Costa Rica
Custom ERP and billing, AI agents, web applications and SaaS for pharma and professional services businesses in San José, Costa Rica. Built by Flip Retail in Jaipur, India, and delivered remotely, with working software every two weeks.
01 — Local economy
Free zones around the capital produce Costa Rica's leading export, medical devices, for companies such as Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Abbott and Edwards Lifesciences. Intel runs assembly-and-test operations in Belén, and shared-services and software centres serving the Americas employ a bilingual workforce across the Central Valley, while coffee exporters and ecotourism operators keep their offices in the city.
Also known as San Jose.
Spanish and English
02 — Industries
What we would build first for the industries San José is known for.
03 — Compliance
What an ERP, billing system or AI agent has to respect here.
| Indirect tax | IVA, standard rate 13% (reduced rates of 1%, 2% and 4%)IVA is 13% general with reduced rates for items such as basic-basket goods, medicines, education and private health, and every invoice line must carry a CABYS goods/services code. |
|---|---|
| E-invoicing | Mandatory · Comprobantes electrónicos v4.4 (Ministerio de Hacienda, TRIBU-CR)Nearly all taxpayers in the traditional regime must issue XML e-invoices validated in real time by Hacienda; only version 4.4 has been accepted since 1 September 2025, and its data feeds pre-filled returns on the TRIBU-CR platform. |
| Data protection | Ley 8968 de Protección de la Persona frente al Tratamiento de sus Datos PersonalesIn force and supervised by PRODHAB, with registration required for commercial databases; a comprehensive reform bill (Expediente 22.388) remains under legislative study. |
| AI rules | No AI-specific statute in force as of October 2026. |
| Systems we migrate from or connect to | Alegra, SAP Business One, Odoo, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, QuickBooksMasters, ledgers, stock and open balances move across and are reconciled before cutover. |
| Payment rails for web apps and SaaS | SINPE Móvil, SINPE transfers, BAC Credomatic, Tilopay |
| Also worth knowing | Version 4.4 added more than 140 schema changes (e.g., payment-method and receiver details), so billing software needed upgrades, and CRC/USD dual pricing is common in B2B. |
General information, not legal or tax advice. Last reviewed October 2026. Rules change, so we confirm current requirements during discovery; your tax adviser should confirm anything that affects filings.
Sources consulted:
04 — Working together
Jaipur is 11 h 30 min ahead of San José, Costa Rica all year. A 09:00 start there is 20:30 in Jaipur. Office hours don't overlap, so we fix one call slot at the edge of the day and work asynchronously in between.
Local time, standard time.
Pranjal was excellent — fast, great at communicating, and completed the custom work.
50+ projects for 30+ clients in 11 countries over six-plus years.
05 — FAQ
Yes, remotely. Flip Retail is a software studio in Jaipur, India, with no office in San José; discovery happens on video calls and you get working software every two weeks.
Jaipur is 11 h 30 min ahead of San José, Costa Rica all year. A 09:00 start there is 20:30 in Jaipur. Office hours don't overlap, so we fix one call slot at the edge of the day and work asynchronously in between.
Yes. Invoicing is built for Costa Rica's IVA (standard rate 13%). On e-invoicing: Nearly all taxpayers in the traditional regime must issue XML e-invoices validated in real time by Hacienda; only version 4.4 has been accepted since 1 September 2025, and its data feeds pre-filled returns on the TRIBU-CR platform. A custom ERP connects to Hacienda v4.4 through its official API or an accredited provider, and we confirm the current requirements in discovery.
You choose: your own cloud account in a region that suits you, or your own servers. Access inside the system is role-based, and during development we work on test or masked data wherever possible. In force and supervised by PRODHAB, with registration required for commercial databases; a comprehensive reform bill (Expediente 22.388) remains under legislative study.
Yes. Masters, ledgers, stock and opening balances move across and are reconciled with your accountant before cutover, ideally at a year-end or quarter-end.
Yes. Current language models handle Spanish and English well, including mixed-language messages. We still test an agent in each language your customers use before it goes live, and route anything it is unsure about to your team.
Usually one module that fixes the most expensive problem first. For pharma & life sciences that is often batch & expiry control and formula and recipe management. It goes live early, and the rest of the system follows in two-week increments while your team is already using it.
Contact
Tell us about the process you want fixed. We reply within one working day.