Guide to implementing a new automated financial management or accounting system
Switching accounting software can make a huge difference to your business. Out of date systems can slow down your finance processes and negatively impact efficiency and accuracy. A new accounting system on the other hand can deliver better reporting, more timely information and drive value to your business through powerful and actionable insight.
Once you’ve answered the question why you need a new accounting or financial management system, you need to know how to best go about the transition and kick off the accounting system implementation process? And what things do you need to do to prepare and ensure a smooth transition?
Our guide to implementing a new financial management or accounting system covers everything you need to know to usher in a successful implementation. Read on to understand the ins and outs of a successful switch.
How do you implement a new financial management or accounting system?
Rolling out a new accounting system can be a scary prospect. It’s a big job and there is a lot to consider at every step of the process – building the business case, creating your project team, assessing vendors and planning the eventual rollout.
Having a clear plan is the best way to ensure a smooth transition that will deliver value for many years to come. Documenting everything, monitoring your task list daily, and communicating progress with key stakeholders are among the most important considerations.
Here we’ve documented some top tips to support you along the way.
8 tips for a successful software implementation
When rolling out new accounting software, it’s important to take the following steps to ensure you and your team are fully prepared for the move, have complete buy-in from the business, and all the right tools and expertise to hand to support the change.
1. Build a strong business case
Before you even start with your project you are probably going to have to make the case for spending time and money implementing a new accounting system. Hints and tips for your business case:
- Do more with less - more efficient software means that you can either reduce your headcount or won’t need to recruit as quickly when the business grows
- Give your customers (internal and external) better service - better software means better information and better data analysis capabilities
- Provide better insight into the business - insight rather than numbers will ensure you’re a true partner to the business, instead of a number cruncher.
If you have never made up a business case before, or you’d like some tips about writing a winning proposal, check out our handy whitepaper.
2. Communicate updates to key stakeholders
The key to a successful project and to having new software positively adopted is to have great communication. Start by identifying your key stakeholders which might include; finance users, wider business users, suppliers, customers and directors.
The aim is to make sure your stakeholders fully understand what is going on and how it will impact their role. People tend to shy away from change and often fear what they do not understand. So make it your mission to communicate key updates as you go and to reassure people about the benefits of the change. A good communications plan – including two-way dialogue to capture feedback from the business - will serve you well at every step of the transition.
3. Take it one step at a time
Don’t be tempted to try and do everything at once. Instead, break your project up into manageable tasks and deal with each in turn. Lean on your subject matter experts and use the strengths of the people around you to divide and conquer where possible.
Consider the wider business picture. What are some ‘quick wins’ and what things can be done later? It can be useful to use a spreadsheet to manage your project, or a more sophisticated planning tool like Asana, Trello or Notion can help.
4. Clean your data
Rubbish in means rubbish out. It would be a shame to do all that good work in the lead up to the transition, only to import inaccurate data. Take time to go through things like your balance sheet accounts and get rid of odd inputs that are no longer required. This is your chance to clean house and start with a pristine environment.
Again, remember to chunk it up and start with something easy like your supplier list.
5. Implement what you need, not what you already have
This might sound obvious, but don’t be tempted to try and simply replicate how your current systems and processes work – that’s an efficiency play, and may be better served without a full system transition. Instead, take the opportunity to have a full review and ask yourself (and your teams and business) why you are doing things in a particular way. If it doesn’t make sense, then this is the time to change it.
It’s also wise to discuss your finance challenges with your potential software suppliers to see how their solutions can help empower your finance team.
6. Test everything
No software developer can possibly hope to get a new accounting system that will work for every company in every sector right off the shelf. So, make sure you set aside time for proper testing. This is also helpful because it gives you a chance to use the system, get used to it and see if there is any functionality that can help you do things better.
Your testing would ordinarily be split into Beta and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) testing phases.
- Beta testing will usually be done by the project team and will check basic functionality
- UAT testing is where the day-to-day users test out the system. This step is to ensure the system delivers the functionality that they need, and is delivering the results they expect. This is also where you are checking that data is imported correctly and workflows etc act as you expect
7. Train your teams
A good training program will help people understand how to do their roles, find features in the system they may need and introduce new functionality that their old system may not have had.
With Access Financials, training is a quick and easy step in the implementation process. Our software is intuitive and user-friendly, so it doesn't take a lot of getting used to. We call them ‘Flight Paths’ and they’re there to help our customers navigate their new systems with ease and maximum efficiency. We also provide ongoing customer support via our Customer Success Portal, which includes articles, videos and community forums. Download a brochure to find out more about our finance solutions.
8. Don’t set and forget
Once your new accounting software is in place and you are happy with it, it can be tempting to just leave it alone and get on with the job at hand. But there is so much more that modern accounting systems can do that you really need to make sure you push your new software to add maximum value to the business.
Make sure you are using effecting integrations and look at the other systems we have in the Access stable such as payroll, HR and project accounting to really round out your solution.
When the project implementation is complete, our customer success team will monitor your software to ensure that it remains at peak efficiency and support you on your next steps.