Top Tips for Successful Implementation of Accounting Software

Honest/Open communication is at the top of the list. For us to effectively lead you through this implementation, we need to gather as much information as we can. This is not limited to system needs, let us know what is going on within the organization and how it might affect the implementation timeline. We also need to know if the implementation is not going as you anticipated. We will only be successful if we can have open communication and work together.

Project Sponsor/Intacct Champion: One person from client team should be fully invested in learning Sage Intacct inside and out to help other teammates...helps immensely with user adoption of new system. This person should collaborate in creating a change plan and creating buzz/hype around what’s coming can help tailor the employees’ experiences. Ideally, this person is also responsible for ensuring client deliverables are returned to Sockeye on time.

What roles need to be identified for your implantation project?

Executive Sponsor facilitates engagement and decision making throughout the project. A fully engaged sponsor increases the likelihood of achieving the desired project outcomes.

• Communicate the vision, goals, and expectations to your team
• Advocate for the project
• Facilitate executive-level decisions
• Sign off on completed project milestones

Project Manager or Primary Contact will work alongside a Sockeye Project Manager to ensure necessary personnel participation and timely task completion.

• Participate in weekly working sessions and project status meetings
• Aid in delegation of project deliverables

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) provide specialized insight into their respective subjects and can play a key role in the success of your project.

• Participate in requirements gathering meetings
• Test module(s) relevant to expertise
• Provide feedback relating to module configuration and process

End Users will be ongoing users of the system once it is live.

• Attend relevant training sessions
• Perform system testing

Spend time thinking about what you would like to accomplish with this implementation, e.g., what are the pain points you are trying to solve, what new business processes would you like to see implemented. Too often there is such a focus on data, and while that is important, we can often lose focus on what we are really trying to accomplish. We ask these questions during our project kickoff and it’s often how we measure the success of the implementations.

Reach out to your IT Support, before the implementation meetings, and have them ensure that video and microphones are available to use on your workstations. Have your IT Support check your Teams settings so that we can ask for remote control in those cases where we need to "drive" to demonstrate functionality.

Take the time to clean your data to reduce rework later. No one knows your data better than you. Vendors, customers, projects, purchase orders, invoices, etc… whatever you can do to clean up and close out your existing data, so we are only moving the relevant records, makes for a cleaner environment and better overall experience in the new system. 

Keep an open mind: Changing from one system to another is hard enough, but asking to change the process too can be overwhelming for some. It is really important to keep an open mind as you are going through your requirements and training sessions. Our consultants can share best practices and demonstrate how making small changes can streamline or automate processes along the way.

Make sure the right people are in the room at the right time: While it may sound obvious to make sure the right people are in the room at the right time, it doesn’t always happen. Many executives and managers try to take on the burden/work of the implementation, rationalizing they are helping their team reduce noise. The problem with this is that small details or use cases may not be captured and an entire process or module needs to be completely redone based on the end user feedback. We recommend having at least one end-user identified and invited to participate in everything from requirements gathering to user acceptance testing for their area(s) of expertise. On the flip side of that, if you have an accounting team of six or more users, it isn’t efficient to invite all those users to every meeting. We will ask you to help us identify who needs to be involved in meetings, and then trust your project sponsor will communicate with the rest of your accounting team who aren’t actively involved throughout the project.

There are no dumb questions or details too small. Don’t be afraid to ask ALL the questions, even those that seem super simple can help us dive into your processes and help make sure we aren’t missing anything.

Be prepared to share your screen. We find that clients who aren’t afraid to drive while going through training, and some configurations/setups, are much more comfortable in the system when they go live.

User acceptance testing: Thorough user acceptance testing is the only way you can ensure the system has been configured to meet your requirements.