If you've searched for "invoicing software" or "ERP for SMEs" in the last few years, you'll have come across Holded. We're an official Holded partner and we use it every day in our own agency, so we're going to tell you what it is, what it does well and who it is NOT right for — because that exists too.
What Holded is, in one sentence
Holded is cloud-based business management software that brings together in a single tool what most SMEs have scattered across five: invoicing, accounting, CRM, projects, inventory and team. You pay a monthly subscription, there's nothing to install and your accountant can log in directly to see the books.
What it really includes
- Invoicing — quotes, pro-forma invoices, invoices, recurring invoices, payments and direct debit batches. It's the heart of the product and where it performs best.
- Accounting — automatic entries from invoices, bank reconciliation connected to your bank, tax returns ready for your accountant.
- CRM — sales funnels, leads and activities. Simple; enough for small sales teams.
- Projects — tasks, time tracking and profitability per project. If you sell hours (agencies, consultancies, studios), a large part of the value lives here.
- Inventory — products, warehouses, stock and orders. For retail with a moderate catalogue it works well; for complex logistics it falls short.
- Team — clocking in, holidays and basic payroll.
- API and app store — connectors for Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, PayPal, Amazon and an open API you can use to integrate practically anything.
Which businesses it suits
Holded shines in the service or retail SME of between 1 and 50 people that today runs on Excel, a desktop invoicing programme and emails to the accountant. Agencies, studios, consultancies, professional practices, medium-sized online shops, restaurant groups with several sites, renovation companies, small distributors. The common pattern: lots of invoices, repeated manual processes and zero visibility of cash until the quarter closes.
Who it is NOT right for (as the only tool)
We say it plainly because we get asked a lot: Holded stops being enough on its own once you pass 50-100 employees. At that scale, needs appear that it no longer covers — full people management and payroll, production, advanced warehousing, analytics — and you have to complement it with specialised tools (HR, production, BI) or consider a larger ERP. Below that size, though, it rarely falls short: most SMEs don't use even half of what it already includes.
What nobody tells you before you sign up
Holded is only as good as its implementation. The tool is intuitive, yes, but an account set up "on the fly" ends up with duplicate ledger accounts, badly configured invoice series, repeated products and a CRM nobody uses. 90% of the bad reviews you'll read are, in reality, bad implementations. The difference between "yet another programme" and "the tool that put the company in order" lies in the first two weeks: how it's structured, how the data is migrated and how the team is trained.
How we do it
As Holded Solution Partners we first analyse your processes (how you quote, how you get paid, who does what), configure the account to fit, migrate customers, products and invoices, and train the team. And when needed, we connect Holded to your website, your shop or your tools via API so that data is entered only once. If you're weighing up whether Holded is right for your company, tell us how you work today and we'll tell you, with the same honesty as this article, whether it fits or not.
