ERP for Foreign Companies in Korea
What a foreign company's Korean entity needs from an ERP: e-tax invoices, payroll records, bilingual screens. Korean package, global or custom, and cost.
A foreign company's Korean subsidiary or branch needs an ERP that can issue Korean electronic tax invoices, keep the payroll and employee records Korean labour law expects, and show the same data in English for head office and Korean for local staff. There are three ways to get there: a Korean ERP package, the group's global ERP with Korean localisation, or a custom system, often layered on top of one of the first two. This guide sets out the Korean requirements, compares the three routes and gives cost ranges for the custom part.
What does a Korean entity need from an ERP?
Most of what makes an ERP "Korean" sits in four areas. Use this as a requirements checklist when you talk to vendors or developers.
| Area | What Korea requires or expects | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Sales and VAT | Electronic tax invoices for corporations, sent to the National Tax Service by the day after issue | VAT Act Article 32; Enforcement Decree Article 68 |
| Payroll | A wage ledger per workplace, and a wage statement (paper or electronic) given to each employee at every payment, showing the components and how they were calculated | Labor Standards Act Article 48 |
| Employee records | An employee register per workplace, with the register and key employment contract documents kept for three years | Labor Standards Act Articles 41–42 |
| Working hours | A 40-hour week and 8-hour day, with up to 12 hours of agreed overtime a week, so hours need to be recorded | Labor Standards Act Articles 50 and 53 |
| Work rules | Employers with 10 or more regular employees must write rules of employment and report them to the Ministry of Employment and Labor | Labor Standards Act Article 93 |
| Language | Head office reads English; local staff, the tax accountant and the authorities work in Korean | Practical reality |
On top of these sit the usual Korean payroll processes, such as the four social insurances and the year-end tax settlement, which most companies run through a payroll package or an outside payroll service. Ask early whether that service will stay, because it decides which data your ERP has to export.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. The Labor Standards Act English text on the Korea Legislation Research Institute site is a useful reference translation; your Korean labour attorney or tax accountant should confirm what applies to your entity.
Should you use a Korean ERP package, your global ERP or a custom system?
There is no single right answer. It depends on how big the Korean entity is and how tightly head office needs to see its numbers.
| Korean ERP package | Global ERP with Korean localisation | Custom system | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Korean tax and payroll | Built in, kept current by the vendor | Depends on the localisation partner | Built to order, or connected to a package or provider |
| English for head office | Varies by vendor; some offer per-user language settings | Usually strong | Designed in from the start |
| Fit to your workflow | You adapt to the package | You adapt to the group template | The system follows your workflow |
| Typical cost structure | Subscription or licence | Licence plus localisation and partner fees | One-off build plus hosting and maintenance |
| Best for | Small entities that want compliance with little effort | Groups that need one global ledger | Workflows the packages do not cover, or a bilingual layer on top |
Widely used Korean packages include Douzone Bizon's products and ECOUNT. ECOUNT, for example, lets each user choose a language, and lists Korean and English among the languages offered. Global vendors such as SAP also work in Korea through local partners.
A pattern that works well for many foreign-owned entities is a hybrid: keep a Korean package or the outside accountant for statutory accounting and payroll, and build a custom system for the workflow the business actually runs, such as quotes, orders, projects or service tickets, with English and Korean screens and a clean export to the accounting side.
Can head office use English while local staff use Korean?
Yes, and it is worth designing for rather than bolting on. The details that make it work:
- One record, two labels. Store data once and translate the interface, not the data. Customer names, item names and addresses stay in their original language; field labels, statuses and reports switch with the user's language.
- Bilingual fields where needed. For items that head office reads, such as product names or project titles, keep a Korean and an English field side by side so one does not overwrite the other.
- Consistent formats. Show amounts in won without decimals, dates as year-month-day, and Korean names family name first. Let the English interface follow the same data, not a converted copy.
- Reports for both audiences. Local managers want the Korean operational view; head office wants a monthly summary in English in its own reporting format. Plan both before you build.
Teams that also need an English portal for HR documents, approvals and announcements will find the same principles in English intranets for teams in Korea.
Which integrations matter most?
- Electronic tax invoices. Corporations must issue them electronically. Most systems connect to an issuance provider registered with the National Tax Service rather than building their own registered system. The details are in Korea e-tax invoices: Hometax and API guide.
- Accounting and payroll. If a package or an outside accountant keeps the books, your system needs a reliable export or sync of sales, costs and hours in the format they accept.
- Notifications. Korean staff and customers expect KakaoTalk messages for approvals, reminders and order updates. See KakaoTalk Channel and AlimTalk.
- Groupware and sign-in. Connecting to the groupware or identity provider your staff already use avoids a second password.
- Your global systems. Head office reporting, CRM or a group data warehouse. Decide which system owns which data before anyone writes an integration.
When does a custom system make sense?
A custom build is the better choice when:
- The workflow is specific to your business and the package would force workarounds in spreadsheets.
- Head office needs an English view that the package cannot provide.
- You need to connect several services (e-tax invoices, KakaoTalk notifications, your global CRM) that no single package handles together.
- The Korean entity is small, and a full global ERP rollout would cost more than the entity earns in its first years.
It is the wrong choice when you need statutory payroll and accounting fully handled and have no one to own a custom system. In that case, start with a package and add custom pieces only where it falls short.
How much does a custom system cost, and how long does it take?
In our pricing catalogue (version 1.1, 23 September 2026), a base business system covering one workflow end to end is KRW 2.0M–6.0M (typically KRW 3.5M) and takes 4–10 weeks. Each additional piece is priced per item, all excluding VAT:
| Item | Range (KRW, excl. VAT) |
|---|---|
| Discovery before the build | 0.3M–0.8M |
| Extended admin (three or more roles, Excel export, audit log) | 0.6M–1.5M |
| Simple one-way API integration (each) | 0.3M–0.6M |
| Two-way data sync (each) | 0.8M–1.5M |
| Data migration from spreadsheets | 0.5M–1.5M |
Third-party costs, such as e-tax invoice provider fees and message sending fees, are paid separately. The full breakdown, including running costs after launch, is in custom ERP development cost in Korea.
What does a real scope look like?
Our own studio runs on a system we built: a request from the website opens a case, the quote and contract are prepared from it, and the schedule, files and maintenance requests sit in a client portal the customer can see. It started with one workflow and grew a step at a time on the same customer and project records. For a Korean entity, the same approach works: start with the workflow that hurts most, often quotes to invoices, then add the next.
If your team is outside Korea, our English-speaking founder runs consultations and documents, and we can meet your local staff in person in Korea. Read outsourcing software development to South Korea for how such projects are contracted and run.
Frequently asked questions
Which companies are major ERP vendors in Korea?
Widely used Korean ERP vendors include Douzone Bizon and ECOUNT. Global vendors such as SAP are also used by larger groups, usually through local partners. A foreign company's Korean entity often combines one of these for accounting with a custom system for its own workflow.
Can our head office use the ERP in English while staff use Korean?
Yes. Some Korean packages offer per-user language settings, and a custom system can be designed with English and Korean interfaces over the same data. Keep bilingual fields for anything head office reads, such as product names.
Does our ERP need to issue Korean e-tax invoices?
Your Korean corporation must issue them electronically. The ERP does not have to issue them itself; most companies connect it to an issuance provider registered with the National Tax Service, which issues and transmits the invoice.
How long does it take to build a custom ERP for a Korean entity?
In our catalogue, a base business system covering one workflow takes 4–10 weeks. Discovery and data migration usually decide where in that range a project lands; integrations such as e-tax invoicing add time per item.
Should we buy an ERP package or build a custom system?
Buy a package when you need statutory accounting and payroll handled with little effort. Build custom when your workflow, English reporting or integrations do not fit a package. Many foreign-owned entities do both.
Sources
All checked October 2026.
- Korea Legislation Research Institute, Labor Standards Act (English translation)
- Korea Ministry of Government Legislation, Labor Standards Act (Articles 41, 42, 48, 50, 53, 93)
- Korea Ministry of Government Legislation, Value-Added Tax Act (Article 32)
- ECOUNT, Multilingual and country settings
- NQ Solution pricing catalogue v1.1 (23 September 2026): business system, discovery, admin, integration and migration line items, in KRW excluding VAT
Planning systems for your Korean entity?
Send us the workflow your Korean team runs today, even if it is a spreadsheet, through the project request form. See what we build on the software development in Korea and system and AI automation pages, and how this fits a wider launch on the Korea market entry page.