It is easy to assume an older ERP rules you out. It was installed years ago, it runs on a server in the back office, and the vendor’s newest features are for the cloud version they never moved to.
Often the ERP is not the obstacle. ERP automation with AI works with an old ERP as long as there is a way to read from it and a safe way to write back.
What are the three ways into an ERP?
Almost every ERP can be reached in at least one of three ways. They differ in how safe they are and how much they cost to keep working.
| The way in | What it is | Fits when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Its connection for other software | A door the vendor built so other programs can read and write records. Developers call it an API | Your ERP is a current or cloud version | It may need a higher license tier or an add-on |
| Its database | The tables where the ERP stores everything, read directly | The ERP runs on a server you control | Read only. Writing straight into the tables skips the ERP’s own rules |
| Its screens | Software that logs in and types, the way a person does | Nothing else is available | It can break when a screen changes, and it is slow |
Many older ERPs also have a plainer version of the first way: exporting a report to a file on a schedule and importing a file back in. It is slower, and the ERP still checks what comes in.
Which ERPs have a connection for other software?
Many current ones. Acumatica, SAP Business One and NetSuite each document one on their own sites, so an AI system can work with any of the three through the vendor’s own connection. For another ERP, such as Epicor Prophet 21, ask the vendor or your reseller which of the three ways your version offers.
What your company can use is a narrower question. It depends on your version and your license, and on older installs the connection is sometimes present and switched off. Your vendor or reseller can tell you in one email.
How should a system read from and write to your ERP?
Read widely and write narrowly. Reading carries little risk, so a system can use whichever way gives it the freshest data, including a copy of the database.
Writing is different. An ERP applies rules every time a record is saved: it checks credit, reserves stock, applies tax and numbers the document. A system that writes around those rules can leave the books inconsistent. Writes should go through the vendor’s connection or its import, so the ERP still checks everything.
A sensible build also starts read-only. The system produces its result, a person compares it with what they would have done, and writing is switched on once the results hold up.
What should you ask your ERP vendor?
Five questions settle most of it:
- Does our version have a connection for outside software, and is it included in our license?
- Can we have read-only access to the database, or a nightly copy of it?
- Which records can be imported from a file?
- Does connecting outside software affect our support contract?
- Is there a test copy of our system we can try things on?
A builder should ask these on your behalf before quoting. If they quote without knowing the answers, the price is a guess.
What has Airu Labs connected to?
The ordering assistant and the purchasing system we built both run beside the software the business already used.
Airu Labs builds custom AI systems for small and mid-size companies, wired into the software they already use. We have written purchase orders straight back into OrderTime, read Gmail with read-only access, held live state in Google Sheets and shipped finished pages into Webflow. We have not published a build for Acumatica, SAP Business One, NetSuite or Prophet 21.
The purchasing system shows the pattern. Every night it reads sales and stock from a distributor’s ERP. Every morning the owner gets a buy list, and when he approves it the purchase order is written back into the ERP. Nobody on the team learned a new tool.
The ordering assistant checks live stock and each customer’s agreed pricing before it builds an order.
What if nothing works?
Sometimes nothing does. Some old systems have no connection, a database nobody can open and screens that cannot be driven reliably.
Then the options are to keep the job manual or to upgrade the ERP first.
To find out which way in your ERP has, book a 30-minute call and tell us what you run. Before you hire anyone to connect to it, put question 4 of our ten questions to ask an AI developer to them: will it work inside the software we already use?