Trying M&C ERP for 30 days: what to check

Thirty days sounds like a lot, but without a plan a demo account is often opened a few times and then expires. This article suggests how to use those 30 days so you arrive at the requirements meeting with clear answers.

Getting the account

1. Request a demo through the inquiry form on this site.
2. We contact you within 1 business day (Monday to Friday, excluding Japanese public holidays, Japan time) and provide a demo account valid for 30 days.
3. The account arrives as an invitation e-mail; you set your own password from the link in it. There is no open sign-up on the demo.

Things to know about the demo

• The data is shared. Everyone trying the demo uses the same site. Do not enter real data: real customer names, addresses or e-mail addresses.
• Submitted documents cannot be deleted. To change one, cancel it (キャンセル) and then amend it into a new version (修正). This is the system’s accounting rule, not a bug.
• The parts tied to Japanese rules are samples. The Japanese print formats and the VAT tax template on invoices are illustrations, not production versions.

A week-by-week plan

Week 1 — walk through one full flow. Follow a prepared chain from quotation to warranty: quotation, sales order, purchase order, import shipment, customs declaration, warehouse receipt, landed cost, delivery, invoice, warranty claim. The goal is to understand how the documents link together.

Week 2 — run the situations closest to your work. The demo has prepared situations: a late shipment, yellow and red inspection channels, amendment deadlines, partial receipts and partial deliveries, cost and gross profit, overdue receivables, paying a supplier in yen with an exchange difference, in-warranty and out-of-warranty claims, returns of faulty goods, HS code approval. Pick the ones your company meets most often and run them again.

Week 3 — try the everyday use.

• If you were given a Japanese and a Vietnamese account: open the same document in two browsers (or use a private window for one) and compare the document number and labels.
• Use it on a phone: lists, forms, serial number entry.
• Print a 見積書, 納品書 and 適格請求書 and show them to the person in charge on the Japanese side.

Week 4 — write down your requirements. List:

• what the demo does exactly as your company needs;
• what it does, but in a different way;
• what your company needs that the demo does not have (for example, Vietnamese e-invoicing is not supported in the current demo).

This list is the input for the requirements meeting.

When something goes wrong