Accounting Software Implementation Steps

Installing, setting up, and training your team on your new software system can be lengthy. However, it’s important to remember that your software provider is an expert, and you can lean on them with any questions or concerns. Discover below the different implementation options you can choose that will give you the best outcome when setting up and familiarizing yourself with your new system.

Exploring Implementation Options

Software providers allow you to choose how much work you’d like to do during the implementation process. Choosing to implement your software on your own can reduce your final software price, but it can lead to potential issues down the road. The best approach is to consider new software implementation as a team approach. Your software provider can lend a helping hand, but you also should participate to ensure you end up with software that fits your specific business needs.

Also, some smaller software companies don’t have accountants or controllers on staff. Your software provider likely does who can make sure that your new system is configured properly for your use. It’s easy to assume before implementation that things will go smoothly. A quick Google search of “accounting software configuration errors” (13.4 million results!) will confirm that unfortunately, configuration errors do happen quite frequently.

Some implementation steps you can do on your own. However, several of these tasks are either time-consuming or have the potential for error, making them better done by your software provider. How and if to import data from an existing system is judged by comparing the value of the time people would spend manually entering information versus the cost to import the data.

Implementation Stages

Here is a brief list of the major stages that need to be completed to implement a new accounting software system:

• Implementation planning
• Software installation
• Accounting system configuration
• System training

Implementation Planning

This first step outlines the steps, resources, timelines, and strategies needed to execute your project successfully.

During this phase, you’ll need to identify your organization’s requirements, such as compliance, inventory management, financial reporting, and what systems you’d like to integrate. Be careful not to do more than you need, as it can impact the cost of your system.

Software Installation

Software installation requires copying and configuring your software program onto a computer or device. During installation, the necessary files and configuration settings are placed in specific locations on the system.

You want to ensure your hardware and network system are adequately configured to support the new accounting software. Since several of today’s programs also offer CRM, additional hardware may be required. You should also establish a system data backup to protect against hardware failure. This needs to be followed up by testing and checking to confirm that the right files are being backed up and that the process is correct. Note that backing up SQL products is handled differently.

If you load your software onto a server and access it from PCs, establish proper access rights to the server so that your employees can use the system. Network security must be incorporated into the accounting software installation. If there are multiple users, you’ll need to establish passwords for each user and grant access to each user relevant to their area of work.

In this stage, you should configure system documents to suit your needs, such as:

• Customer invoices
• Customer statements
• Payroll checks
• Vendor checks
• Purchase Orders
• Sales Quotes

You’ll also need to create custom reports to provide information in the format you need. These reports incorporate operational and financial areas.

Accounting System Configuration

During this phase, you’ll start setting up and customizing your accounting software to meet your company’s specific needs. Here is a list of tasks you’ll want to complete during this stage:

• Establish your company chart of accounts for assets, liabilities, equity, sales and expenses
• Set up company divisions, departments, and cost centers as needed

You will also need to load all of the following items:

• Customer information into Accounts Receivable and establish new customer default AR information
  • Vendor information into Accounts Payable and establish new vendor default AP information
  • Inventory items into Inventory Control and establish new part default IC information
  • Enter all employees’ information into Payroll and establish new employee information. Payroll must be handled very carefully, as the data in the system must feed to quarterly payroll reports correctly, and year-to-date numbers are vital to a clean cut.
  • Accounts Receivable, all open unpaid invoices
  • Accounts Payable: all open unpaid invoices
  • Inventory Control all current inventory stats, including quantity on hand, quantity on order by customers, quantity on order from vendors, current cost per item in stock, etc
  • Payroll all individual payroll amounts per employee for current and former employees for the current year and quarter, including pay, individual federal, state, local, and unemployment taxes paid and withheld
  • Purchase Orders, sales orders, bill of materials, and job costs

System Training

Software providers include training for specific individuals based on their area of responsibility. For example, payroll department employees are trained on employee additions, changes, and terminations, recording employee payroll data, preparing various tax reports, procedures to close a month and year, and processing various year-end tax reports.

Any new employees who did not attend initial training should attend another session to avoid ‘attrition of knowledge.’ Updated training is also available whenever a new version comes out.