Finance and ERP system implementation: Set your requirements in three steps

A finance or ERP system implementation can feel like a complex undertaking, but one simple thing is true: it starts and ends with what your business requires.

When helping SMEs in choosing ERP and finance software, we begin by establishing what those core requirements are. There are three steps: pinpointing your challenges, defining your objectives, and ultimately mapping your requirements.

Let’s take a look at what each of these steps entail. If you’d like to discuss how we can help you with this process, our team is ready to chat with you.

1.    Pinpoint your organisation’s challenges

Before choosing ERP or finance solutions, you should pinpoint your team’s current pain points. Consider challenges from an organisational level, not just from the perspective of your particular department. This ensures your motivators to change are connected to the organisation, which makes the transition much easier.

To map your challenges, start with a list from your own perspective. Get started by considering the following questions:

• What’s taken up most of your time recently?
• What have you not had time for? What causes errors in your processes?
• What causes delays in your process? What do your colleagues often ask you for?
• What are you worried about?

For each challenge, identify the negative impact from the perspectives of time, cost and lost opportunity. For example, a difficult consolidation process might cause delayed reports, costly errors and late nights for your team.

Then, talk to your team, your co-workers and leaders in other departments. Every department has different needs to the yours, so considering each perspective will give you a holistic view of your organisation’s needs.

Challenge identification: in practice

When Thinc’s consultants are guiding our clients through this stage, we conduct an in-depth discovery session. This produces a detailed view of what’s needed from your new system. Here’s an example list of what might come up for an SME seeking a new finance or ERP solution.

• Current systems are slow and cannot integrate properly with the wider organisation.
• Core business processes rely on spreadsheets and manual workflows, which is causing errors.
• Consolidating across entities is a slow process which makes month end take longer than it should.
• Constant delays in billing and revenue recognition are impacting cash flow.
• Inability to create reliable budgets with other departments is causing spend management issues.
• Lack of functionality to support multi-currency transactions and global operations.

2.    Define your finance or ERP system implementation objectives

Investing in a finance or ERP system implementation demands time and budget, so it’s crucial to demonstrate how it supports your organisation’s objectives.

Start by identifying where your business processes fall short and map these challenges to your organisation’s ambitions. For example, if your organisation aims to achieve a specific revenue goal but your current system doesn’t support accurate forecasting, this gap could jeopardise the objective.

Prioritise your objectives

To prioritise objectives, assess their impact on your organisation’s bottom line. For instance, addressing consolidation errors may take precedence over delivering real-time sales reports due to higher potential risks. Prioritising objectives will shape your system requirements, budget, and implementation timeline.

3.    Map your requirements

With your challenges and objectives mapped, you can establish what you need most from your system. Doing this effectively means you need to clearly define your current ways of working.

Here’s how we recommend mapping your requirements: by your systems, your team, your resources and your budget.

Your existing systems

Documentation. Document each system, its primary function and how it supports your workflows. Include any homegrown or niche systems your team uses.

Integrations. Determine which systems should integrate with your platform to streamline operations. Many finance and ERP systems are built to connect with third-party platforms, making integration planning essential.

Retirement. Highlight systems that will become redundant after implementation. For example, manual reconciliation tools may no longer be needed with your new system’s automation capabilities.

Your team

Roles. Create a list of your current team members and their primary responsibilities. Include stakeholders outside the team, like department heads, who may need access to reports or approvals.

Needs. Define who will need access to your platform and at what level. For example:

• Finance team: full access to all modules for data entry, reporting, and analysis.
• Executive team: reporting-only access for decision-making.
• Operations teams: access to specific functions like approvals or expense tracking.

Future-proof. Consider future changes in team roles or your organisation’s direction, to ensure the platform meets your future needs.

Your resources and budget

Define a realistic budget for the solution with your prioritised requirements in mind. Factor in:

• Software costs: account for the subscription fees of your system, including any additional modules your organisation may need.
• Implementation costs: include partner fees and integration costs.
• Training expenses: budget for training resources, such as learning memberships or instructor-led courses.
• Hidden costs: consider staff time spent on the project and potential productivity dips.
• Contingency: set aside 10–20% of your total budget as a buffer for unexpected expenses.

Next, determine the roles and capacity needed from your internal team for the project. You’ll need:

• Project leader: a decision-maker throughout the implementation.
• Project manager: a person capable of guiding the implementation.
• Testers: end users available to test the platform.
• End users: consider essential training time.

Prioritise your requirements

To create a realistic implementation timeline, you need to prioritise your requirements. Focus on the most essential requirements at first – additional capabilities can be added in future iterations. Focus on those needs that are most in line with your most mission-critical objectives.

Create a requirements checklist

Once you’ve prioritised your requirements for choosing ERP or finance solutions, draw up a checklist to ensure these are front of mind as you weigh up your options.

Next steps: choosing ERP and finance solutions

Now that you have a clear list of your requirements, it’s time to start considering which solutions have the capabilities to deliver for you.

Much depends on whether you’re looking a solution that’s built on best-in-class financial capabilities, like Sage Intacct, or an out-and-out ERP solution for SMEs, such as Sage 200 or SAP Business One. At Thinc, we find that a clear understanding of requirements makes it far simpler to decide which system is the right fit.

Book a discovery session with Thinc

If all of this seems overwhelming, don’t worry – you’re not alone. Lots of SMEs find embarking on a finance or ERP system implementation project to be a lot to take in. Ultimately, it starts with your business and what will make life easier for your people, stakeholders and customers.

If you’d like a hand, we’re here for you. In a discovery session, we’ll help map your requirements comprehensively, giving you a clear list of priorities and next steps. If you’re ready to begin this first part of your journey, then get in touch.