Your Guide To Selecting And Implementing An FMS or ERP System

In this 20-point guide, we’ll look at the steps involved in selecting and implementing a Financial Management (FMS) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that serves your needs and works within the confines of your budget.

This guide is created for Accounting and Finance professionals; however, it can be used by anyone in any role. While this guide focuses on Accounting, Finance and ERP systems the tips and steps can be used as a guide for other business systems.

Selecting the right system is crucial. Because it can significantly impact your organization’s efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness, helping you streamline operations, manage data effectively, and make informed decisions. The wrong choice can lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities.

For finance and accounting, selecting the right system is vital because it ensures accurate financial data management, efficient reporting, compliance with regulations, and helps in optimizing financial processes, ultimately leading to better financial decision-making and risk management.

Getting the implementation process wrong, or choosing the wrong system could have dire consequences. It could lead to unnecessary costs, project delays, inefficiency, financial errors, compliance issues, and poor strategic decisions, which can negatively impact your organization in a number of ways.

With any project, it’s important to understand your ‘why’.

What is it that you are hoping to achieve at the end of the project?

This could be several high-level goals, such as:

The functionality you need

You need to determine the purpose of implementing a new system and outline the specific features and modules needed to support your day-to-day operations.

Have internal discussions about the wants and needs of the new system.

You need to ask and answer the right questions, like:

By assessing the functionality you need and settling on what your core requirements are, you’re creating a solid foundation that’ll guide you through making the right decision about the software to select.

A financial management system (FMS) is the software used by organisations to manage financials — including income, expenses, and assets. It integrates and consolidates all financial operations, data, processes and procedures within a single, centralised platform.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is software that organisations use to manage all day-to-day business activities.

ERP is the brain of a company. It streamlines and integrates all aspects of business management, from financial accounting to customer relationship management, into a single system, making for an efficient business operation suitable for any type of enterprise.

An FMS or ERP can act as your accounting system, but they offer different features that suit some sectors and organisations better than the other. The same way a saloon car and a 4×4 can both get you from A to B, but they may take different routes due to the different features available to them.

Your answers to the above sections will dictate what system is right for you.

3rd Party Add-Ons/Enhancements

When it comes to FMS and ERP systems, the standard functionalities may not always cater to the specific needs of your business.

To resolve this, users purchase third-party add-ons and enhancements, to add new features or functionality that doesn’t come ‘out of the box’ with their FMS or ERP system.

For example, during the past 25+ years we’ve seen customers purchase third-party add-ons for requirements such as:

Third-party add-ons will extend the capabilities of an ERP or FMS system. However, as you can imagine, the costs start to add up with the more third-party systems you use. Multiple third-party systems can also be troublesome to manage and maintain, which can further increase costs if it requires specialised skills.

Due to the above, FinanSys created UniFi – One App to replace them all. It can connect to any FMS or ERP system via API and provides all the features you’ll need.

If the FMS/ERP system you’re considering requires third-party add-ons, UniFi is your one-stop shop. It’s enterprise-grade software without the cost.

Considering SunSystems or NetSuite?

Software selection and implementation should never be done as a personal project.

Not only should you create an internal project team, but you should also get buy-in from stakeholders who are relevant to the project.

These often include:

In running your own selection process, it’s best to follow a four-step approach

The cost of an accounting system project has many variables, but they can generally be broken down into four categories:

Due to the above variables differing across each organisation, it is difficult to provide generic pricing information.

Pricing for tailored systems should be offered on a case-by-case basis.
If you’re offered an upfront cost without a detailed conversation, be aware of any hidden costs. Keep in mind ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’!

There are typically 11 stages to the implementation process. Your implementation timeline can vary depending on variables specific to your organization’s circumstances.

1. Project Initiation: The project manager will have a meeting with your Project Manager/Team to outline the following:
   a. Scope
   b. Roles and responsibilities
   c. Timelines
   d. Deliverables
   e. Dependencies
   f. Project boundaries
   g. Risks and project reporting This step is finalized with a project plan document.
2. Software installation: Commissioning of the application on your hardware/infrastructure.
3. Project team training: This is a session where the Lead Consultant will give the Project Team an intensive overview of the system covering all the areas that affect the system design.
4. System Design & Specification: This will take the form of a workshop alongside the appreciation training.
5. Core System Build & Unit Testing: This takes place post the production and agreement of the SDD.
6. General User Training: Here, our consultants/trainers will train a group of Senior Users.
7. User Acceptance Testing Review & Changes: This is the review of the Customer’s testing before go-live. The consultant will be on site during the testing process at pre-agreed intervals whilst this takes place.
8. Data Migration Assistance: This is a service that is provided to the customer once it has been defined during the Design stage. You will define the exact nature, content and quantity of data to be migrated from any legacy systems.
9. Go-Live Support: This is one day of onsite consultancy where the Lead Consultant is on hand when the system goes live.
10. Project Management & Control: This is an ongoing service that takes place during the life of the project.
11. Post-Implementation Review – This is part of good project governance and is where both Project Manager and Lead Consultant will discuss with the Customer Project Team to formally review and close the project or initiate the next phase if that is required/appropriate.