Top 10 Enterprise Resource Planning Software (ERP) in 2025

Productive is an all-in-one solution tailored to professional service providers, consultancies or agencies. It doesn’t just support your workflows, but your business as a whole. It’s the best choice if you want to eliminate the patchwork of different tools and replace them with a single platform that actually talks to itself.

You can use it to monitor your financial health, support your company’s customer relationship management, and keep every project on budget and timeline, and more. One of the biggest benefits of using Productive is getting a live central database for all your ongoing operations.

Instead of using one tool for resource scheduling, another for time tracking, and a separate one for your financial management and invoicing, you get all this in a single source of truth.

This comprehensive solution includes time tracking software for agencies and professional service providers, making it easier to manage all aspects of your operations seamlessly.

Below we’ll explain what you get from using Productive:

Productive gives you complete visibility of your business finances. It tells you if you’re profitable, or where you’re loosing revenue without spending hours in spreadsheets. Our ERP’s financial management solution comes with:

Budgeting in project management:

Build budgets for various types of client engagements, including one-time (hourly-priced or fixed), retainer, or complex budgets with multiple project tracking capabilities. With integrated project financial planning, you can see which clients are actually making you money. You’ll also get notified before you go over budget, not after.

Financial forecasting:

Based on your resource allocation, you can visualize and forecast key business metrics to make informed decisions. This includes your budget burn, revenue, and profit margins. In other words, you can predict your revenue 3-6 months ahead.

Billing: 

Pull your budgeting information to easily create your invoices, whether it’s billable hours data or uninvoiced budget amounts. If you’re already using Xero or QuickBooks for invoicing, you can copy invoices from Productive and take them from there with Integrations.

Purchase Orders: 

Send purchase orders to suppliers directly from Productive. Track payments and include every expense in your reporting.

Plan your company’s resources with Productive’s responsive resource plan, allocation, utilization insights, and more.

Allocate your employees according to their working hours. Productive lets you import holiday calendars from various countries and manage time off categories and requests to get the full picture of your availability.

Our users also get:

Based on your billable hours data and scheduling, you can gain in-depth insights into your workforce. You can get actionable data on How are workloads balanced, which teams are overutilized, and which employees are available to support them?

Productive’s real-time analytics give you the right data for sustainable growth and smarted decisions.

Productive has a lightweight CRM that aligns your sales, marketing, and project development teams. You can customize the stages in your sales pipeline and track deals down the funnel. The sales feed helps you track updates and communicate more easily with other team members to minimize the risk of information gaps or miscommunication.

You can also:

Learn more from our best agency CRM list, their features and benefits.

Productive all key project management features into one place, so you can actually manage projects instead of just reacting to them.

Use custom fields for tasks to define their progress or importance. Estimate task completion and track time, attach files, chat in the comments, and get automatic notifications for status updates.

Our users can:

Nobody likes tracking time or reminding their team members to track time. Yet, the time spent on tasks is a huge (billable part) you need to take into account when tracing project progress, utilization or finances.

Usually, it’s like this:

Nobody tracks time while they are working. Your team forgets or you forget to remind them. Everyone spends additional time to assess how much time they’ve spent on a specific task and spend more time to put in their hours into time sheets. Then billing gets messy.

Productive solves this by making time tracking part of the workflow, not a separate chore.

With Productive, you can get streamlined reporting by using one of the 50+ agency-focused templates or by building your own report from scratch.

You can add specific parameters to customize your data with custom fields, group data according to different metrics, and turn it into a range of visualizations with one click. Then, you can arrange your reports on a dashboard or schedule them to be automatically sent to email and Slack.

Additional features include: Docs, Automations, Permission Builder

Integrations include: Xero, QuickBooks, HubSpot, BambooHR, Zapier, Slack, Jira, Google Calendar, and more.

Productive offers a 14-day free trial, so you can check what the software can do for your business.

The Dynamics 365 suite from Microsoft offers applications for finance, resource management tools, supply chains, project operations, and more.

Key features:

The biggest draw of the Microsoft Dynamics suite is that it contains various modules to improve operational performance, including ERP, CRM, and Accounting. Businesses can choose which software solutions they need and customize their tech stack accordingly. However, a review states that these modules “don’t necessarily talk to each other the way you would expect” (Capterra). Other reviews mention issues with the user interface, system performance, and complex pricing tiers.

You can also check how Microsoft Project performs as one of the best Avaza alternative options.

SAP is a leading provider of software solutions with a cloud-based ERP tool called SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Key features:

Regarding the benefits of SAP, users on Capterra report state it offers powerful business apps with a lot of room for customization. However, there are some notable downsides. Many reviews mention that the tool is not as user-friendly or visually appealing as they might prefer:

Source: Capterra

If you’re looking for a more straightforward but comprehensive agency software, you might want to consider other alternatives from this list.

Oracle Netsuite ERP is a business management platform with a wide variety of modules for complex agency processes.

Key features:

While it’s a great option for financial reporting and oversight, agency professionals might want to consider an alternative to Netsuite with more extensive collaboration and communication features. Otherwise, users usually enjoy the range of modules Netsuite offers but find that the costs might be too steep for small and medium-sized businesses.

Epicor is a leading ERP company that offers customizable modules for customer relationship management, business intelligence, and more.

Key features:

Similarly to SAP and Oracle, Epicor is an extensive software solution that can be especially good for manufacturing and production companies. It offers various supply chain and inventory management modules and other suitable features. However, due to its complexity and industry-specific features, it might not be the optimal choice as a professional services business tool.

SYSPRO is an ERP solution tailored to businesses in the manufacturing and distribution sectors.

Key features:

Compared to other ERP solutions, users frequently praise SYSPRO for being more user-friendly and affordable. Although reviews are generally positive, some mention issues with the reporting feature, including limited reports, issues with customization and adding parameters, and problems with downloading data.

Sage Group is a leading provider of solutions for business management, with project accounting ERP modules and products for finance management tools such as Sage Intacct and ERP with Sage X3.

Key features:

Sage X3 has a 3.9 star rating on Capterra. User experiences are mixed, with some calling it a good cost-to-benefit choice with a visually appealing UI. Other, more negative reviews mention that the CRM module is limited and that customization can be lengthy and expensive and usually requires third-party help.

Infor offers cloud-based ERP systems for distribution, manufacturing, and service industries.

Key features:

Users on Capterra comment that Infor M3 is extremely customizable, which can make it quite complex to configure and implement. Some reviews also comment that it might require a lot of workarounds and iteration to tailor it to your business needs.

Source: Capterra

The Acumatica Cloud ERP is a top solution for enterprises that require additional artificial intelligence features. It’s easily customizable to fit different niches like manufacturing, construction, retail or the distribution industry.

Key features:

Acumantica is praised in many G2 reviews for its depth of features and for being so modular. The tool is build from the ground up for cloud, so any business that prefers cloud-based systems should consider Acumatica Cloud ERP. It’s also important to note that some users complain about it’s extreme security protocols and challenging implementation.

Source: G2

IFS Cloud is an industrial AI and enterprise software that’s mostly used for centralizing and managing business functions like services, assets, and finances. It’s built for large international enterprises, and comes packed with a lot of AI features.

Key features:

Many user reviews on G2 often mention how IFS Cloud is very user-friendly and easy to use, which is a huge plus. However in some reviews, users complain about the lack of customer orientation, big investment costs and about the engthy user setup process.

Source: G2

An ERP system is software that helps run your entire business from one place. Instead of juggling spreadsheets, separate HR tools, and disconnected CRMs, everything lives under one roof.

You can track your cash flow, budgets, and profit margins with built-in financial management. Handle hiring, time off, and team workloads through HR features. And manage leads, deals, and client relationships with an integrated CRM.

ERP software helps you manage your finances, team, and customer relationships all in one place, so you’re not wasting time jumping between disconnected tools. With real-time financial tracking, built-in HR features, and an integrated CRM, you get a clearer insight, faster decision-making, and a more efficient way to run your business.

According to research by Panorama Consulting, organizations that quantify expected benefits from ERP software experienced:

How exactly do ERP systems make this possible?

Like most types of software, such as agency project management software, ERP helps automate manual workflows. This can include financial automation, such as collating reports and streamlining the accounting process. It can also include project and collaboration features like notifications, documentation, and task updates.

Comprehensive tools can serve as a centralized database for business data, workflows, and project updates. This helps eliminate silos and improve customer relationships by providing all project stakeholders with a single source of truth for their business operations.

These tools empower human resource planning by providing advanced analytics and insights, enabling tailored strategic human resource planning strategies that enhance employee satisfaction and reduce turnover.

Learn how Productive supports clarity across cross-functional teams and processes.

To choose the best ERP software for your company, start by looking at what parts of your business need the most help—whether it’s tracking finances, managing your team, or keeping up with clients.

The right ERP should fit your workflows, scale with your growth, and include built-in tools for financial management, HR, and CRM, so you’re not stitching together a bunch of separate apps.

Here’s a short breakdown of the ERP choosing criterea:

Key features of ERP systems include real-time financial management to track budgets and cash flow, human resources tools to manage hiring, time off, and team capacity, and built-in CRM functionality to handle leads, client communication, and sales pipelines—all working together in one connected platform.

Here’s what each feature brings to the table:

Other features may include billable hours tracking, project and task management, various collaboration and communication features, and additional industry-specific capabilities such as inventory and supply chain management.

You can also consider enterprise project management software, which combines project management and collaboration with advanced business planning features.

The enterprise resource planning software providers reviewed in this article have useful financial management tools for business insights. Most ERP tools in the list are sold in modules (software packages) and offer a range of features for various businesses and industries. While these tools can be powerful, they can also require a lot of time investment and be pricey for small and mid-sized businesses.

As one of the best ERP for service companies, consider an integrated solution like Productive. With its suite of tools for complex workflows, Productive enables simpler implementation and adoption for teams with varying tech experiences and preferences.

If you want to support your daily and strategic business operations with streamlined software, consider booking a demo with Productive today.

The number 1 ERP system usually depends on your specific business needs and context. For agencies, one of the top ERP software is Productive, as it offers support with various operations and day-to-day workflows. For the manufacturing industry, you might want to consider other options, such as Sage or Epicor.

The type of software that is usually utilized for ERP is a suite of applications or a comprehensive platform that can integrate your business processes. Some popular ERP examples include Productive for agencies, Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP, Sage, Netsuite, and others for businesses across all industries.

The type of software that is usually utilized for ERP is a suite of applications or a comprehensive platform that can integrate your business processes. Some popular ERP examples include Productive for agencies, Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP, Sage, Netsuite, and others for businesses across all industries.

The three common types of ERP systems are on-premise, cloud-based, and hybrid. On-premise systems provide increased security as they’re managed locally but usually incur higher license costs. Cloud-based ERP tools are usually more affordable and easier to implement but are more prone to security concerns since data is stored off-site. Hybrid software combines features of both.