When the spreadsheet stack is the real ERP
Clixo builds operational systems of record when the real ERP is a pile of spreadsheets — inventory, orders, and the ledger handoff — without a year-long packaged rollout.
- One record for stock, orders, and the floor
- Extend what already works; replace what does not
- Cut over in slices, not a weekend freeze
- No invented go-live metrics
Off-the-shelf ERP is a product for a company that can absorb the product. For a lot of operators the real system of record is still a folder of workbooks: one for stock, one for orders, one for what finance will accept at month-end.
Clixo builds the operational record those sheets were pretending to be — and leaves the packaged ledger alone when it is already doing its job.
The problem we take on
The failure mode is rarely "we lack software." It is that nothing agrees. Receiving updates a sheet. The floor updates a different one. Invoices come from a third. Close becomes archaeology.
A year-long ERP implementation solves that by forcing every process into the package. That is the right move for some companies. It is the wrong move when the package is the wrong size, the quote assumes a partner army, or the floor will not survive a freeze-the-business cutover.
What we actually build
An operational ERP in the original sense: the shared record behind the work.
- Inventory and locations — what you have, where it is, what a sale or a receipt just did to it.
- Orders and fulfillment — so a sale is not re-keyed onto the floor.
- The finance handoff — posts or exports the ledger already knows how to take, instead of a Friday CSV ritual.
- The views leadership already asks for — open work, stock that matters, what shipped — without a report writer project.
This is not a promise to rebuild payroll, HR, MRP, and every industry vertical in one engagement. Those are different products. We say no when the ask is "NetSuite, but cheaper, with every module."
The proof we will stand on is the wholesale platform in daily use: a live operational system, not a case study with a fabricated accuracy rate. If your world is distribution, start on the wholesale page — that is the sharper fit.
Who this is for
Operators whose "ERP" is Excel plus an accounting package, and mid-size teams sitting on a legacy screen they cannot extend. Teams in and around Chicagoland often have that exact mix — a working trade, a tool that aged out. We are in Itasca; we will not pretend a ZIP code implements software.
A poor fit: a corporate selection already locked to a named ERP vendor and a system-integrator RFP.
How we work
We map the current record — where a number is born, where it is typed again, where it dies. We pick the first module that makes the others possible (often inventory or orders). We run it beside the old process until the people who use it will defend the new number. Then we cut that slice over. Weekly build notes; you own the repo.
Cost is a scoped conversation. Anyone publishing a single "custom ERP costs $X" figure is selling a brochure.
Book a build call or write hello@clixo.sh.
Frequently asked
- How much does a custom ERP cost?
- It depends on whether we are replacing a spreadsheet stack or extending a ledger you already close on. A first operational slice is a different job from a full finance+inventory+production system. We price a fixed scope after we have seen the workflows and the data — not from a public rate card, and not from an industry 'leakage' statistic.
- Will you rip out NetSuite / SAP / our accounting package?
- Not by default. If the packaged system is the financial source of record, we usually extend it: the operational pieces it does poorly, with a clean handoff back. A replacement is for when there is no system of record — only sheets and a tool the floor has abandoned.
- Is this the same as your wholesale page?
- No. Wholesale is a niche we have shipped in: ordering, inventory, the counter. ERP is the broader question of a shared operational record — which may be that wholesale platform, or a different set of modules for a different operator.
- Do you publish ROI numbers?
- No. We will describe what was built and the problem it solved. We will not invent accuracy percentages or cycle-time cuts.