As your business continues to grow, it will eventually reach a point where current technologies can no longer accommodate your increasingly complex accounting processes. When you arrive at this crossroads, you have two choices.
1. You can cling to a legacy solution. But doing so will cause your business to run the risk of hindering long-term growth.
2. Or, you can leap forward by upgrading to a cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution that can meet the growing accounting needs of your business.
While the first option may be tempting as a means of staying in a comfortable position, the transition to more robust accounting technologies is the only way to continue growing. The good news is that you can make facilitating accounting software implementation seamless with the right strategy and a team of experts in your corner.
Keys to Successful Accounting Software Implementation
Consider taking these actionable steps to embrace a new accounting software platform that will fuel growth in your company.
1. Choose Your Tech
The natural first step to any accounting software implementation is to choose which technology you want to deploy. You should select a multifaceted solution that replaces multiple technologies and applications. An all-in-one solution will:
- Improve your business’s information transparency.
- Encourage collaboration between various departments.
- Increase the efficiency of your various accounting and business management processes.
While there are certainly instances where you may want to replace an existing solution with another specialized piece of software, opting for an all-in-one platform is the more pragmatic approach for most businesses.
Specifically, consider investing in an ERP solution like the best-in-class Oracle NetSuite platform. You can determine whether your business is ready for NetSuite ERP by considering the following factors:
- Your company manages multiple legal entities.
- Closing your books takes more than a single day.
- The business is using multiple systems that are not integrated.
NetSuite ERP will help remedy these issues and pave the way for future business growth. More importantly, this technology can evolve with you as the needs of your business change.
2. Create a Project Plan
Once you have identified the right technology to implement for your business, it is time to create a project plan. Your plan should define your project’s:
- Scope
- Objectives
- Deadlines
- Deliverables
- Risks
When creating your project plan, break down the accounting software implementation process into manageable milestones. If you only focus on the project as a whole, it is all too easy to start feeling overwhelmed. Conversely, thinking about the implementation process in segments can help you stay on track.
3. Install the Software
Even though your new solution will be cloud-based, it will still require you and your team to install some software on your business devices. Generally speaking, installing software on your devices is one of the easiest steps of the accounting software implementation process.
However, if you have hundreds of business devices, this step can still be time-consuming, so with that in mind, make sure to give your IT team ample time to complete the installation process. Also, aim to complete the installation in waves so that all of your company’s devices are not offline at the same time.
4. Bring Your Staff into the Fold
Your staff should be kept in the loop from day one, but now more than ever, it is the time to get them actively involved, so they’re prepared for the implementation process.
- Share your project plan with them
- Outline what role they will play in the process.
- Provide a timetable for the rollout of the new technology.
Keeping your staff involved in the implementation process will help you improve buy-in. Once you go live with the new technology, your team will be more receptive to it, which will ultimately serve to help you obtain a strong return on investment.
5. Design and Configure Your System
The Oracle NetSuite platform includes multiple modules that you can use to adapt the system to the needs of your business. You may need to use some modules immediately, whereas other modules may not serve a clear purpose at this stage in your company’s growth journey. There may even be a few modules that you won’t need at all.
In order to ensure that you have access to the exact modules you will need, you must create a system design plan that outlines which modules you plan to implement and how you will configure them to accommodate your business processes.
Once you have created your design plan, you will need to connect with an implementation specialist. Suppose you have a large in-house IT team. In that case, your staff can handle software configuration, but partnering with an implementation and deployment expert is often the more sensible approach. It’s something we’ll cover later in this guide.
Whether you outsource your software configuration or handle it in-house, ensure that your design plan provides all of the information your implementation teams will need to configure your system.
6. Prepare for Data Migration
Data migration is transferring (or migrating, hence the name) the data from your old system to the new one. However, you cannot simply transfer data from platform to platform. You need a NetSuite data migration strategy.
A key aspect of the strategy is determining how to clean the data before it is migrated to the new system. This process includes a few steps:
- Review system records.
- Correct errors.
- Eliminate duplicate files.
As you can imagine, data cleaning can be a time-consuming, tedious, and labor-intensive process, but it is also an extremely important task.
By cleaning the data before moving it, your company will be able to bring all relevant data into the new accounting software system. Your team will also be able to ensure that the data is accurate, relevant, and usable, allowing you to get the most out of your new technology investment.
7. Train Your Staff
After configuring your system and migrating your network data, you will need to train your staff. Ensure that you break training courses down into short, focused segments, as lengthy training sessions can be ineffective and wasteful. Brief and concise training sessions will help improve employee retention and limit any feelings of boredom or annoyance.
If you choose a leading software provider like Oracle, you can access the developers’ training resources. This information will be incredibly valuable when bringing your staff up to speed on your new accounting technology.
8. Go Live
The final step of your accounting software implementation is to go live, but no matter how well you prepare for the go-live date, you will encounter a few hurdles along the way.
Fortunately, you can easily remedy any inevitable surprises by ensuring adequate support resources are in place before your launch. You should strongly consider partnering with an implementation partner that provides support during and after the system’s launch in order to streamline the deployment process and provide an expedited time to value.
9. Bonus Step: Choose an Implementation Partner
The steps above can serve as a roadmap to guide you through the accounting software implementation process. While following these steps will certainly help you simplify the implementation and deployment process, the best way to guarantee a smooth transition is to partner with Finlyte, an award-winning leader in NetSuite implementation.
Contact Us to Discuss Accounting Software Implementation
Finlyte specializes in planning, managing, and performing accounting software implementations. Our team possesses the expertise and knowledge necessary to deploy NetSuite, the most dynamic ERP solution on the market.
NetSuite represents a true all-in-one solution for your business that can optimize every facet of resource planning and management. To learn more about our NetSuite implementation solution, connect with our expert team to schedule a consultation. We’ll be with you throughout the accounting software implementation journey.
