Custom Business Systems for Hong Kong SMEs

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A business management system should not mean five vendors, five support contracts and five sets of logins. Potoco Systems builds custom business systems for Hong Kong SMEs — ERP, HR, payroll, inventory and CRM — on Odoo 19, installed on a machine in your own office. A one-off setup fee, then a monthly fee banded by how many modules and users you run — the smallest configuration starts at around HK$500 a month.

What a Business Management System Includes

Most growing Hong Kong companies end up needing the same five building blocks. You rarely need all of them on day one — you start with the one that hurts most and add the rest as you grow.

  • ERP — quotations, sales orders, purchasing, stock movement and accounting entries in one flow.
  • HR — employee records, leave and attendance, MPF contributions and IR56B/IR56E filing.
  • Payroll — the monthly payroll run, statutory leave pay, payslips and payment records, with the accounting entries generated for you.
  • Inventory — multi-warehouse stock levels, transfers, reorder points and stock takes.
  • CRM — leads, quotations, follow-ups and customer history on the same database as your orders.

Where Most Hong Kong SMEs Start

Most SMEs in Hong Kong still run their people on manual work: leave balances in a spreadsheet, attendance on a clock-in sheet or a WhatsApp message, and payroll rebuilt from scratch every month. Nobody enjoys that work and it never gets faster, so it is normally where we begin.

HR, payroll and leave are also the cheapest place to start, because they are configuration rather than invention — the local statutory logic (MPF, IR56B/IR56E, leave pay under section 713) is already built. That is why the entry configuration starts at around HK$500 a month, a far easier decision than committing to a full ERP project on day one.

Sales, purchasing and inventory come later. Those are genuinely more involved, so they are priced against the customisation they need rather than against the entry band.

Five Systems, One Vendor

Because every module sits on one database, a quotation becomes a sales order, the order moves stock, payroll posts the salary entries, and the same customer record is visible to sales and support. Nothing is typed twice and nothing has to be reconciled between systems.

SystemWhat it doesLearn more
ERPQuotations, orders, purchasing, stock and accounting in one flowCustom ERP for Hong Kong SMEs
HREmployee records, leave, attendance, MPF and IR56B/IR56EHR system Hong Kong
PayrollMonthly payroll, statutory leave pay, payslips and payment recordsPayroll system Hong Kong
InventoryMulti-warehouse stock, transfers, reorder points and stock takesComing soon
CRMLeads, follow-ups and customer history on the same databaseComing soon

How a Rollout Usually Runs

We add capability in the order that pays for itself soonest. Most companies follow the same path:

  1. HR — employee records, contracts and documents out of scattered spreadsheets and into one place.
  2. Payroll — the monthly run, MPF and the IRD returns generated from those same records, so filing season stops being a project.
  3. Leave and attendance — balances, approvals and clock-in data feeding payroll automatically instead of being retyped.
  4. Sales and quotations — quotes that turn into orders and invoices without anyone keying the same details twice.
  5. Purchasing and inventory — suppliers, stock levels and reorder points, once the sales side has settled down.

Each stage stands on its own and pays for the next, so you are never betting the business on one large project landing.

Where It Runs: On Your Own Premises

Potoco systems are not cloud subscriptions. We install the system on a machine inside your own office — Linux and Docker, with the application, the PostgreSQL database and the Nginx web server running as separate containers — and your staff reach it over your own network. Nothing is hosted on somebody else’s servers.

  • Your data never leaves the building. Customer records, salaries, MPF data and financials sit on hardware you control. Nothing is uploaded to a vendor’s cloud, and nothing is sent to a public AI model.
  • No software licence. The platform is Odoo 19 Community Edition, which is open source, so there is no per-seat licence to buy on top of the monthly fee.
  • Not dependent on your internet line. Day-to-day work runs over your own network, and it keeps working when the broadband does not.
  • Open source, so no lock-in. The platform and the custom modules are yours to inspect. No vendor can switch your system off or hold your data to ransom.
  • One machine, standard parts. Everything runs in Linux containers (Docker), so the system is portable — it can be backed up, moved, or rebuilt on replacement hardware.

You do not need a server room or an IT department: we install the system and look after it as a managed service.

What It Costs

There are two parts. A one-off setup fee covers configuring the system around your business and installing it on your own machine. After that a monthly fee covers ongoing support, maintenance and updates.

The monthly fee is banded by how much system you actually run — the number of modules and the number of users. The entry configuration, built around HR, payroll and leave, starts at around HK$500 a month. A bigger team is more people to support, so the fee moves up a band rather than onto a per-seat licence.

Larger work is priced differently. Sales, purchasing and inventory take real customisation, so those stages are quoted against the scope of work rather than the entry band — and always quoted before you commit.

What you never pay is a software licence. Odoo 19 Community Edition is open source, so there is no per-seat licence on top — the monthly fee is for the work we do, not for permission to use the software. There is also no locked-in multi-year contract, so you can start with one module and add the others once the first has paid for itself.

Built Around Hong Kong Rules

The details that break generic software in Hong Kong are the local statutory ones, and they are built in rather than bolted on:

  • MPF contributions, with the statutory minimum and maximum relevant income levels.
  • IR56B and IR56E filing formats for the Inland Revenue Department.
  • Statutory holiday and annual leave entitlements, and leave pay calculated under section 713 of the Employment Ordinance.
  • HKD accounting, with bilingual English and Traditional Chinese documents.
  • A Traditional Chinese interface for the staff who need it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do we have to buy all the modules at once?

No. Most companies start with HR, payroll and leave, then add sales, purchasing and inventory later. Every module runs on the same database, so adding one later does not mean re-entering data.

Can it replace our accounting software?

For most SMEs the ERP module covers quotations, orders, purchasing and the accounting entries that follow from them, which removes the double entry between sales and accounts. Year-end reporting can still sit with your accountant, and the data exports to them.

How long does implementation take?

Because we configure a standard platform instead of writing from scratch, a single module is usually live in a few weeks, and each additional module is quicker once the first is running.

Do we need our own IT staff to run it?

No. The system is delivered and maintained by us as a managed service, so your team uses it rather than administers it. It runs alongside an existing IT support arrangement if you have one.

Talk to Us

Tell us which of the five systems costs you the most time, and we will show you what a first stage would look like. Call +852 2117 9474 or email sales@potocohk.com.


About Potoco Systems Limited

Potoco Systems is a Hong Kong-based IT service provider specializing in managed IT services, network security, and Microsoft 365 solutions. We help businesses streamline their IT operations with expert support and enterprise-grade technology.

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