Can the Labour-Saving Investment Subsidy Pay for Moving FAX Orders to the Web? — How to Think About Order-System Investment Under the General Type

In “Moving FAX Orders to the Web ── Designing the Dual-Operation Period and a Phased Migration” I set out the practicalities of a phased migration, designing the move to web ordering not as “abolishing FAX” but as “reducing the number of orders a human has to key in”.

This article is the follow-up on the money side. The question here is whether you can use a subsidy for this investment.

By its nature, web-enabling FAX order intake and automating the import is an “investment that replaces data entry done by hand with a system”. That runs in the same direction as the thinking behind the SME Labour-Saving Investment Subsidy (中小企業省力化投資補助金), whose purpose is to address staffing shortages — and within it, the General type, which can cover made-to-order systems, is the candidate worth considering.

There is, however, a distance between “being a candidate” and “being selected”. This article organizes the difference between the Catalog Order type and the General type, how developing an order-processing system is positioned as a labour-saving investment, and the requirements and caveats to check before applying — from the perspective of the firm that takes on the development.

The requirements, amounts, and schedules of the programme change with each application round. This article is based on information published as of July 2026; for an actual application, always check the latest application guidelines on the official site.

1. The Bottom Line First

• Web-enabling FAX orders and automating CSV import can be a candidate for the Labour-Saving Investment Subsidy (General type) — provided you can show the reduction in manual entry effort quantitatively
• As a precondition, though, you must demonstrate against the prescribed criteria that your company is genuinely short of staff. A pure “efficiency improvement” with no real staffing shortage behind it does not qualify
• There is also a floor on the size of the investment. Capital investment including machinery or system construction costs of at least ¥500,000 (excluding tax) per unit is required, so small modifications or the introduction of a low-cost tool alone cannot be submitted (check the monetary thresholds in the application guidelines)
• Made-to-order development that integrates with an existing sales management system is the General type. If a registered off-the-shelf product will do, it is the Catalog Order type
• What the assessment rests on is a build-up of “which tasks, how many hours a month, and how they shrink”. The as-is analysis from your migration plan can be used as it stands
• Requirements and clawback clauses on labour productivity and wage increases are management commitments. Consider whether they are achievable before you apply
• The common rules — orders placed before the grant decision are not eligible, and the subsidy is paid in arrears — apply to this programme just as they do to others
• Whether or not you use a subsidy, the design work for a phased migration (the dual-operation period, preparing master data) cannot be skipped

2. Catalog Order Type vs General Type — Establish Which One You Are Talking About First

The SME Labour-Saving Investment Subsidy has two categories, and they are quite different in character. Before getting into order-processing systems, it is worth separating them.

What web-enabling FAX orders actually requires is, as set out in “Moving FAX Orders to the Web ── Designing the Dual-Operation Period and a Phased Migration”, less the web ordering screen itself than the tailoring work around it: CSV import, connecting to the existing sales management system, and reconciling product and customer master data. Given that character, it does not sit well with picking from a catalog of off-the-shelf products, and the General type becomes the centre of gravity.

Conversely, if your requirements can be met as-is by a registered ordering product or OCR product, the lighter-touch Catalog Order type or the Digitalization & AI Adoption Subsidy (introducing a registered IT tool) will do. The rule that you only go made-to-order once you have confirmed that off-the-shelf products are not enough does not change just because a subsidy is involved. How the programmes divide up overall is covered in “Can You Use a Subsidy to Outsource System Development?”.

3. Web-Enabling FAX Orders Can Be Explained as a “Labour-Saving Investment”

The purpose of the Labour-Saving Investment Subsidy is to reduce the work that people have been doing by means of equipment and systems that use digital technology, in order to respond to staffing shortages. Manual entry of FAX orders fits neatly into that framing.

• Transcribing while reading off an order form → replaced by automatic registration via CSV import or web ordering
• Checking and correcting misreadings and typing errors → replaced by mechanical validation (code matching, quantity checks)
• Answering “did it arrive?” phone calls → replaced by automatic order acknowledgement

The important thing is to show this as a build-up of hours, not as a qualitative “efficiency gain”.

Current: average 8 minutes of entry and checking per order x 1,200 orders/month = 160 hours/month
Plan:    migrate the top trading partners (70% of order volume) to CSV import and the web
Effect:  160 hours/month x 0.7 = 112 hours/month of manual entry eliminated
         (the remaining 30% still arriving by FAX, 48 hours/month, continues for the time being)

Note: the figures are illustrative.

The raw material for this build-up is exactly the Phase 0 as-is analysis described in the migration article (listing order volumes, channels, and entry times by trading partner). In other words, the as-is analysis you needed anyway, subsidy or no subsidy, becomes the supporting evidence for the business plan as it stands. Rather than producing special documents for the sake of the subsidy, the relationship is that if you draw up the migration plan properly, the material for the application assembles itself.

At this point it is also important that the plan does not contradict the phased-migration design. If you inflate the reduction using “ideal” figures that assume every trading partner moves to the web at once, not only will the plan’s feasibility be doubted, you will also have saddled yourself with a target you cannot hit. Plan on realistic reductions that assume a dual-operation period remains.

4. Requirements to Check Before Applying — the Wage Increase Is Not “Something You Write on a Form”

The General type has basic requirements covering the project as a whole, not just its labour-saving effect. The framework set out in the official programme description and the application guidelines calls for the following (figures and details change with each application round, so always check the latest application guidelines).

• That the applicant is genuinely in a state of staffing shortage (demonstrated against the criteria prescribed in the application guidelines: overtime levels, being unable to hire despite advertising vacancies, a falling headcount, and so on)
• That it is capital investment including machinery or system construction costs of at least ¥500,000 (excluding tax) per unit (small modifications or the introduction of a low-cost tool alone will not meet the investment-scale threshold)
• A business plan that improves labour productivity at a given compound annual growth rate
• Targets relating to wage increases (the indicators and figures used differ by application round — growth in total payroll, in total payroll per employee, and so on. If the targets set at application time are not met, there are clauses requiring repayment of the subsidy in proportion to the shortfall. Exemptions exist for natural disasters and similar events)
• Requirements relating to the level of the minimum wage within the workplace

The first of these — being in a state of staffing shortage — is an independent entry requirement, separate from quantifying the labour-saving effect. Even if you can show a reduction in manual entry effort, if you have enough people (that is, you cannot demonstrate a real shortage in terms of hiring or overtime), the project does not stand up as one this programme covers. In that case you would look at other programmes with similar aims, or at local-government grants.

What deserves attention is that the wage-increase targets come with a clawback clause. Which indicator is used varies by application round, but in every case a determination of shortfall is made against the target your company set and declared at application time. This is not the sort of thing you “just write on the form” — it is a management commitment to actually raise wages over several years. Since the design philosophy of the programme is that the headroom created by labour-saving should be redirected into wages, the direction is a natural one; but whether your own profit plan makes it realistically achievable needs calm consideration before you apply.

Judgements of that kind are not the development vendor’s territory. Check with support organizations and experts — a Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a Yorozu Support Center, a registered SME management consultant — or with public information sources such as Mirasapo plus.

5. Schedule and How to Run the Development

The rules common to all subsidies apply unchanged to the Labour-Saving Investment Subsidy.

• Costs contracted or ordered before the grant decision are not eligible
• The subsidy is paid on settlement (in arrears), so the development cost has to be funded in full up front
• Acceptance testing and payment must be completed by the deadline of the project implementation period, and a performance report submitted

Development schedules are therefore built by working backwards from two dates — the grant decision date (when you may place the order) and the project implementation deadline (when acceptance and payment must be complete) — not forwards from your preferred go-live date. The specifics of working backwards, and what you can prepare before the grant decision (requirements analysis, obtaining quotations, drafting the business plan), are covered in detail in “How to Run a System Development Project That Uses a Subsidy”.

If there is one caveat specific to web-enabling FAX orders, it is how to cut the scope so that it completes within the subsidized project period. A phased migration is by nature an effort that proceeds over years: pilot → rollout → embedding. The subsidized project, on the other hand, has a fixed implementation deadline. So:

• Within the subsidized project: building the CSV import and web ordering mechanism, connecting it to the sales management system, and going live with a pilot trading partner
• After the subsidized project: migrating the remaining trading partners in sequence, measuring order volumes by channel, and shrinking the FAX share

Drawing the line at “the mechanism is complete and initially live” for the subsidized project, and planning the trading-partner rollout as subsequent operations, is the realistic split. Because the effect measurements in the business plan (order volumes by channel, manual entry time) are the same items you measure for the migration, building the counting and timing mechanism into the system at development time lets you use the same data for both the subsidized project’s outcome report and the progress management of the migration.

6. Common Misconceptions and Pitfalls

Summary

• Web-enabling FAX orders and automating CSV import can be a candidate for the Labour-Saving Investment Subsidy (General type), provided you can quantitatively show the labour-saving effect of reduced manual entry
• Consider them in this order: the Catalog Order type or the Digitalization & AI Adoption Subsidy if an off-the-shelf product will do; the General type if you need made-to-order work involving integration with existing systems
• The evidence base for the business plan is Phase 0 of the migration plan (order volumes, channels, and entry times by trading partner), usable as it stands
• The labour-productivity and wage-increase requirements and their clawback clauses are management commitments. Because indicators and figures differ by application round, check the latest application guidelines and consider achievability before applying
• Orders placed before the grant decision are not eligible, and the subsidy is paid in arrears. Build the schedule and the cash-flow plan by working backwards
• Scope the subsidized project as far as “the mechanism is complete and the pilot is live”. Continue the trading-partner rollout as ongoing operations

A subsidy is a programme that gives a push to an investment you ought to make; it does not make the investment decision for you. The healthy order is to first confirm through the phased-migration design whether web-enabling FAX orders is an investment your company actually needs, and then, if the programme fits that plan, to use it.

Considering a Labour-Saving Investment in Your Order-Processing System?

KomuraSoft LLC takes on the design and implementation of CSV import and web ordering integration that makes use of your existing sales management system and Windows business applications. If you are considering using a subsidy, we can help build the evidence base for the quotations, system architecture diagrams, and effort-reduction estimates the application requires, and once the grant decision is made we will propose a development plan worked backwards from the project implementation deadline.

We do not act as an application agent and we do not judge whether an application will be selected — but working out “how much should actually be built” and “whether the existing system can stay” is precisely the development side’s remit. Do get in touch, starting with taking stock of your current order intake channels.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about the topic of this article.

Does web-enabling FAX order intake qualify for the Labour-Saving Investment Subsidy?

Where it aligns with the programme's purpose of addressing staffing shortages, and where you can show the reduction in manual data-entry effort quantitatively, it can be a candidate for the General type. It is a precondition, however, that the applicant demonstrates against the criteria in the application guidelines that it is genuinely short of staff, and whether a project actually qualifies is decided by the business plan as a whole and by how well it meets the requirements in the application guidelines (state of staffing shortage, labour productivity, wage increases, and so on). None of this guarantees that an application will be selected, so check the application guidelines and, if necessary, consult a support organization.

Should I choose the Catalog Order type or the General type?

The Catalog Order type means picking an off-the-shelf labour-saving product from those registered with the programme secretariat, and the procedure is comparatively simple. The General type can cover made-to-order equipment and systems tailored to your own operations, and is the candidate for developing an order-processing system that has to integrate with an existing sales management system. The natural order of consideration is: if a registered product is enough, the Catalog Order type; if you need to connect to existing systems or accommodate workflows specific to your company, the General type.

I'm not confident we can meet the wage-increase requirement. Should we still apply?

The Labour-Saving Investment Subsidy (General type) requires you to set targets for wage increases as well as for improving labour productivity, and if the targets you set at application time are not met, you may be asked to repay part of the subsidy. The indicators used for the wage-increase target (total payroll, total payroll per employee, and so on) and the figures themselves vary from one application round to the next. This is a management commitment, not merely a line item on an application form. Check the detailed requirements and the repayment conditions in the latest application guidelines, and consider before applying whether your own profit plan makes them realistically achievable. If you are unsure, we recommend consulting a Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a registered SME management consultant, or a similar expert.

If we use the subsidy, when can development start?

As a rule, costs contracted or ordered before the grant decision date are not eligible. Notification of selection and the grant decision are separate procedures, and you can only place an order after the grant decision. That said, requirements analysis, taking stock of your workflows, obtaining quotations, and drafting the business plan can all proceed before the grant decision. In fact, the more firmly you settle those before applying, the more persuasive the plan is and the faster you get moving once the grant decision lands.

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Go Komura

Representative of KomuraSoft LLC

Focused on Windows software development, technical consulting, and investigations into failures that are difficult to reproduce.