The Trading Online Voucher comes up a lot when an Irish small business starts thinking about spending on its website or marketing — it's real money, and free money feels like the obvious place to begin. It's a genuinely useful scheme, but it's narrower than people assume, so it's worth being precise about what it is and isn't before you build a plan around it. (Details below are accurate as of October 2026; confirm the current terms with your Local Enterprise Office.)
What the Trading Online Voucher actually is
It's a grant run by the Local Enterprise Offices to help small businesses develop or improve their online trading — the ability to sell, book or take payment online. It's worth a maximum of €2,500, or 50% of eligible costs, whichever is lower, so you match it roughly euro for euro: a €5,000 eligible project draws the full €2,500. To apply you must first sit a short information seminar, held online.
To be eligible, broadly, your business needs ten or fewer employees, turnover under €2 million, to have been trading at least six months, and to have limited or no existing e-commerce presence, in the area of the Local Enterprise Office you apply to.
What it covers — and what it doesn't
The voucher can go toward developing or upgrading an e-commerce website, online payment or booking systems, apps, IT consultation, training to set up and manage online trading, and digital marketing strategy development and implementation (with online advertising capped at 30% of the other approved costs). What it explicitly will not fund is just as important: brochure websites, non-internet software, your own labour, and — the catch-all line that matters here — "anything other than e-commerce trading related activity."
The voucher is for building the ability to trade online. That single purpose decides what qualifies.
So can it pay for a Growth Investigation?
Honestly: not as a standalone audit. A diagnostic report, on its own, isn't e-commerce development, and the scheme's wording is deliberately tight about that. Where it gets more nuanced is that "IT consultation" and "digital marketing strategy development and implementation" are eligible — so if an investigation directly shapes eligible online-trading work you're carrying out, there may be room to include it. But that's a judgement your Local Enterprise Office makes case by case, not something to assume. If it matters to your plan, ask them directly before you count on it.
The more useful point
Whether or not the investigation itself is claimable, there's a better reason to think independently before you touch the voucher. The TOV gives you €2,500 of public money and asks you to match it — so you're committing up to €5,000 to developing online trading. The scheme decides what's eligible; it doesn't decide whether you're spending on the right eligible things. Pointing that budget at a new booking system when your real problem is that nobody can find you, or at a rebuild when your existing site converts fine, is an expensive way to use a grant.
That's the gap an independent look fills. Knowing what's actually holding your business back — before you spend matched money on it — is worth more than the grant paperwork. It's the difference between a funded project that moves the needle and a funded project that simply gets completed.
Common questions
What is the Trading Online Voucher?
An Irish government grant, run by the Local Enterprise Offices, to help small businesses develop or improve their online trading. It's worth up to €2,500 or 50% of eligible costs, whichever is lower, so you match the funding roughly euro for euro. Applicants must attend a short information seminar first.
How much is the Trading Online Voucher worth?
Up to €2,500, or 50% of eligible expenditure excluding VAT, whichever is the lesser. In practice you fund the other half, so a €5,000 eligible project attracts the full €2,500.
Can it pay for a marketing audit or Growth Investigation?
Not straightforwardly. The voucher is strictly for developing online trading — it excludes anything that isn't e-commerce-trading-related, and excludes brochure websites. It does cover IT consultation and digital marketing strategy development and implementation, so where a diagnostic directly feeds eligible online-trading work it may qualify — but that's decided case by case by your Local Enterprise Office. Ask them before assuming it's covered.
Who is eligible?
Broadly: ten or fewer employees, turnover under €2 million, trading at least six months, with limited or no existing e-commerce presence, located in the area of the Local Enterprise Office you apply to. Attending an information seminar is a condition of applying.
Before you spend a grant — matched with your own money — find out what deserves it.
The Growth Investigation tells you what's actually holding your business back, so a Trading Online Voucher project is pointed at the right thing. €349, one-off, 3–5 working days — and I'll tell you first, for nothing, whether I think it's worth doing at all.
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