If your accounting system now depends on multiple add-on apps, manual workarounds, or frequent IT support, it may be time to consider a full ERP system.
The right ERP can connect finance, operations, reporting, and management insight in one integrated platform.
Ask yourself whether your current accounting system is keeping up. Are you running into more limitations? Do you keep adding apps just to complete routine work? Are common tasks, such as sending batches of invoices or running standard reports, taking longer than they should? Are data corruption issues becoming more frequent?
Your IT staff or contractor may also be signaling that the current system is reaching its limits. They may recommend more server memory, greater processing power, a new server, replacement workstations, or a more reliable backup approach because the existing setup can no longer support the accounting software effectively.
Transitioning to a modern ERP system can address many of these issues and create new opportunities for efficiency. For example, an ERP can improve productivity through integrated workflows, stronger reporting, and AI-based capabilities. Because ERP systems connect data across departments and functional areas, employees can access the information, reporting, and analysis they need without moving between disconnected systems. Management also gains better visibility into business performance and where the business is headed.
Transitioning to an ERP from an accounting system is more than a technical change, it’s an organizational change that requires a thoughtful approach that includes the key players within the organization. Because the transition often requires a substantial learning curve from the accounting software personnel have come to use, know and perhaps even ‘love’ over the years; they are now being asked to divorce themselves from what their work lives have been and are being asked to develop a new relationship with a partner with which to build their future.
As a result of the potential impact of such a transition it is critical to have a clear rationale as to why the change needs to be made, aligning the change with the long-range goals of the business to accomplish measurable outcomes at 6-months, 1-year and 5-years down the road.
The earliest possible involvement among key players within the organization will help to get ‘buy-in’ by those that will experience the most significant changes in their day-to-day work and productivity.
Having a strategic plan for the transition including the pre-implementation, implementation and post-implementation phases to serve as a clear roadmap and help keep everyone on track is a critical element of ERP adoption planning.
There is more to transitioning to an ERP than the actual ‘migration’ from one system to the other. Careful planning and pre-migration work are essential to success. There is an old saying, “garbage in, garbage out.” Many organizations use the transition to an ERP to clean-up their accounting, and operational issues that have been cluttered with erroneous and outdated information over the years.
It’s important to take the time to review all your current financial information and operational workflows to identify issues that need not be carried into the new ERP system. For example, do you have duplicate customers or vendors in your system? Do you have inventory reported with on-and quantities or values when those items don’t even exist? Do you really need thirty-years of financial data to be carried forward from your old system into your new ERP? Are their outdated operational workflows or processes that can be streamlined within the new ERP?
As discussed above, when ready begin your migration with a review and clean-up of your records, removing redundant records, outdated contacts and discontinued inventory items and services.
Mapping your charts of accounts and legacy database fields to the matching accounts and fields in your new ERP is essential to ensure proper import of your data, balances and transactions.
The data transfer process can take from a few hours to several depending on how much data is being migrated from your old accounting platform to the new ERP. Once transferred, you need to “inspect and verify” to ensure all the data you intended to migrate has successfully been moved and produces the same ‘reporting results’
Remember, data migration is not easy, certainly not as easy as this article may make it seem. Nor is it fast, it takes time to plan, migrate and test the results, yet all of this must be done before you actually ‘go live.’
A successful ERP implementation does not end with the actual migration, nor even your ‘go live’ date’s arrival. It is critical that all your team members have the appropriate support for their duties to ensure they can make it through the learning curve. While such preparation should take the form of pre-migration training, hands-on coaching availability after going live is critical to success.
Beyond just learning the new ERP, the functionalities of the new platform make it possible to identify “better ways of doing things” and implementing new workflows. Team members should be encouraged to speak out with questions like, “what if we did this,” or “is it possible to do this instead of how we’re doing it now?” A more powerful solution is only more powerful if your team develops an improvement mindset stemming from the idea that the solution is there to power those improvements.
Assessing the impact of the implementation of ERP could take a year or longer; however, many of the performance enhancing aspects of the new platform will be demonstrated in just a few weeks. Streamlined, automated and AI-assisted functions can significantly reduce time spent on routine tasks and activities, providing time for accomplishing those new capabilities you had hoped for. This is where the real cost-benefit value of ERP migration can be recognized first, with the cost-savings bearing fruit as the transition proceeds over the first fiscal period.
Switching from a legacy accounting system to a modern cloud-based ERP can seem like a nightmare waiting to happen, but with the right approach involving the preparation and buy-in by your team, a well planned and executed implementation pathway, the proper training and coaching, and the essential follow-up, the migration should position your business ready for a tremendous future of growth and success.
Disclosure:
The headline and feature images were generated for The ERP Update by HubSpot AI. They are intended to be representative of the content of the feature; however, they do not necessarily conform to the exact topics discussed, nor are they reflective of any specific ERP or the functionalities or capabilities of any specific ERP. Because of the AI generative nature of the images, any logo may not exactly conform to the specifications for said logo, as such The ERP Update is solely responsible for said use within this feature. Any similarity to any living or deceased individual is purely coincidental.