Switching Accounting Software ????? – Let’s Do It

So you’re finally ready to switch accounting software! You’ve made the decision to move forward, you’ve received board or management approval, and hopefully you’ve read our first blog entry about the decision and getting ready process. You’ve allocated a budget, determined the required staffing, established a timeline with determinable goals, now add “a wing and a prayer”. From the bottom of my heart, I wish you the very best. I’ll give you all the advice and pointers in this post that I can think of, and you’ll probably come back to me with 10 more questions or comments after you finish the conversion.

 This post will cover all the steps, in my opinion, you should take leading up to the point of actually converting your data. We’ll have yet another post dedicated to the technical side of working with new data and reports. Enjoy, and we of course appreciate your comments.

 Staff team

First things first, put your evaluation team together. It may be a staff team of 2, it may be 10. I would suggest a cross section of the organization for the group that helps make the decision, then a somewhat smaller implementation team. You need to get several groups on board with your decision on the actual software package, but it definitely should include individuals affected by the accounting software and/or the users. 

Next, assemble your other team, the implementation team. Make it very clear to them and the users that this will be no picnic. There will be times when everyone is frustrated and they need to be prepared for that. Those that are faint of heart or easily frustrated need not participate on the implementation team.

 Timeline

Develop at least a rough timeline for the project. Start at the end and work backward – the end being that the software is up and running without parallel use of the old system. You’ll have several landmarks on the timeline including, interviewing vendors, deciding on software, approval of final purchase, parallel running with old system, conversion of data, and probably several others. From the beginning, I would recommend staff meetings with the implementation team at least weekly. You can include the other groups helping with the decision early on and as needed, but make sure the implementation team meets regularly. Make sure that tasks are delegated in a way that will keep the team on schedule and that each person is clear about their individual responsibilities.

 Do your research on vendors

An initial search can be done over the internet. Find a group of vendors that provide accounting software to organizations like yours. You might even find vendor references that you can contact. I would also contact some similar organizations in your area to see what they are using. If you’re part of a national organization, contact the main headquarters and some of the other locations to possibly get some leads and information. Review a demo provided by the vendor, through an online meeting portal or in person if financially possible. This can not only introduce you to possible software choices, but will also get you familiar with some available features that you might want to be looking for.

Vendor presentations and/or bids

Hopefully, you have now accumulated a list of software vendors that will bid for your business. Depending on the size of your organization, the vendors will give you some type of demonstration.  This can be worked out when you first contact them and may or may not be in person.  If you’re in the DFW area, chances are there is a representative of the software company that can come give you a demonstration.  Typically, they at least will bring a sales person and a technical person to show you the screen shots of the software’s capabilities. I would recommend having no more than 5 vendors go through this process and have your larger decision group sit in on these demonstrations. 

One issue you’ll face during these meetings is that the salespeople will tell you that the software will move mountains. Not to generalize all software salespeople, but they generally answer “Yes” when you ask if the software can do something.  I would take detailed minutes of the demonstrations, ask the technical person the same questions, and also have them show you the software performing the task before taking their word for it.

 The Decision

This is probably a whole blog entry in itself, but I would obtain verbal and written input from each member of the group directly after each presentation. Sometimes the last presenting vendor has an advantage because it’s the most fresh on everyone’s mind. You’ll want to avoid that trap by taking good notes and talking amongst your team right after each demonstration so that you give each software package an equal chance to impress.

The decision itself ….. again, I could go on and on, but make sure you hear from each group member, try to accumulate and rank your needs and see how those are met by each software package, and make sure you get a true “apples to apples” comparison of the costs. There are different charges for different customizations and it is difficult to sort through that for a true comparison, but the effort is worth it. Finally, do some voting, ranking, eliminating, arm wrestling, or whatever else you need to do to come to a final decision. You might start with a vote on who to eliminate. You can’t make everyone happy, but it would not be good to pick anyone’s last/worst choice vendor. 

Once you make the decision, have some final comments to your team that will help get everyone on board for the conversion task ahead. Maybe that’s a Friday afternoon and then you can head somewhere for happy hour or some other well deserved break.

My last post in this series will go over the actual conversion and parallel systems, among other things.  Thanks for reading !!