ERP projects in growing businesses rarely fail because of the software. They fail because the start date drifts, the opening data is not clean, or people are trained on screens instead of their own work.
Before go-live
- Choose a start date, ideally the first day of a month or financial year.
- Name one owner for the project who can make decisions.
- Clean and import masters: items, customers, suppliers and ledger accounts.
- Set up stores, document number series, tax rates and print formats.
- Decide each person’s role and what they should see and change.
At go-live
- Enter opening stock and opening balances as at the start date, from figures your accountant agrees.
- Train each person on their own daily tasks, using real transactions.
- Enter all new documents in the new system from the start date.
The first month
- Compare stock, receivables and payables with your old records every week.
- Fix master data as problems appear, rather than working around them.
- Close the first month together with your accountant, and file GST from the new system.