Nearshoring ERP and Trade Compliance Readiness Assessment
Moving production to Mexico or Latin America is often justified by a landed cost model, but the project succeeds or fails on data and compliance. This short assessment scores the ERP side of readiness in ten areas.
1. How does your ERP handle Mexican electronic invoicing (CFDI)?
Consider both sales invoices and payment or transfer documents.
2. Can you track customs documents (pedimentos) against inventory?
3. How is origin data for USMCA and other agreements managed?
4. How current is your bill of materials and routing accuracy?
Customs discharge, costing and yield all depend on it.
5. Do you have multi-currency and intercompany processes for peso and dollar flows?
6. How are Mexican payroll, labor and social security obligations handled?
7. Are your supplier and customer master data cleaned and standardised?
8. Can your ERP and shop floor systems support Spanish-language users and local calendars?
9. How is cross-border logistics data (carrier, bill of lading, customs status) visible in the ERP?
10. Do you have an owner and process for regulatory change in Mexico or the target country?
How to use the assessment
Answer based on what is in production today, not what is planned. If two people disagree, pick the lower score and write down the reason; the disagreement is itself a finding. Run it with the ERP lead, the controller, a supply chain manager and the trade compliance owner. Export the result and use the lowest-scoring questions as the first items in your project plan.
What the questions test
The first questions cover legal compliance: CFDI, customs traceability and origin evidence. The middle questions cover master data foundations: BOM accuracy, supplier data and multi-currency flows. The final ones cover operations: payroll feeds, language, logistics visibility and change management. A company can score high on tax tooling and still fail because the BOM is wrong, so look at the profile and not only the total.
- Compliance tooling without clean data produces wrong filings
- Customs discharge depends on BOM and yield accuracy
- Labor cost visibility needs a payroll feed, not a yearly estimate
- Regulatory change needs an owner and a test cycle
Common mistakes
The most common error is treating localization as a software purchase when it is a process and data project. Another is starting the plant before the first month-end close process has been rehearsed in the ERP. Teams also underestimate the time to get e-signature certificates, tax registrations and PAC contracts in place. Build these into the schedule with a buffer, and rehearse a close before the first real one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this assessment specific to one ERP?
No. The questions apply to any ERP, including SAP, Oracle, Infor, Epicor, Microsoft Dynamics and NetSuite. The answers will differ in how each system supports localization, but the readiness areas are the same.
Does a high score guarantee compliance?
No. The score reflects capability and process maturity, not legal compliance. Compliance depends on correct filings and current rules, which your Mexican advisor and customs broker must confirm.
Can I use it for countries other than Mexico?
Most questions carry over to other Latin American countries, since e-invoicing, customs traceability, labor data and master data matter everywhere. Replace the Mexico-specific documents with the equivalents of the target country.
Who should answer the questions?
Ideally the ERP lead, the controller, a supply chain owner and whoever handles customs and trade. Answers from a single role tend to be optimistic about areas outside their daily work.
If you want a second opinion on your readiness profile, we can walk through your answers and show where a read-only data check would find the problems fastest.
Related Tools
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Check that your ERP can produce the chart of accounts, monthly trial balance and journal entry files Mexican companies submit to the SAT.
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Build a SQL query that shows open temporary-import quantities by pedimento line, days to deadline and overdue status, from your own staging tables.
Country & TaxLatin America E-Invoicing and Tax ID Reference
One table of tax ID names, formats, e-invoice document names, authorities and VAT names for the main Latin American manufacturing markets.
Safety & WorkforceMexico Severance, Finiquito and Seniority Premium Calculator
Estimate the main liquidation components for a Mexican plant employee: constitutional indemnity, 20 days per year, seniority premium, proportional aguinaldo and vacation.
Country & TaxMexico CFDI 4.0 SAT Catalog Codes Reference
Searchable list of the SAT catalog codes most often needed when mapping an ERP to CFDI 4.0 invoices, with plain-English meaning for each code.
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