Avoiding the Pitfalls of Implementation

In order to ensure your company has longevity in the face of an increasingly competitive and changing business landscape you must adopt flexible financial management architecture. Look for technology that will optimize business performance while still focusing on the customer’s needs. The best infrastructure for future growth should be scalable, have real-time accessibility, and the ability to integrate with your other business management applications. Implementing a modern tool with the capabilities listed above is a critical component to maximizing efficiencies and ultimately your company’s success. However, many business owners look to the daunting task of implementation and turn away from the opportunity to streamline financial management. Don’t be scared of possible implementation woes, learn the five big financial integration pitfalls and how to avoid them below.

1 – Failing to set and manage realistic expectations

• This one sounds the most obvious but without critical planning and documentation at the beginning of the project, doubts surrounding deadlines and budget can bring an integration project to a halt. From the get-go work with your implementation team to set a reasonable calendar with understood deadlines that allow extensions when necessary. The same can be said for the budget, provide a little wiggle room to address inevitable scope creep.

2 – Failures to address system security

• Connecting to your financial system requires serious considerations around security. Robust systems like Sage Intacct address these concerns by requiring two levels of security to access the system. When shopping for a new financial management solution be sure to investigate that system’s security protocols to protect your data.

3 – Cumbersome general ledger workflows

• Financial systems that are not cloud based are likely to hinder performance. Sage Intacct’s “born-in-the-cloud” solution has flexibility to handle a vast amount of data while maintaining scalability. Automations for processing, storing, and reporting data are benefits of Sage Intacct’s customizable platform while only feeding summaries into a clean general ledge.

4 – Limiting Data

• Business owners know that investors want more than financial data for decision making. By pulling over more than the traditional financial data you can provide a deeper level of insight. Sage Intacct allows users to pull in operational data that offers statistical account functionality for use in reporting, billing, and resource management.

5 – Not being compliant and audit ready

• Sage Intacct ensures that your financials are always audit ready by creating “clickable” links inside dashboard reports that provide more in-depth insight into top level financial data. These links provide source data necessary for compliance.

When shopping for a new financial management system it is easy to fall into the fear of new technology. Don’t let the possible pitfalls of a system migration keep you from optimizing efficiency for growth and long-term success. Set and manage your expectations when beginning an implementation, secure your data and be clear on what data is pulled over into your new system, and utilize the benefits of the Cloud. For more information about Cloud based ERP systems like Sage Intacct give us a call at 855-876-3773 or email us at [email protected] .  

For more information on the pitfalls of implementation check out this whitepaper.