Grow Digital Voucher: 50% of booking, POS, stock and accounting software costs, up to €5,000, for Irish venues with up to 50 staff. How to apply.

The Grow Digital Voucher gives Irish hotels, restaurants, cafés, pubs and B&Bs with up to 50 staff a grant of 50% of the cost of new software, up to €5,000, through their Local Enterprise Office. It covers the tools most venues are already paying for out of cash flow: table and room booking systems, payment and point-of-sale software, stock control for the bar and kitchen, cloud accounting, customer databases, cybersecurity and analytics, plus the training and set-up to make them work. It replaced the old Trading Online Voucher, applications go through your own Local Enterprise Office rather than a national round, and the main reason venues miss out is a single prerequisite: you must first complete a free Digital for Business consultancy project. This guide explains both steps, what qualifies, what does not, and how to get the paperwork right before you spend a cent.

What is the Grow Digital Voucher and who runs it?

The Grow Digital Voucher is a Local Enterprise Office grant, funded through Ireland's Digital Transition Fund under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, that helps small and medium businesses adopt digital technology. It was introduced in 2024 as the follow-on to the Digital for Business consultancy programme and has since replaced the Trading Online Voucher, which many venues used to build a first website during and after the pandemic. Where the Trading Online Voucher was about getting online, Grow Digital is about running the business better once you are there.

The headline terms are simple. The LEO funds 50% of eligible project costs, with a minimum grant of €500 and a maximum of €5,000. A business may receive a maximum of two vouchers, and the cumulative limit across both is €5,000, so you can split one project into two phases but you cannot double the money. Applications are made to your own LEO, which sits within your county or city council, and no national closing date is published; availability depends on each office's budget, so ask yours before you plan.

Is my venue eligible?

The eligibility rules are the standard LEO small-business criteria, and most independent hospitality operators meet them without difficulty. Your business must have between 1 and 50 paid employees, must have been established and trading for at least six months, must be solvent and hold current tax clearance, and must be registered and operating within the Local Enterprise Office area you apply to. You cannot be a client of Enterprise Ireland or the IDA, and a short list of sectors is excluded: coal, steel, primary agriculture, fishery and aquaculture, gambling, adult entertainment, tobacco and unauthorised cannabis products. Hotels, restaurants, cafés, pubs, guesthouses and B&Bs are all within scope.

Two points catch people out. The 50-employee ceiling is counted in paid employees, so a seasonal venue that swells past 50 in July should ask its LEO how headcount is assessed. And if your venue is part of a group that is an Enterprise Ireland client, the group status may exclude you.

Why do I have to do Digital for Business first?

This is the step that stops most venues before they start, and it is the most valuable part of the package. To apply for a Grow Digital Voucher you must have completed a Digital for Business project within the previous two years. Digital for Business is itself a LEO programme: an approved digital consultant spends three to five days with your business, worth up to €3,500, at no cost to you. The consultant analyses your existing digital systems to identify gaps, explores how to optimise what you have and integrate new tools, and gives guidance on implementing new or enhanced solutions. You come out with a written report and a plan, and that report is what unlocks the voucher.

For a venue, that is a chance to have someone look at the whole operation: how bookings come in, how the POS talks to the accounts, where stock disappears between the cellar and the till, and whether anything is backed up. The eligibility criteria for Digital for Business are the same as for the voucher.

Order of operations, then: apply to your LEO for Digital for Business; complete the consultancy and receive the report; use the report to scope a Grow Digital project; gather itemised quotes; submit the voucher application; wait for written approval; then buy. Taking the free five-minute digital readiness assessment at growdigital.gov.ie before you call the LEO is a useful warm-up, though it is not a formal requirement.

What can a hotel, restaurant or café spend the voucher on?

The LEO lists the eligible cost categories as software including e-commerce, website development on a subscription basis, customer relationship management, booking and payment systems, stock control, cloud software-as-a-service, accounting software, cybersecurity and analytics, together with training and configuration where the business needs expert help, provided that training and configuration are no more than 50% of the overall project cost. Translated into hospitality:

• A table reservation system or a property management system and channel manager for rooms, where it is sold as a subscription.
• Point-of-sale and payment software for the bar and restaurant, including the set-up fees and staff training.
• Stock control and recipe costing software for the kitchen and cellar.
• Cloud accounting, invoicing and payroll tools, and the configuration to connect them to the POS.
• A customer database or marketing platform that captures guest details and automates follow-up.
• Cybersecurity tools and backup, which are easy to justify for any venue holding card and guest data.
• Online ordering or click-and-collect for a café or deli, and e-commerce for a hotel shop or vouchers.

Two things are expressly excluded: bespoke or custom-built software, and systems whose purpose is regulatory compliance. So an off-the-shelf booking platform qualifies; a developer building you something from scratch does not, and neither does an allergen-labelling or HACCP system bought purely to meet a legal requirement. Hardware is not on the eligible list either, so tills, tablets, printers and the physical QR stands and menu displays on your tables are your own cost, though they are precisely what the software needs in order to reach the guest.

How do I apply, and what are the mistakes to avoid?

Where to apply: find your office at Find your Local Enterprise Office (there are 31 nationwide), read the scheme page at What is the Grow Digital Voucher?, and take the free five-minute readiness check at growdigital.gov.ie. Digital for Business and Grow Digital Voucher applications are both made through your own LEO; many offices take them through an online form on their county page, so ask yours for the link.

Start with a conversation with your Local Enterprise Office rather than the online form. They will confirm your eligibility, check your Digital for Business report is in date, and tell you how much of their current budget is available. Then scope the project tightly: one or two systems, itemised quotes from the suppliers, a clear statement of what the software will do for the business, and a training line if staff need it. Submit, and do not sign anything with a supplier until the approval letter arrives. The rule is explicit: an application must be submitted before any project expenditure is incurred, and anything bought earlier will be stripped out.

Keep the paperwork for drawdown. The grant is paid against invoices and proof of payment after the project is complete, so you will need the supplier invoices in the business name, bank statements showing payment, and evidence that the system is live. If you plan to use the two-voucher option, remember that the €5,000 cap is cumulative; the second application only makes sense if the first was for less than the maximum.

Finally, the voucher is De Minimis state aid, so the LEO will ask you to declare other De Minimis grants received in the current and previous two years. For most independent venues this is no problem, but add up any energy grants, Trading Online Vouchers and local authority supports before applying.

Is it worth the effort for a small venue?

Yes. Add the two stages together and a 20-cover café or a 12-room guesthouse can receive up to €3,500 of expert consultancy and up to €5,000 towards the software the consultant recommends, for a few hours of paperwork. The consultancy alone is worth applying for; the voucher turns the report into action.

Frequently asked questions

How much is the Grow Digital Voucher worth? 50% of eligible costs, with a minimum grant of €500 and a maximum of €5,000. A business can receive up to two vouchers, but the combined total is capped at €5,000.

Do I have to complete Digital for Business first? Yes. You must have completed a Digital for Business project within the previous two years. It provides three to five days of expert digital consultancy, worth up to €3,500, at no cost to the business.

Can a restaurant or hotel apply? Yes, provided it has 1–50 paid employees, has traded for at least six months, is solvent and tax-cleared, is based in the LEO area and is not an Enterprise Ireland or IDA client. Only a short list of sectors such as gambling, tobacco and primary agriculture is excluded.

Can I use it for a booking system or POS? Booking and payment systems, stock control, CRM, cloud accounting, cybersecurity and analytics are all eligible as subscription software, along with related training and configuration. Bespoke software, regulatory compliance systems and hardware are not.

Can I claim for software I have already bought? No. The application must be submitted and approved before any project expenditure is incurred.

How CWDH can help

The voucher pays for the software; CWDH supplies the front-of-house equipment that puts it in front of the guest: Securit menu holders and QR display stands, bill presenters, chalkboards and information displays, and custom-branded QR code displays made in our own workshop. If you are moving to online ordering or table booking and want the tabletop to match, email us at info@cwdh.ie. You can also read our guide to ordering from CWDH online.

Sources: Local Enterprise Office: Grow Digital Voucher · Local Enterprise Office Carlow: Digital for Business · Interreg Europe: Digital for Business good practice · Digitaliser: Grow Digital Voucher 2026 guide

This guide is a plain-English summary of the scheme terms as published; eligibility and budgets are decided by your Local Enterprise Office, so confirm current terms with them before you plan a project.

Photo: Poster POS / Unsplash. Other images: CWDH.

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B&B cafés digital funding grants hotels Ireland Local Enterprise Office pubs restaurants technology

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