Accounting Software Shreveport

Six Common Accounting System Selection Mistakes

Posted by Adrian Montgomery on Wed, Jun 13, 2012 @ 02:19 PM
Accounting Systems

Selecting an accounting system is no small task.  There are so many accounting systems available which one is right for your company?  Today we'll discuss common accounting system selection mistakes and how to avoid them.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #1:  Failure to establish a solid technology project management committee.  Establish a manageable technology project management committee where each company department is represented.  It is important the needs of every part of the company are considered.  Try to keep this team under 7 members.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #2:  Failure to perform a detailed needs assessment with a qualified local accounting systems expert. Needs assessments can reveal performance needs, instrumental needs, conscious needs, unconscious needs, organizational needs, individual needs and causes for needs.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #3:  Failure to develop a comprehensive business process assessment.  This process documents the measurement and assessment of the existing business processes.  This can come in the form of a checklist defining a weighted value of importance to the individual business processes critical to the company.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #4:  Failure to define your milestone and budget projections.  It is important for the technology project management committee to prepare a project time line and prelimminary budget.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #5:  Buy on emotion instead of fact.  Everyone has opinions.  It is important to make a rational fact based decision based on your needs assessment and business process assessments.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #6:  Too much focus on the ERP initiatives and lack of focus on other important business initiatives.

According to a 2011 study conducted by Panorama Consulting Solutions titled: ERP Failures and Lawsuits: It's Not Just For the Tier 1 ERP Vendors, ERP failures for Tier II and Tier III ERP implementations are just as likely to fail as Tier 1 implementations from SAP or Oracle.  The reasons for failure can be related to employees having trouble acclimating to the new system, versus malfunctions in the software itself.  So the goal is simple:  choose the right local accounting systems expert and the right accounting system by matching company needs to the software capabilities and including every department in the fact-based decision making step-by-step accounting systems selection process.

Picture available on Hiking Artists.com Flickr photostream

Tags: Sage 100, Accounting System, Accounting System Consultant, Sage Software, Accounting Systems, MAS 90 and MAS 200, MAS 200, Sage 100 ERP, ERP System