Eligible digital costs in a Start-Up Nation business plan

Known: the announced ceiling of up to 250,000 lei per beneficiary, the spending deadline of 8 December 2027, and the order of steps — the entrepreneurship course comes before submitting the financing application.

Not known, and not assumed here: the eligible cost categories, the per-category ceilings, the scoring grid and the co-financing rate. All of these are fixed by the session 2 procedure. A plan built on a list taken from an earlier edition risks carrying lines that no longer exist.

One useful anchor: the 200,000 lei figure still printed next to the programme name belongs to the 2017, 2018-2019 and 2022 editions. Building a plan on it starts 50,000 lei below the amount announced for session 2.

New companies usually include a presentation site with contact forms and basic optimisation, an online store with a payment processor and courier integration, IT equipment, working software licences and, where the model calls for it, a simple appointments or stock application. What is eligible and under which ceiling remains set solely by the guide of the session you submit under.

The internal test matters more than the list: every digital element must be tied to the forecast revenue. Components with no role in the model are the first cut at evaluation. And if the business is essentially productive, the weight of the investment sits in equipment — an oversized digital chapter works against the plan.

A usable line states what is being built, with which features, in how many stages, at what price per component and with what verifiable result. A round sum next to a generic description is the classic trigger for clarification requests, and later for disputes about what was actually delivered.

Indicative sizing before a quote: a website on an adapted theme 300–1,500 €, a custom one 1,500–5,000 €, a WooCommerce store with Romanian integrations 1,500–8,000 €, a simple web application from 5,000 €. Our prices exclude VAT and are expressed in euro while the programme ceiling is in lei; the procedure sets no reference rate, so we do not convert.

After approval the plan becomes the reference: what gets reimbursed is what was described, in the form it was described. That is why the specifications must be realistic from submission — neither undersized nor inflated.

The window until 8 December 2027 looks generous, but the final months are crowded at every supplier at once. A digital chapter that enters execution shortly after the financing contract is signed has room for a feedback iteration; one left to the end does not.

We do not write the business plan, take the entrepreneurship course for you, submit the application, assess your company's eligibility or promise approval. Northdan Soft supplies the software component and works alongside your consultant, not instead of them.

The limit that costs us directly: we do not raise the price of an offer to match the amount the plan can absorb. It is a frequent request, and we refuse it, because a price built on the room left in a budget rather than on the content of the delivery is exactly what cannot be defended at a cost-reasonableness check.