ERP for Electrical Trades — software for Elektro-Handwerk with VDE, PV and EVSE
The German electrical trade (Elektro-Handwerk) is undergoing a structural shift. The classical mix of building installation, repair and maintenance is being overlaid with photovoltaic (PV) installs, EVSE (electric-vehicle supply equipment) charging-station rollouts and smart-home retrofits. An ERP for Elektro-Handwerk has to support project-based job costing, VDE-compliant documentation (VDE = the German electrotechnical safety standards body), mobile time tracking on site, and tight materials integration with electrical wholesalers such as Sonepar, Rexel and Conrad.
Requirements for electrical-trade ERP
Project rhythms vary widely: short service calls in residential settings, multi-week installations on PV systems, and longer-running building-services contracts on commercial sites. The ERP needs a single project-and-job-costing model that scales across this range, with material, labour, scaffolding-rental and subcontractor lines. VDE-conformant documentation is a recurring requirement — especially the VDE 0100 measurement reports after a new installation and the periodic inspection (E-Check) on existing installations. PV and EVSE work adds a documentation layer for grid-operator registration (Marktstammdatenregister) and for KfW subsidies, which the ERP should absorb without parallel Excel.
Mandatory functions
Mandatory functions include: project- and job-costing module with material, labour and subcontractor cost lines; wholesaler integration via IDS-Connect or comparable interfaces (Sonepar, Rexel, Conrad Sourcing, FEGIME members); mobile time tracking with GPS or geofencing where contractually agreed; VDE measurement-report generation and storage; E-Check periodic-inspection scheduling and documentation; PV system documentation including Marktstammdatenregister registration data; EVSE installation documentation with the grid-operator notification (Anmeldung beim Netzbetreiber); and KfW/BAFA subsidy documentation. Audit-trail support on measurement reports matters for liability evidence years after handover.
Vendor landscape
Specialist vendors for the German Elektro-Handwerk include Streit V.1, ElektroSPACE, KWP-bnWin, Hero-Software, pds Software, label software and ZWO/Mareon (for housing-association-driven work). Most are sized for shops between 5 and 60 employees. Larger installation businesses sometimes move to a Mid-Market ERP with project add-ons, accepting the trade-off of weaker wholesaler integration. PV-only operations occasionally adopt PV-specific software (e.g. Solar-Log Cockpit, openSolar) and connect it to the general ERP for finance, which works for pure-play installers but breaks down once the business mixes PV with classical Elektro work.
Trends and outlook
The PV and EVSE boom continues to reshape the electrical trade's revenue mix and ERP requirements. The Solarpaket I legislation in Germany simplifies smaller PV registrations but raises the cadence of installations, putting documentation pressure on the back office. Smart-home and energy-management retrofits add a layer of programming and commissioning work that is harder to estimate in advance, increasing the value of post-mortem job-costing analytics. As in SHK, the e-Rechnung mandate from 2026 reshapes invoicing flows. Skilled-labour shortages keep mobile-app quality high on the selection criteria list.
Related Topics
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a PV-installer run on a generic ERP?
For pure-play PV installers below 20 employees, yes — combined with a PV-specific configurator and the grid-operator portals. As soon as the business mixes PV, EVSE, smart home and classical Elektro work, a trade-specific ERP becomes the cleaner choice, because the wholesaler integration and the documentation workflows are shared across project types.
How important is VDE-report generation inside the ERP?
Important enough that running it outside the ERP (Word templates, separate measurement-instrument software) creates a real liability risk: reports go missing, revisions are not tracked, and customer queries cannot be answered quickly years later. An ERP that ties VDE reports to the project and the customer record is a noticeable upgrade for any Elektro shop above ~10 employees.
Does the ERP need to integrate with Marktstammdatenregister?
Direct technical integration is rare and not strictly required — the registration is typically a one-off portal interaction. What the ERP should do is store the registration data and the system identifier alongside the project, so that later service calls, performance issues or warranty cases can be processed without rediscovering the registration details.