Most of EDGE is unpublished: the launch date, the eligibility rules, the support percentages, the application route. We keep a running record of what has and has not been announced, and the list of unknowns is longer than the list of knowns.
None of that affects this checklist.
Every item below is something you need regardless of which scheme exists, because both the current schemes and any successor assess the same underlying thing: whether this is a real project with a defined outcome, a costed breakdown and a measurable change. A business that has these in place can apply under PSG or EDG today, or under EDGE when it arrives, without redoing the work.
If your project fails on several of these, the timing question is not the one in front of you.
1. A written scope, not a wish list
A specification: what gets built, what it integrates with, what is explicitly out of scope, and in what sequence. "A better system for handling orders" is not assessable. Neither is a feature list with no boundary around it.
Assessment rewards specificity because specificity is evidence that the applicant has thought the project through. It is also the thing that makes competing quotes comparable, which is why the work pays for itself whether or not any application follows.
Failure mode: the scope is a paragraph, and every vendor prices a different project from it.
2. A measured baseline, recorded before work starts
This is the item most applications are weakest on, and it cannot be fixed later.
"Improve efficiency" is not measurable. "This approval workflow takes 11 staff-hours per week across four people, measured over the last quarter" is. You need the before number, and you need it recorded before the project begins, or you have nothing to demonstrate a change against.
Counting it takes an afternoon. Reconstructing it afterwards from memory is not the same thing, and it shows.
Failure mode: the project finishes, works, and there is no way to show what changed.
3. Real quotations, not estimates
Cost breakdowns need to be tied to actual vendor quotes against the written scope. An internal guess at what something might cost is not a costed breakdown.
This is a second reason the scope has to exist first: a vendor cannot quote precisely against a brief that leaves room for two readings.
Failure mode: the numbers in the application do not match anything a vendor has agreed to deliver.
4. Nothing paid to a vendor yet
Under the current schemes, an application must be submitted before any payment or deposit to the vendor. This is the single most common way businesses disqualify themselves from support they would otherwise have received — usually by paying a deposit to hold a start date.
Whether EDGE carries the same principle forward has not been published. Until it is, assume it does. Waiting costs nothing; paying first can cost the whole application.
Failure mode: a deposit was paid to secure capacity, and the project is ineligible before it starts.
5. Corppass access that actually works
Applications go through the Business Grants Portal, which means working Corppass credentials and an administrator who is still at the company.
Check this now rather than during an application window. If the person who set up your Corppass left eighteen months ago, that is a problem with a lead time, and discovering it under deadline is avoidable.
Whether EDGE keeps the same application route has not been published, but corporate digital identity is not the part likely to change.
Failure mode: the application is ready and nobody can submit it.
6. A named decision maker
One person who can approve scope, sign off cost and answer questions inside a normal working week. Not a committee that meets monthly.
This matters for assessment, and it matters more for delivery. A project with no accountable decision maker stalls in the middle regardless of how it was funded.
Failure mode: the vendor is waiting on an answer that nobody is empowered to give.
7. Records of what you submitted, and when
Dates, reference numbers, correspondence, and the version of the scope the application was made against.
This matters particularly now. No transition treatment has been published for applications submitted before EDGE launches, so if a question ever arises about which terms applied to yours, a clear record of what you filed and when is the useful thing to have. We cover that gap in more detail in what happens to a PSG or EDG application under EDGE.
Failure mode: a question arises about your application and the answer is somewhere in an inbox.
What "not ready" looks like
If you cannot write the scope, cannot state the baseline, and cannot get a firm quotation, you are not choosing between applying now and waiting for EDGE. You are not in a position to apply for either, and the timing debate is a distraction from the actual blocker.
That is not a criticism. It is the normal starting position for most businesses, and it is a solvable problem — it is just a different problem from the one people think they have.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need all seven before applying? Items one to four are what an assessment turns on. Five and six are practical blockers that stop an otherwise good application from being submitted. Seven matters most while transition rules are unpublished.
Does this checklist change when EDGE launches? The specifics of eligibility and support levels will change. What makes a project assessable will not — a defined scope, a measured baseline and a costed breakdown are what both schemes ask for.
Do I need a certified consultant to apply for a software project? Requirements are set by the administering agency and change. Check the current position through the Business Grants Portal for your specific project rather than relying on a summary.
How long does the preparation take? The scope is the long pole, and it depends on how well understood the workflow already is. The baseline measurement is usually an afternoon. Quotations depend on the vendor.
This article reflects publicly available information as of August 2026 and is not official government advice. PSOI Tech is a software studio, not a grant consultant, and makes no representation that any engagement is eligible for any scheme. Verify current requirements at Enterprise Singapore and the GoBusiness portal.
Items one and three are a single piece of work. A Planning & Scoping engagement produces the written scope, the technical approach and the costed breakdown — the document an assessment needs, and the one that makes the build itself quotable.