeper problem is structural. Standard ERP chart-of-accounts logic does not understand a job that spans three cost centres, two FIFO rosters, and a client who wants billing split by shutdown phase. So your finance team runs the real numbers in a parallel spreadsheet, and the ERP becomes an expensive book of record that is always a fortnight behind the actual job.
Budgeting a erp build in Perth
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Costing + field-capture layer on existing ERP | $120k to $200k | 5 to 7 months |
| Full custom ERP for a mid-size services firm | $200k to $280k | 7 to 9 months |
| Integration + progress-claim module only | $60k to $110k | 3 to 4 months |
The case for owning your erp
You go custom when the gap is the job, not the ledger. Keep the ERP you already pay for as the financial spine, then build a costing and field-capture layer on top that speaks your actual operation: jobs that span sites, costs captured offline on a phone at Tom Price, and progress claims generated from real captured data rather than a finance assistant's memory. That layer is where the money is found.
- Finance runs a permanent shadow spreadsheet because the ERP can't cost a multi-site job
- You bill more than a handful of phased shutdowns or progress claims a month
- Remote-site cost data lands days late and kills your WIP accuracy
- You've outgrown Odoo's job-costing but a Dynamics rip-and-replace would take 18 months
- Your jobs are single-site, single-cost-centre and billed on completion
- NetSuite SuiteProjects or a Dynamics add-on already handles your costing without manual rework
- You're under 20 staff and the spreadsheet still keeps up
- You can't commit an internal owner to the project for six months
What your build should include
What we build under ERP in Perth
Everything an ERP build here can cover: Microsoft Dynamics 365, ERP migration, cloud ERP, manufacturing ERP, distribution ERP and custom ERP modules.
Delivery, week by week
Exactly what you get
A custom ERP build for a Perth resources or construction firm is rarely a from-scratch ledger. It's a job-costing and field-capture layer that sits on your existing NetSuite, Dynamics or Odoo, captures labour, plant and consumables offline at the mine site, and pushes clean numbers into the GL the same shift. You get real-time WIP, phased shutdown billing, progress claims that generate themselves, and a finance team that's out of the spreadsheet business.
How to choose a developer in Perth
Pick a team that has shipped job-costing for someone who works past the network's edge. Ask them to map your last shutdown's cost flow on a whiteboard before they quote. Ask how they handle a ute with no signal for 48 hours. The plain WA test applies: if they oversell with hype instead of showing you a real progress claim they built, walk. The good ones talk like a site supervisor, not a SaaS brochure.
- Site costs hit the ledger the same shift they're incurred, so WIP and margin are real, not a three-week-old guess
- Progress claims and phased shutdown invoices generate from captured data instead of being rebuilt every month
- Plant hire, labour and consumables roll up per job across cost centres without a parallel spreadsheet
- Your finance team stops being the integration layer between the field and Dynamics
- The build connects cleanly to inventory management software and field service management so one job touches one record
- You still pay for and maintain the underlying NetSuite or Dynamics licence on top of the custom layer
- ERP integrations age: a vendor API change can break your sync and you own fixing it
- Finance teams resist a new costing flow mid-financial-year, so adoption is slower than the demo suggests
- Get the accounting logic wrong and you've built a faster way to produce incorrect numbers
- !They quote a fixed price before seeing how you cost a shutdown. Ask them to walk your last Pilbara job end to end first
- !No plan for offline capture. Ask exactly what happens to data when a crew has no signal for two days
- !They want to replace your whole ERP on day one. Ask why a costing layer won't solve 80% of the pain first
- !No finance lead on their side. Ask who owns the chart-of-accounts mapping
- !They can't name a WA construction or resources client. Ask for one progress-claim build they've shipped
Teams investing in erp in Perth usually scope it next to internal tools, shopify, inventory management, since these systems share data and budgets.
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
Do I have to replace NetSuite or Dynamics?
Usually no. Most Perth firms keep their ERP as the financial book of record and build a custom costing and field-capture layer on top. That solves the remote-site lag without an 18-month rip-and-replace.
How does it work when crews have no signal?
A well-built system captures cost data offline on the phone and syncs the moment the crew gets signal back in Newman, Tom Price or Karratha. Nothing is lost in the gap; it just queues.
What's the real cost for a mid-size services firm?
Expect AUD $120k to $280k depending on whether you're adding a layer or building full ERP. A progress-claim and integration module alone runs $60k to $110k.
How long before finance feels the difference?
Site costs start hitting the ledger same-shift from the first sites you roll out, often within the build. Full payback on WIP accuracy usually lands within two quarters of launch.