Alternative to 1C: with what and how to replace it for small and medium-sized businesses in 2027

If you are looking for an alternative to 1C in Ukraine, the first question to ask is not "which program to choose", but "what exactly needs to be replaced". For years, 1C and BAS were used not only for bookkeeping. In many companies, they simultaneously stored data on sales, goods, warehouse, money, customers, and operational processes.

Therefore, a direct search for "the exact same program" does not always yield the right result. For small and medium-sized businesses, it is often more effective to separate two tasks: leave accounting and tax reporting to a specialized accounting program, and conduct the daily work of the company in a management accounting system.

In this material, we will break down what to replace 1C with in 2027, what types of solutions are available to Ukrainian businesses, how much they can cost, how to choose a system for trade, warehouse, or service business, and how to organize the transition without stopping work.

Why businesses are looking for a replacement for 1C

The reason for the transition is not only legislative restrictions. 1C and BAS are included in the official list of banned software maintained by the State Special Communications Service in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 1335 dated October 22, 2025. For government bodies, state and communal enterprises, and certain critical infrastructure entities, the issue of using such software is of particular importance.

At the same time, the situation for private business requires precise wording. Draft Law No. 13505, which provided for a general ban and financial sanctions for businesses, was rejected and withdrawn from consideration on June 30, 2026. That is, as of 2027, we should not speak of a fine of 2% of annual turnover as an active liability for all private companies.

But for the business owner, the issue remains relevant. Using software that is on the official list creates additional risks for IT infrastructure, information security, and the further development of accounting. In addition, the company becomes dependent on a specific configuration, a local server, or a specialist who knows how to maintain the old database.

That is why the transition is better viewed not as an urgent replacement of one program with another, but as an update of the way of working with data and business processes.

Alternatives to 1C: 4 types of solutions

There are several different classes of programs on the Ukrainian market. They should not be compared on the principle of "who has more features", because they solve different tasks.

Accounting software

Accounting software is needed for regulated accounting and tax reporting. Here, journal entries, primary documents, financial reporting, tax transactions, payroll, and other accounting tasks are important.

Among Ukrainian solutions, one can consider, for example, MASTER: Bookkeeping and Dilovod. 

MASTER offers a cloud version of its accounting product starting from €1152 per month under the basic plan, and data migration is available according to the service instructions.

The advantage of this approach is clear specialization. The accountant gets a tool specifically for their work, and the company does not have to transfer all operational processes into the accounting program.

The disadvantage is that the owner may need another tool for daily management. An accounting program will not necessarily show what stage a client's order is at, who needs to complete a task, what product is reserved, or how much a specific project is earning.

Management accounting systems

Management accounting answers a different question: what is happening to the business right now and why. Here, sales, purchasing, warehouse, money, mutual settlements, tasks, projects, customers, and profitability are key.

This type of solution includes Keruj and Perfectum. Keruj combines CRM and ERP capabilities in a single environment so that businesses can work with clients, sales, warehouse, finance, projects, and tasks without using several separate programs. The cost is calculated by the number of users. For example, the basic plan for 10 users at the time of preparing this material costs €5000 per month.

The strong point of management systems is the connection between daily operations. A manager creates a sale, the product is reserved in the warehouse, the payment is recorded in the accounting, and the manager sees the result without gathering information from several spreadsheets.

The limitation is also obvious: management accounting is not a replacement for bookkeeping. If a company needs tax reporting, it should be kept in a specialized accounting solution.

Niche services for a single task

Sometimes a full system is not required by a company. If the main problem is cash flow planning, a specialized financial service can be used, such as Finmap, M.E.Doc, Sota, Vchasno. If the primary need is a separate CRM process, document flow, or communication, a corresponding service can be chosen for that specific task.

This approach has an obvious advantage: there is no need to implement unnecessary features. The company pays for a specific tool and can launch it quickly.

But over time, another problem arises. Sales live in one service, finance in another, warehouse in a spreadsheet, and team tasks in a messenger. Data has to be transferred manually, and the manager again gathers the big picture from different sources.

Therefore, niche services work well when a business has one specific need. For a company that simultaneously has sales, warehouse, service, projects, and finance, a comprehensive approach should be evaluated.

ERP systems

ERP is a solution for companies with a complex process structure, a large number of users, departments, goods, or manufacturing operations.

Among well-known solutions are Odoo, Universal, and other ERP platforms. 

Odoo, for example, integrates sales, CRM, warehouse, accounting, projects, HR, manufacturing, and other modules. The standard cloud plan at the time of preparing this article starts at $24.90 per user per month with annual billing; implementation may be charged separately.

The advantage of ERP is scalability. A company can build complex, interconnected processes within a single environment.

The downside is complexity. The cost of implementation depends not only on licenses but also on process analysis, configuration, data migration, training, and development. For example, Odoo itself points out that successful implementation includes needs analysis, configuration, training, data import, and adaptation of business processes.

For a company with 10–30 employees, a full ERP may turn out to be an excessive solution if its needs can be met by a simpler product.

How to choose a 1S analogue for your business

The right choice starts not with a list of programs, but with processes. Before demonstrations, it is worth describing what exactly the company does every day and what information the manager wants to see without manual collection.

For a trading company, key elements may be stock levels, reserves, purchasing, prices, margin, sales, and payments. For a service business, requests, equipment, field work, tasks, and history of work are important. For an installation company, sales, estimates, warehouse, project, team, deadlines, and financial result are key.

Special attention should be paid to product and warehouse accounting. If a company sells physical goods, it is not enough to see only the total sales amount. It is necessary to understand what is in stock, what is reserved, what is expected, at what price the item was purchased, and what result its sale yields.

Before choosing, check at least:

• which processes need to be run daily;

• whether there is a warehouse, reservation, and purchasing;

• whether projects and tasks are needed;

• what financial indicators are important for the owner to see;

• how many people will work in the program;

• whether mobile access is required;

• what data needs to be migrated from 1C;

• what will remain in the accounting software.

The main criterion is not the number of features. The system must match the actual way the company works.

Keruj as a Ukrainian replacement for 1C for management accounting

Keruj should be considered specifically as a solution for management and operational accounting, not as an accounting program. The service combines sales, purchasing, warehouse, finance, projects, tasks, communication, and analytics. The data is interconnected, so the manager can see not individual operations, but the complete picture of the company's performance.

For trading businesses, Keruj helps manage sales, purchasing, and warehouse in one environment. The manager sees up-to-date product stock, can reserve items for orders, control expected deliveries, and track stock movement. Sales information is linked to payments and financial indicators, so the manager sees not only the volume of sales but also income, expenses, and business performance results. Additionally, you can manage mutual settlements with counterparties, work with different currencies, and analyze activities using reports.

For service businesses, Keruj combines work with requests, clients, tasks, and field workers. The manager can assign tasks, see their status, and monitor deadlines, while the employee can work with information directly from a smartphone. In the system, you can record time spent, materials used, completed work, and task results, store the history of interaction with the client, and monitor settlements. This helps not to lose requests and to see how many resources are actually spent on maintenance.

For companies engaged in the sale and installation of equipment, Keruj allows running the entire project in one environment — from sale and purchase to work execution and result calculation. Inside a project, you can store documents, team tasks, information about products and costs, and control deadlines and responsible employees. Separately, project economics and plan-vs-actual analysis are formed, where you can evaluate income, expenses, and profitability. Time tracking helps understand how many labor resources a project requires, and reports allow comparing planned and actual indicators.

In all these scenarios, Keruj is not limited to separate sales or financial accounting. Sales, warehouse, documents, money, tasks, projects, and communication are interconnected, so the manager does not need to collect information from spreadsheets, messengers, and various programs. Data can be analyzed in reports, using multi-currency accounting, monitoring mutual settlements, tracking cash flow, evaluating project profitability, and seeing the current state of the business without constant manual consolidation of information.

This is precisely the advantage of Keruj for small and medium-sized businesses: not just storing transaction data, but linking them into a single picture of the company's operations.

At the same time, there is an important limitation: Keruj does not have bookkeeping and integration with the State Tax Service. Therefore, for a company transitioning from 1C, the correct scenario will often be not to "replace everything with one program", but to separate accounting by purpose.

Mini-case: how "Rezon+" transitioned from 1C

The owner of the "Rezon+" company, Oleksandr Tkachuk, says that the company searched for a replacement for 1C for about four years, and in 2023, it started working with Keruj.

According to him, the service helped save time and money, and analyze sales and stock levels. One of the deciding factors was the mobile app, which made it possible to make decisions faster during negotiations with clients.

This case shows well why a transition does not necessarily have to be a search for a program as similar to 1C as possible. The company can simultaneously solve the task of abandoning old software and change the approach to management itself.

1C vs Keruj

The comparison does not determine that one system is universally better than another. It shows the difference in purpose. If you need tax reporting, you need an accounting tool. If the main thing is daily management of sales, warehouse, finance, projects, and team, you need a management one.

How to combine Keruj with accounting software

For small and medium-sized businesses, dividing roles between two solutions can be practical.

In Keruj, the team conducts operational work:

• sales and orders;

• clients and suppliers;

• warehouse and stock movement;

• purchasing;

• payments, income, and expenses;

• projects and tasks;

• mutual settlements;

• management reports.

In the accounting software, the accountant keeps what is needed for regulated bookkeeping and reporting.

Such division does not create duplication if you determine in advance where the primary information is generated, what data is sent to the accountant, and who is responsible for each type of transaction.

As a result, the manager does not force the accountant to work in the management system, and managers to work in the accounting program. Everyone works with a tool that corresponds to their tasks.

How to switch from 1C without stopping work

The transition does not necessarily mean stopping the company for several weeks. For small and medium-sized businesses, it can be organized in stages: first prepare data and processes, then configure the new environment, train key employees, and only after verification move work to the new tool.

A realistic timeframe for such a transition is about 2–6 weeks, if the company's processes are not too complex, and the solution does not require a large amount of custom development.

1. Determine what exactly to transfer

There is no need to transfer the entire archive of many years into the new system just because it exists in the old database.

First, extract:

• customer directory;

• products and services;

• current stock balances;

• open orders;

• outstanding mutual settlements;

• active projects;

• required transaction history.

Part of the archival data can be kept accessible separately if it is no longer needed for daily work.

2. Map the processes

Before transferring data, it is worth determining how the company will work after the transition.

If you simply transfer the old structure to a new program, the business may get a new interface with the old problems. The transition is a good moment to remove duplication, unnecessary steps, and manual data transfer.

The best solution would be not just to replace 1C, but to optimize the company's performance. We have described how to properly prepare a business for automation, determine what should be changed, and which operations should be automated, in a separate article on business automation. This will help understand what tasks the new solution should solve even before the transition starts.

3. Configure the new system

At this stage, users, roles, directories, statuses, documents, financial categories, warehouses, and other parameters are created.

It is important not to try to configure absolutely everything on the first day. First, you should launch critical processes without which the company cannot operate.

4. Transfer data and test performance

After the transfer, you need to check not just the fact of import itself. Compare balances, clients, products, open documents, and financial indicators.

A trial period works well, when several key employees go through a typical working day in the new system. This way, errors can be corrected before the complete transition.

5. Switch to the new process

After testing, the transition date is set. The team receives a simple rule: new operations are created in the new system already.

The old database does not need to be deleted immediately. It can be left in archive mode until the company is sure that all necessary data has been transferred and the new process is working stably.

How much does the transition cost

The price consists of several parts:

license or subscription + configuration + data migration + training + integrations, if needed.

For a simple cloud solution, costs may be close to the monthly subscription. For example, MASTER:Bookkeeping starts from €1152 per month, Keruj starts from €5000 per month under the plan for 10 users.

In more complex ERP solutions, the main expense item may no longer be the license, but the implementation. Odoo, for example, separately accounts for services of needs analysis, data import, configuration, and training; in the built-in estimator for a certain scenario, the system shows an implementation project starting from €4500.

Therefore, comparing only the monthly price of programs is wrong. You need to compare the full cost of transition and subsequent work.

Conclusion: how to start the transition from 1C this week

No need to start by looking for the "perfect 1C analogue". First, determine what part of 1C's work you want to replace.

For most small and medium-sized businesses, it is not necessary to look for a single program that will do absolutely everything. A combination of accounting software for regulated accounting and a management system for the daily operations of the business can be more practical.

The main thing is not to transfer the old approach into the new program automatically. The transition from 1C can become an opportunity to simplify processes, combine data, and make business management clearer.

And if you are looking specifically for management accounting for Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses, Keruj can be tested in real work for 14 days to check how sales, warehouse, finance, projects, and tasks can work in a single environment.