ERP RFP Template: Requirements Checklist for Manufacturers and Distributors

Most ERP requests for proposal fail in the same way.

They run to 40 pages and 600 line items, every vendor answers “yes” to almost all of them, and the selection team ends up exactly where it started: with a stack of similar-looking responses and no real way to tell the systems apart.

A useful RFP is shorter and harder. It describes how your business actually works, asks vendors to prove they can handle your difficult cases, and makes them commit in writing to scope, cost, and who will do the work.

This guide gives you an ERP RFP template built for manufacturers and distributors: the sections to include, the requirements worth writing down, the questions that separate vendors, and how to score the answers.

Do You Need a Formal RFP?

Not always. A formal RFP makes the most sense when several people must agree on the decision, when you are comparing more than two or three vendors, or when your organization requires a documented selection process.

If you already know your shortlist, a shorter requirements and scenario document often works better. It covers the same ground without the procurement formality, and vendors tend to respond faster and more honestly.

Either way, the content is the same. What matters is writing down how your business works and what the new system has to do, before anyone sees a demo.

ERP RFP Template: The Sections to Include

Section 1: Company Profile and Goals

Give vendors a one- or two-page picture of your business:

• What you make or sell, and your approximate annual revenue range
• Number of locations, warehouses, plants, and legal entities
• Number of users by role: office, warehouse, shop floor, sales, finance
• Order volume, SKU count, and number of active customers and vendors
• Current systems, including add-ons and spreadsheets that run critical processes
• The three to five outcomes the new system must deliver, such as accurate inventory, a faster month-end close, or EDI without rekeying
• Your target go-live window and any deadlines, such as a vendor’s end-of-support date

Section 2: Business Scenarios

This is the most important section, and the one most RFPs leave out.

Instead of asking “Do you support customer-specific pricing?”, describe a real case and ask the vendor to explain, and later demonstrate, exactly how their system handles it.

Example scenarios for distributors:

• An EDI order from a major customer arrives with contract pricing, ships partially from two warehouses, and is invoiced without anyone rekeying it.
• Stock is short. Three customers want the same item. Show how allocation works and what each customer is told.
• A container arrives with freight and duty invoices that come later. Show how landed cost reaches inventory and margin.

Example scenarios for manufacturers:

• An engineering change affects a component used on open work orders at different stages.
• A rush job must be inserted into a loaded schedule. Show what moves and which orders become late.
• Trace a raw material lot to every finished lot and every customer who received it.

Use your own scenarios. The messier and more specific, the better.

Section 3: Functional Requirements Checklist

Keep the list focused. Rate each item M (must-have), I (important), or N (nice-to-have), and ask vendors to answer each with one of: standard, configuration, third-party product, custom development, or not available. That one change makes “yes” answers far more honest.

Core for Everyone

• General ledger, AP, AR, and bank reconciliation
• Multi-entity and multi-currency, if applicable
• Real-time inventory by location
• Purchasing with approvals and three-way match
• Sales orders with partial shipments and backorders
• Customer-specific pricing and discounts
• Reporting and dashboards users can build themselves
• Role-based security and a full audit trail

Distribution

• Barcode warehouse management: receiving, put-away, picking, packing, counting
• Lot, serial, and expiration tracking
• EDI with your trading partners
• Carrier integration and shipping documents
• Landed cost
• Replenishment: min/max, reorder points, and demand-based suggestions
• Drop ship and special orders
• B2B customer portal

Manufacturing

• Multi-level bills of material and routings
• MRP
• Finite and infinite capacity scheduling
• Shop floor data collection
• Job costing with actual or standard costs
• Engineering change control
• Lot and serial traceability through production
• Your manufacturing modes: make-to-stock, make-to-order, engineer-to-order, or process

For deeper requirement lists by industry, see our manufacturing ERP buyer’s guide and distribution ERP buyer’s guide.

Section 4: Technical and Platform Requirements

• Is the system multi-tenant SaaS, single-tenant cloud, or hosted on-premise software? See SaaS vs. cloud vs. hosted ERP.
• How are updates delivered, and what happens to configurations and customizations?
• What integration methods are available: APIs, webhooks, EDI, file transfer?
• What are the uptime commitments, backup, and disaster recovery practices?
• Who owns the data, and how do you get it out if you leave? See cloud ERP data ownership.
• What devices are supported in the warehouse and on the shop floor?

Section 5: Implementation and Support

• Who implements the system: the vendor, or a reseller or partner?
• Who will be on the project team, and what experience do they have with businesses like yours?
• What is the proposed timeline, and what does it assume about your team’s time?
• How is data migration handled, and what is included?
• How is training delivered?
• Who provides support after go-live, and how?
• Can we speak with two customers of similar size and complexity, chosen by us from a list?

See ERP reference checks: 15 questions to ask.

“From our first contact all the way through to our implementation, Bizowie has been a first class organization to work with… We strongly recommend the Bizowie software program.”

Alan Seymour — President, Cleveland Electric Labs

Section 6: Pricing

Ask every vendor to price the same scenario, in the same format:

• Subscription or license, broken out by users, modules, and transaction volume
• Implementation services, fixed or estimated
• Third-party products and integrations required to meet your requirements
• Training, data migration, and support
• Renewal terms and price increase limits
• Total cost over five years

See what cloud ERP really costs.

How to Score Vendor Responses

Adjust the weights to your priorities, but keep scenarios at the top. A vendor that answers every checklist item “yes” and then struggles with your real workflows is telling you something important.

For a fuller framework, see how to evaluate ERP vendors: a practical scorecard.

Common RFP Mistakes

• Copying a generic requirements list. It produces generic answers.
• Accepting “yes” without “how”. Ask how each requirement is met: standard, configuration, add-on, or custom code.
• Leaving out scenarios. Without them, every vendor looks the same on paper.
• Comparing different scopes. If vendors price different modules, the cheapest response may simply be the least complete.
• Letting vendors run their own demo script. The demo should follow your scenarios. See how to approach an ERP demo.
• Ignoring who implements. The software and the implementation team are equally important.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should an ERP RFP be?

Long enough to describe your business and your hard cases clearly, and no longer. For most mid-market manufacturers and distributors, 10 to 20 pages plus a focused requirements spreadsheet is enough.

How many vendors should receive the RFP?

Three to five is typical. More than that makes meaningful evaluation difficult; fewer may not give you enough comparison.

Should we include pricing in the RFP?

Yes, in a fixed format so responses are comparable, and always for the same defined scope. Ask for five-year total cost, including implementation, add-ons, and renewals.

What is the difference between an RFI and an RFP?

A request for information (RFI) is a lighter, earlier step used to narrow a long list of vendors. A request for proposal (RFP) asks a shortlist for detailed responses, pricing, and commitments.

How long does the ERP selection process take?

It depends on how many people are involved and how prepared you are, but writing your scenarios and requirements before contacting vendors shortens it considerably.

Put Your Scenarios in Front of Us

If you are preparing an ERP RFP, send us your hardest scenarios. We’ll show you how Bizowie handles them, live, and if the platform is not a good fit for your operation, we’ll tell you that too.