People still ring me about the Trading Online Voucher. It was the scheme that paid half the bill on an awful lot of small Irish websites, and for years it was the first thing any Local Enterprise Office would point a shop or a tradesman towards. It's no longer open for applications. What's replaced it is a two-step system, and the bit people miss is that you can't go straight for the money.
How the two steps fit together
The old voucher was a single form and a single claim. The new arrangement asks you to work out what you actually need before anyone hands you money for it. Reasonable enough, if slower.
Digital for Business
A consultant looks at the systems you already run, finds the gaps, and writes a report recommending what to change. The LEO describes it as analysis of existing systems, exploration of options, and guidance on implementation.
The report is the ticket
The Grow Digital Voucher is only open to businesses that have completed a Digital for Business project within the previous two years. No report, no voucher.
Apply before you spend
The application must be in before any expenditure is incurred or any part of the project starts. Order the software first and you can be ruled out entirely.
Pay, then claim
You carry the invoice and the grant covers half of it back, from €500 up to €5,000. Two projects are possible, but €5,000 is the cumulative ceiling either way.
What it will and won't pay for
This is where the new scheme differs most sharply from the old one, and where I have to be straight with you about my own work. The voucher is built around off-the-shelf software subscriptions that are new to your business. Anything built for you is out.
Eligible
- Subscriptions to software new to the business, up to one year
- E-commerce, CRM, online booking, payments and appointments
- Stock control, order management, job and field-service tracking
- Cloud accounting or payroll, e-invoicing, e-signature
- Cyber security software; analytics software, including AI systems
- Training and IT configuration, capped at half the project cost
Not eligible
- Custom or bespoke software
- Bespoke website development
- More licences for software you already run
- Systems bought purely for regulatory compliance
- Routine upgrades that don't change how the business works
- Anything ordered or started before you applied
So if you were hoping the state would fund half of a bespoke system, it won't. I'd rather say that here than after you've budgeted for it. Website development is on the eligible list, but only as a software subscription new to the business; bespoke build work is named as outside the scheme. The best use of the voucher is the boring, useful stuff: getting the bookings out of a notebook, the stock out of a spreadsheet, the payroll off a laptop under the counter.
Who actually qualifies
| Employees | Between 1 and 50 paid staff |
| Size test | Small enterprise: turnover or balance sheet €10m or less |
| Trading history | At least six months, registered in your LEO's area |
| Finances | Solvent, shown in the statements you supply |
| Revenue | Current tax clearance required |
| Not eligible | Existing Enterprise Ireland or IDA clients |
| Prerequisite | Digital for Business report within the last two years |
Sole traders and partnerships are in scope as well as limited companies, so a one-person operation with a trading history is not automatically out. Some sectors are excluded outright (primary agriculture, fishing and aquaculture among them), which rules out a fair number of businesses around here, so check before you get your hopes up.
Where to start
There is a free five-minute self-assessment at growdigital.gov.ie that gives you a digital scorecard and points you at the relevant supports. After that, ring your own Local Enterprise Office and ask to be put on the Digital for Business programme. Everything else follows from that report.
My take
Grow Digital pays 50% of eligible costs, €500 to €5,000 in total, and only after the free consultancy. It covers subscriptions to software that's new to you, plus the training and setup to get it working. It won't touch bespoke builds or anything you bought before you applied. If the software you need is off the shelf, that's a real half-price offer and I'd do the paperwork. If you need something built, budget for it yourself and don't wait on the voucher.
