Grow Digital Voucher

Grow Digital Voucher details from Local Enterprise Ireland

The Grow Digital Voucher or Grow Digital Grant offers small and medium businesses with up to 50 employees financial support to ’embrace digital technology’. It is offered based on having a ‘Digital for Business‘ Project report completed within the previous two years. That is a FREE service for you.

Qualification: Businesses in Ireland that have been established and trading for at least 6 months. And which operate in an area covered by a Local Enterprise Office. See list of qualifying business categories here.
Funding: Of 50% of eligible costs or up to €5,000 grant to invest in software and training/IT configuration. “Grant covering 50% of eligible costs (minimum grant of €500 up to a maximum grant of €5,000) limited to new software subscriptions for a period of 12 months (e.g., e-commerce, CRM, accounting) and training and configuration of the software (limited to 50% of software purchase cost)“
Boost Efficiency: Streamline operations and enhance productivity with new digital tools. Use SaaS tools to speed up work without needing any custom development.
Reach New Customers: Expand your reach and connect with a wider audience online. SaaS tools can help with multi market and multi language marketing.
Stay Competitive: Bridge the digital gap and compete effectively in today’s marketplace in any geographic space your potential market is to be found.

Funding will be in the form of a Grow Digital Grant. This ‘grant’ aid will be 50% of eligible costs with minimum grant aid of €500 up to a maximum grant of €5,000 per application. Enterprises can be approved a maximum of two Grow Digital Voucher projects up to a maximum cumulative grant value of €5,000 as identified in their Digital for Business project report to support their Digitalisation journey. So you can make two applications up to a total grant of €5000.00.

Approval of a second Grow Digital Voucher is dependent on the demonstrated achievement of the progression of the business as outlined in the Digital for Business report. Allowable expenditure will be towards supporting the Digitalisation progression of the applicant firm.

Local Enterprise Ireland.  Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment . National Enterprise Hub

Eligible applicants for Grow Digital Voucher

The Grow Digital Voucher is open to small enterprises (with between 1 and 50 paid employees) who:

• have completed a Digital for Business Project within the previous two years. This FREE to you and gives you up to 3 days of a Consultants time to assess your business, do some research and then make recommendations to you. The recommendations will be which software you can use to save you time or save you money.
• are not currently clients of Enterprise Ireland or IDA.
• are established and trading for at least 6 months, registered, and operate within the area of the Local Enterprise Office.
• are solvent as demonstrated in the financial statements supplied.
• An enterprise will be eligible to apply to the Scheme where it is a company, self-employed individual or partnership carrying on a trade or profession, the profits of which are chargeable to tax under Case I or Case II of Schedule D by virtue of section 18(2) of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 (TCA). Pay As You Go (PAYG) customers are within the scope of the scheme.
• Sporting bodies that carry on activities which would be chargeable to tax under Case I or II of Schedule D but for an exemption set out in section 235 TCA are eligible to apply to the scheme.
• Charities that carry on activities that would be chargeable to tax as trading income, but for an available tax exemption under section 208 TCA, are also included within the scope of the scheme.
• Businesses must have current tax clearance from Revenue. Businesses must supply a Tax Reference Number and a Tax Clearance Access Number to allow for verification of their Tax Clearance status on Revenue’s online portal.

Ineligible Applicants for Grow Digital Voucher

• Companies with charitable status, commercial semi-state companies, “not for profit” organisations – which do not meet the above criteria, trade associations, company representation bodies such as Chambers of Commerce, Sporting Bodies – which do not meet the above criteria and other non-commercial bodies or associations are not eligible to avail of the Small Capital Grants.Are operating in the coal or steel sector.
  Are active in the primary agricultural, fishery or aquaculture sectors.
• Are involved in activities that Local Enterprise Offices considers as ineligible or as involving an unacceptable reputational risk. Ineligible activities include activities relating to:
  1. The gambling sector, including ‘gaming’ (as defined in the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956).
  Adult entertainment.
  2. Tobacco and tobacco related products.
  3. Cannabis-based products which are not authorised as medicines.
• Note: This is not an exhaustive list and Enterprise Ireland has a dynamic policy position on several activities. Any queries in relation to the eligibility of an activity will be directed to the Enterprise Ireland Policy department who will assess the case.

Eligible Expenditure with Grow Digital Voucher

1. Software subscription fees

• for eligible business software that is NEW to the business for a maximum of one year subscription (the business must incur the annual subscription cost before the grant can be paid).
• that are “off the shelf”.
• expanding on the number of existing software licenses for software systems already in use does not qualify.

Eligible software examples include:

• E-commerce software
• Software for customer relationship management
• Online booking, payments or appointments
• Job tracking including field service management software.
• Order management or stock control software
• Industry specific cloud SaaS software (where new to the company)
• Field management or workflow management software
• Electronic invoicing or electronic signature software
• Standard office software (for email, documents, spreadsheets, etc.) where not already in use by the company
• Cyber security software (if new to the company)
• Cloud based accounting or payroll software (if moving to the cloud for these systems)
• 3D modelling software (including building information modelling)
• Analytics software (including AI Artificial Intelligence systems)

2. Training and/or IT Configuration

Where the business requires expert assistance in the set up; and/or integration of new software systems or ICT processes or where the business management or team require training to engage with/maintain the new system to allow for ease of use and to garner most benefit for the business. (Training and Configuration amount combined can be no more than 50% of the software subscription fees).

Ineligible Expenditure with Grow Digital Voucher funding

• Custom or bespoke software is not eligible for grant support.
• Systems for regulatory compliance do not qualify.

Source https://www.localenterprise.ie/Portal/Growdigital/WHO-IS-ELIGIBLE-/WHO-IS-ELIGIBLE-.html