Choosing a system: the questions that actually decide it

01Does it handle post-dated cheques as a life cycle?

Half the money in this market moves by post-dated cheque. A system needs the cheque recorded, deposited, collected, bounced and replaced, printed on each bank's template, and reflected in both the customer's balance and the treasury.

In our systems this is one definition used everywhere, so the cheque cannot be collected twice or collected without an entry.

02Does the instalment plan come from the contract?

If the schedule is typed separately from the contract, the two drift. The schedule should be generated from the contract, and a schedule totalling less than the contract should be flagged rather than accepted quietly.

03Can it do a payment certificate properly?

For anyone building: the certificate needs approved quantity per item, retention, advance recovery, tax, a net, and payment from a treasury with an accounting entry. A system where the certificate is a printed form and the money is typed elsewhere will not reconcile at the end of the project.

04Is Arabic a first language in it, or a translation?

Ask to see a contract, an invoice and a report printed in Arabic, and a screen where the user's language differs from the customer's language. A system that only translates labels will still print your contract in English.

05Does payroll know the local law?

For Egypt: social insurance with both shares and the insured-wage floor and ceiling, income tax by bracket with the annual exemption, and end-of-service. For the Gulf: who carries insurance, and how end-of-service accrues by years of service.

06Who can change a number, and can you see it later?

Ask what happens when someone edits a collected amount. In our systems, records that carry money are corrected by a reversing entry, not by editing, and every change is stored with the name and the time.

07What happens when you need something changed?

With an international platform, a local need waits for a partner to build an add-on, and every upgrade risks it. We write our own systems, so a change our customer needs is a change we make and ship.

We have been doing this since 2013, from Vienna, Cairo and Muscat.