Charlie Blomkvist
When you choose a business system (ERP) for your online store, you choose what happens after Pay now: where the order lands, how stock is kept, who reconciles Klarna, and how the return is posted. An ERP for e-commerce receives the order from the web shop and handles the rest in one flow: inventory, invoice, payout, return and accounting. Accounting software with a connector posts the sales. The ERP does the whole chain.
This is what you get in the guide:
- A real order step by step through Fortnox, Spiris, Business Central and Visma Net, the four that most often appear on Swedish shortlists.
- Where they differ: per day or per order, out of the box or through an app, a license per user or unlimited.
- What they cost, and what is included in the price.
- A decision table by how you sell: one store, resellers, 3PL, several companies.
- How to try your own flow before you choose. It is the only way to know for sure.
Short answer: which ERP suits e-commerce?
- you have one store, your own warehouse and sell in Swedish kronor to consumers
- daily totals are enough for the books
- and few people work in the system
- every order should exist in the receivables ledger with its invoice
- you sell to resellers with their own prices, terms and credit limits
- stock sits at a 3PL or in several places
- payouts from Klarna and Shopify Payments should be reconciled order by order
- or you have several companies, currencies and approvers
- all of the above should run by itself in one system, with Swedish localization out of the box, unlimited users, and you want to see it work with your own items, prices and orders before you say yes
A standard demo shows what the system looks like. A demo built around you shows whether it works for you.
Follow the order: six places where the systems differ
The order is real: at 19:09 Alva in Uppsala pays for a sweater and a mug in our demo store Vardag, SEK 1,368, 500 with a gift card and the rest by card. All four systems receive it. The difference shows in what happens next. We follow the order through six steps, because those six steps are what decide the day-to-day in an online store.
In Visma Net the order becomes a sales order in nine seconds, with account, VAT and subaccount per line. Fortnox's and Spiris's own connectors post the day's sales as one entry; the orders themselves need a hub from another vendor. Business Central imports the order through the job queue.
The sweater is reserved, and stock goes back to the store: in Visma Net every five minutes and right after every shipment, per warehouse and Shopify location. In Business Central when the job queue runs, 15 to 30 minutes is Microsoft's recommendation. In Fortnox and Spiris through the hub.
The warehouse picks, Instabox is booked, and shipment 000037 is confirmed in Visma Net the moment the parcel leaves. The invoice creates itself. In the other systems the shipment is posted when someone or something posts it.
Klarna pays out SEK 13,061 for ten orders, minus fees. In Visma Net with Click to Cash every line is matched to its order, the fee and VAT are posted separately, and the journal entry waits for your yes. Fortnox posts the payout as one event and requires kronor. Business Central imports it as supporting information and reconciles against an interim account in the bank reconciliation.
The mug comes back. Stock goes up, a credit note against the original order, Alva gets her money, and Klarna's deduction is matched in the next payout. It all ties together, because it is the same order all the way.
Monday morning: margin per channel, collection and market is in Visma Net, from the subaccount set on the line in the first step. Not in a spreadsheet someone built over the weekend.
That is why the first question to ask any system is simple: does it count per day or per order? A system that posts the day's sales as one summary entry is right for a small store and wrong for anyone who wants to know what each order did. The second question is what is included and what comes from apps and other vendors. The third is what it costs when more people work in the system.
The four systems side by side
Fortnox and Spiris are accounting software with connectors to the web shop. Business Central and Visma Net are ERP systems with orders, inventory and ledgers at the core. All four work with Shopify and WooCommerce. There are more systems on the market, such as Specter, Pyramid and Odoo; this guide sticks to the four that most often appear on Swedish shortlists.
The row about users is the one that usually surprises. In Fortnox and Spiris you pay per user for accounting, invoicing and approvals. In Business Central every person is a license, and anyone who only approves an invoice needs at least a Team Members license. In Visma Net the license is based on what you do in the system, not on how many people work in it.
Four systems in a minute
Sweden's most common accounting software. Its own Shopify connector posts one entry per day and requires kronor; orders and stock through a hub from another vendor. Fortnox Lager SEK 369 a month. License per user, approvals per supplier. Right for the small store. More in Fortnox for e-commerce.
Visma's software for smaller companies, formerly Visma eEkonomi. From SEK 199 a month, SEK 199 per extra user, approvals per supplier, connectors from other vendors in the catalog. Moving up is a move within Visma. More in Visma Net vs Spiris.
Microsoft's ERP, with its own Shopify connector through the job queue, Copilot, Power Platform and AppSource with an app for most things. Swedish localization through partner apps, a license per user from SEK 764.70 a month, payouts reconciled in the bank reconciliation. More in Visma Net or Business Central for e-commerce?
Visma's ERP for companies that have outgrown accounting software: orders, inventory, ledgers, banking, e-invoicing and VAT out of the box, unlimited users, from SEK 2,744 a month. Click to Cash adds the store integration, payouts order by order, the reseller on their own customer and the agents on top, at a fixed price of SEK 95,000, live in one to two months. That is the setup Alva's order went through.
- Paid 19:09:04
- Sales order 000081, 9 s
- Picked and shipped
- Shipment 000037, invoice 100097
- Klarna matched, order by order
- Posted
Nobody typed. The agents propose, and a person on your side approves before anything is posted.
A standard demo shows what it looks like. A tailored demo shows whether it works.
This is the advice we most want to give, and it holds whichever system you lean towards. Every vendor can show a demo where the order becomes an invoice and the stock adds up. It is their items, their prices, their customer. It shows what the system looks like. It does not show whether it works for you: with your price list to resellers, your three warehouses, your Klarna settlement in two currencies, your 40 orders a day to be approved by two people who do not sit in finance.
So we do two things before anyone says yes. First you place a real order in Vardag, as a consumer or as a reseller, and see it in Visma Net nine seconds later, with your own login if you want to see the rest. Then, after a free pre-study where we draw your workflows, we build a demo environment around you in 3 to 5 days: your own store in Shopify with your items and your prices, connected to your own Visma Net set up around your workflows. You place your orders, you see your Klarna reconciled, you see your reseller stopped by their credit limit. It answers the question "does it work for us?" before you have paid anything. The price is set on the same flow map, before you say yes, and does not change afterwards.
Feel free to ask the other vendors for the same thing. The answer says a lot about how the project will go.
ERP for Shopify: what the connector has to handle
Shopify is the most common platform among growing Swedish online retailers, and all four systems have a connector. The difference is what the connector does. A business system (ERP) for Shopify has to handle four things:
- The order. Every paid order becomes a sales order with the right customer, account, VAT and subaccount, not a daily summary to untangle afterwards.
- Inventory. Stock in the store mirrors the ERP, so sold out is sold out in both, even with several warehouses or a 3PL.
- The money. Payouts from Klarna and Shopify Payments are reconciled order by order, with the fees posted.
- The return. A return in Shopify becomes a credit note and a stock receipt, without anyone writing it off by hand.
Fortnox and Spiris do the first as a daily total. Business Central does it through Microsoft's connector, with apps for Klarna and Swedish VAT. Visma Net does it through our connector in Click to Cash, as standard. We describe how it looks in practice in Connecting Shopify to Visma Net, and in Business Central and Shopify for anyone comparing. The whole choice, with Fortnox, Business Central and Visma Net side by side, is in ERP for Shopify.
By platform: Shopify, WooCommerce, Centra and Norce
The platform rarely decides the choice of ERP, but it decides what the integration looks like. Shopify has the largest catalog of connectors: Fortnox's own, Microsoft's own in Business Central, and ours in Click to Cash. WooCommerce has Fortnox's own connector and partner connectors to the others. Centra and Norce, common among Swedish brands and B2B merchants, connect through integration partners to Business Central and through Click to Cash to Visma Net. The question to ask is not "is there a connector" but "what does it do with the order, the stock and the payout afterwards".
Common mistakes when choosing
All four have orders, inventory and invoices on the list. The difference shows in the flow: per day or per order, scheduled or immediate, built in or through an app. Place a real order before you decide.
A growing company gets more people who pack, approve and follow up. Count the number in two years, and what the person who only approves costs.
The order is the easy part. Reconciling Klarna and Shopify Payments is what takes the finance team's time, and it does not show in the demo unless you ask.
Their items and their customer show that the system works. Your items and your customer show whether it works for you. Ask for a demo built around you, or build it with us.
How to choose: a decision table
Fortnox or Spiris with a connector. Cheap, and enough as long as daily totals are enough.
An ERP. Visma Net with Click to Cash does it out of the box plus integration; Business Central with the partner's setup.
Visma Net with Click to Cash: the reseller on their own customer, credit hold already in the store, OCR and e-invoicing out of the box.
Visma Net with Ongoing WMS or your 3PL in the same flow; Business Central handles it too, with the partner's warehouse integration.
Business Central is a reasonable choice. Count the licenses when more people need to get in.
Visma Net: the companies under one license, a cash account per currency, unlimited approvers.
Why Straviont
We are a Visma Net partner, and we built Click to Cash, the integration and the agents ourselves. The integration runs every day in Vardag, and it is the same integration you get. The people who set up your system are the ones who built what you run on, and the ones you call afterwards. The pre-study is free, the flow map is yours to keep whatever you choose, the demo environment is built around you in 3 to 5 days, and the price is set before you say yes and does not change if the project runs long. Live in one to two months, outside your peaks, with the same consultants from the first call to after go-live.
Frequently asked questions
What is an ERP for e-commerce?
A system that receives the order from the web shop and handles the rest: order, inventory, invoice, payment, the payout from the payment provider, the return and the accounting, in one flow. Accounting software with a connector posts the sales; an ERP handles the whole order.
Which ERP suits Shopify?
All four in this guide work with Shopify. Fortnox and Spiris through their own or others' connectors that post per day, Business Central through Microsoft's own connector, Visma Net through our integration in Click to Cash, which turns every paid order into a sales order in eight seconds and reconciles payouts order by order.
Which ERP suits WooCommerce?
The same answer as for Shopify. Fortnox has its own WooCommerce connector, Business Central has partner connectors, and Click to Cash connects WooCommerce, Centra and Norce to Visma Net. Connectors to other platforms are estimated in the pre-study.
Is Fortnox enough for e-commerce?
Often, as long as you have one store, one warehouse, Swedish customers and daily totals are enough for the books. When every order should show in the ledger, resellers need their own terms or payouts should be reconciled per order, it is time to look at an ERP.
Visma Net or Business Central for e-commerce?
Both handle orders, inventory and several companies. Visma Net has Swedish localization out of the box and unlimited users, and with Click to Cash the integration and payout reconciliation are included. Business Central has Microsoft's own Shopify connector and Copilot, with Swedish localization through partner apps and a license per user. We compared them line by line in a separate article.
What is the difference between a demo and a demo built around us?
A standard demo shows the system with the vendor's items and customer: what it looks like. A demo built around you has your items, your prices, your channels and your payment provider: whether it works for you. We build it after a free pre-study, in 3 to 5 days, and you get access to the whole environment.
What does an ERP for e-commerce cost?
Fortnox and Spiris start at a few hundred kronor a month plus connector and per user. Business Central costs SEK 764.70 per user per month for Essentials plus apps and the partner's work. Visma Net starts at SEK 2,744 a month with unlimited users, and Click to Cash, our implementation with the integration, inventory and payouts, costs SEK 95,000 at a fixed price.
How long does it take to switch ERP for an online store?
Click to Cash takes one to two months from pre-study to go-live, with the integration tested on your own orders before launch. The integration is rarely what takes time; it is the conversion of items, customers and stock, and the training.
How does the ERP handle Klarna?
Klarna pays out a lump sum minus fees. In Click to Cash every line in Klarna's settlement is matched to the prepayment on the sales order, the fee and VAT are posted separately, and the journal entry waits for your approval. How other systems do it is in Booking Klarna and Shopify payouts.
Does an online store need a WMS?
Not always. Visma Net has bin locations and picking out of the box. A WMS such as Ongoing is needed when the warehouse should scan, batch-pick and book freight at the packing station, or when stock sits at a 3PL. Read Ongoing WMS, Shopify and Visma Net (in Swedish).
Can we try before we choose?
Yes. Place an order in our demo store and see it in Visma Net. After a free pre-study we build a demo environment around you in 3 to 5 days, with your items and your prices, so you try your own flow before you say yes.
Next steps
Place an order in Vardag, or book a free pre-study. Also read Visma Net or Business Central for e-commerce?, Fortnox for e-commerce, ERP for wholesalers and the full offer on Click to Cash (in Swedish). What an ERP is, and where the line against accounting software runs in finance, inventory and projects, is in What is an ERP system, what does it do and which ones exist?.