Why this is on your agenda now

• How did this initiative surface on your leadership agenda? Options: Incumbent vendor end-of-support, Post-acquisition consolidation, Unacceptable month-end close time, Regulatory or audit pressure, Other
• When did your current ERP or systems begin to feel like a blocker to your monthly close, consolidation, or day-to-day operations?
• How many legal entities and separate ledgers are involved in your expected consolidation? Options: 1-3, 4-10, 11-25, More than 25
• Which of these triggers best describes your situation right now? Options: Vendor announced end-of-support, Recent M&A requires consolidation, CFO cannot close within target window, Performance or customizations block upgrades, Other
• Describe the single outcome your CFO would call a success for the first 12 months of the program.
• Pinpoint the one problem that, if solved within 12 months, would keep this project alive for your organization.

Where the current setup actually trips you up

• If your consolidated monthly close failed again next month, what downstream cost or consequence to your business would matter most to your executive team?
• Provide the total days for a complete consolidated close in your current state, and name the steps that consume the most manual effort.
• Which reconciliation or journal routine in your chart of accounts gives you the least confidence during migrations? Options: Intercompany eliminations, Fixed asset rollforward, Revenue recognition journals, Payroll allocations, Inventory adjustments, Other
• Tell the story of the last time a migration or major upgrade caused operational disruption for your teams, what happened, and who bore the consequences?
• What single failure in your data migration or cutover would make you stop the project immediately?

Who inside your company will live or die by this going right

• Identify the stakeholder whose tolerance for downtime is lowest, and explain what would trigger their escalation.
• Who signs the go/no-go for an entity or site, and who controls the implementation contingency budget in your organization?
• List the process owners you expect to involve from finance, procurement, manufacturing, and HR, and describe their role in acceptance testing.
• Estimate the number of named owners on your side who can be available full time to support data mapping and testing during the pilot phase. Options: None available, 1-2 part time, 2-4 dedicated, More than 4 dedicated
• If the pilot proves the projected efficiency gains, who in your organization can commit to signing the contract within two weeks?

Money, timelines, and the red lines that stop approval

• Define the program timeline that would feel unacceptable to your CFO, and explain why a delay would be career-threatening for your project sponsors.
• What is the approved budget range for your first-phase implementation, including contingency? Options: Under $500k, $500k–$2M, $2M–$5M, Over $5M, Not yet approved
• Are there board review windows, audit committee dates, or fiscal blackout periods your rollout must avoid? Options: Yes, specific dates, Yes, recurring blackout periods, No hard dates, Don't know yet
• List the cost lines you consider immovable in this program (for example, severance or legacy licensing buyouts) and indicate which cost lines can flex.
• Should the systems integrator's estimate exceed your contingency, would you pause the project or fund additional risk, and who in your organization decides that? Options: Pause and reassess, Fund additional contingency, Seek lower-cost scope, Unsure

Integration and data realities we need to confirm now

• Identify the specific system connection that, if unavailable or incompatible, would block your go-live.
• Select the integration types that describe your environment today Options: Real-time API integrations, Batch file extracts, EDI, Database-level replication, Custom on-prem adapters, No current integrations
• Who on your team owns the APIs or middleware required for interfaces, and are those teams committed to providing credentials and test endpoints? Options: Internal IT owns APIs, Line-of-business owns APIs, Third-party middleware provider, APIs not yet owned, Don't know
• Rate the cleanliness of your master data for chart of accounts, vendors, and items on a scale from clean to fragmented, and note the biggest gap. Options: Mostly clean, Some cleaning required, Significant remediation needed, Fragmented across systems
• Would the inability of a required source system to export transaction history block the engagement, or could your team accept a delayed reconciliation strategy? Options: Block engagement, Accept delayed reconciliation, Workaround possible with manual effort, Undecided
• Name the team or role that will provide data stewardship and final sign-off on data readiness for your program.

The other routes you're actively weighing

• Explain which option on the table is most likely to keep you with the status quo, and what would have to change for you to move.
• Which of the following alternatives are you actively evaluating right now? Options: Remain on current ERP/vendor, Perform internal consolidation without external vendor, Move to a different cloud ERP vendor, Consolidate finance only with point solutions, Replace core financials only and retain peripherals, Other
• Name anyone internally who has proposed solving consolidation without an outside partner, and describe the resource commitment they proposed.
• Under what conditions would you decide to stay with your current approach rather than move to an external solution this year?
• Describe the acceptance criteria you would require during a functional demo from any cloud ERP vendor to win your confidence.

Success signals that will prove the project and unlock funding

• Point to the measurable outcome that, if achieved within six months, would guarantee executive support for the next phase of your program.
• Choose the metrics that are top priorities for your leadership in evaluating success Options: Days to close, Time to consolidated financials, Number of manual journals, Order-to-cash cycle time, Inventory days of supply, Payroll accuracy, Other
• Explain how you will quantify user adoption among finance and operations teams and the thresholds that matter for your stakeholders.
• Given a pilot that misses its financial target by 20 percent, what decision rule will your leadership apply—proceed, re-scope, or stop? Options: Proceed to next phase, Re-scope and remediate, Pause and investigate, Stop the program
• Provide the stakeholders who must sign acceptance for each entity before legacy systems are retired.

Transition, governance, and practical next steps

• Clarify who will own program governance and the weekly escalation path if a critical integration or cutover task is late.
• Choose the governance model you prefer for running this program Options: Steering committee with exec sponsors, Central PMO with process owners, SI-led program with buyer oversight, Joint governance board, Other
• Specify the reporting cadence and decision milestones your leadership will accept during the first 90 days. Options: Weekly exec summary, biweekly working team, Biweekly exec review, weekly working team, Monthly exec review, Other cadence
• Would a fixed-price milestone for delivering financials accelerate your internal approval, or do you require time-and-materials for now? Options: Fixed-price milestone accelerates approval, Prefer time-and-materials, Hybrid approach preferred, Undecided
• Should we prove the financials in a pilot and your team signs off, what internal approvals remain and how soon can they be obtained? Options: All approvals in place within 2 weeks, Approvals need 1-2 months, Approvals need more than 2 months, Unknown
• Outline the artifacts or evidence you would want from the seller and systems integrator before your procurement team would accept a purchase recommendation. Options: Functional demo mapped to our chart of accounts, Reference calls from similar complexity buyers, Detailed implementation cost model with contingency, Security and compliance documentation, Rollback and cutover plan

• Solution Experience: Financial Close & Entity Consolidation

• Confirm the current state and cost
• You confirm the demonstrated workflow eliminates the manual spreadsheet reconciliations in the consolidated close.
• Provide a 3-month GL export, intercompany transaction sample, and your entity chart of accounts for the validated scenario.
• You agree the remaining data and integration evidence required to validate reconciliation accuracy and cutover timing.
• Walk through your end-to-end close scenario
• Deliver a draft mapping of your chart of accounts into the proposed platform data model and an estimated reconciliation accuracy and cutover window based on the provided sample.
• You accept the proposed operational future state statement and agree next steps toward acceptance criteria for the financials phase.
• Demonstrate reconciliation and intercompany eliminations
• Define measurable acceptance criteria for the financials phase, including target close time, allowable reconciliation variance, and required parallel-run length.
• Validate the future state
• Confirm the buying committee members and decision timeline for final mutual commitment to proceed to scope and commercial review.
• Agree remaining gaps and decision evidence

• Solution Experience: Financial Close & Entity Consolidation
• Solution Experience Deck
• Solution Brief

• meeting
• slides
• document

• Migrate General Ledger and Opening Balances
• Configure Chart of Accounts and Entity Hierarchy
• Implement Multi-Entity Consolidation and Intercompany
• Implement Financial Close Automation and Period Close Routines
• Deploy Accounts Payable and Procure-to-Pay
• Migrate Supplier Records and Procurement Catalogs
• Deploy Accounts Receivable and Order-to-Cash
• Configure Fixed Assets and Depreciation Schedules
• Deploy Inventory and Warehouse Management
• Implement Manufacturing: BOMs, Routing, and Work Orders
• Configure Supply Chain Planning and Demand Management
• Migrate HR Core Records and Position Structures
• Configure Role-Based Security, Workflows, and Approvals
• Execute Data Migration and Parallel Reconciliation

Migrate General Ledger and Opening Balances

• How many legal entities will require opening balance migration and what is the most recent closed period for each entity?
• How will you supply opening balance inputs for each entity (trial balance CSV, opening journal export, subsidiary ledger extract)? Options: Trial balance CSV, Opening journal export, Subsidiary ledger extract, Other
• Do you require historical currency revaluation when converting opening balances (historical rates per period)? Options: Yes, No
• What defines acceptance for opening balance migration (for example trial balance match tolerance, account-level variance thresholds)? Options: Exact account-level match, Within 0.1% variance, Within 1% variance, Other - specify
• Who will reconcile and clear legacy suspense accounts after cutover (provide role or team name and available resource hours)? Options: We handle, You provide, The integration partner handles, Split — define in notes
• Provide the sample trial balance or opening journal format we should validate during the mapping exercise (attach file type or describe columns).

Configure Chart of Accounts and Entity Hierarchy

• How many account segments and segment lengths does your current chart of accounts use (for example company-division-department with segment lengths)?
• How do you want entity roll-ups defined for consolidation (reporting grouping, statutory grouping, tax reporting grouping)? Options: Reporting grouping, Statutory grouping, Tax reporting grouping, Multiple groupings — specify
• Do you have mandated account numbering or legacy GL codes that must be preserved for audit trails? Options: Yes, No
• Specify any regulatory or local chart requirements to model (for example VAT reporting segments, government fund codes, or cost center rules).
• Who will own the final chart of accounts sign-off and the mapping of legacy accounts to new account codes? Options: We handle, You provide, The integration partner handles, Split — define in notes
• Describe naming conventions and account-level attributes that must exist at go-live (for example natural account, functional area, tax classification).

Implement Multi-Entity Consolidation and Intercompany

• How many legal entities and operating units require consolidation and which consolidation method do you use (legal-only, management, or both)? Options: Legal-only, Management-only, Both
• How are intercompany transactions currently identified in source systems (intercompany accounts, tags, customer/vendor cross-reference)?
• Do you require automated intercompany elimination and currency translation per consolidation period? Options: Yes - elimination and translation, Translation only, Elimination only, No automation required
• What evidence will validate consolidation accuracy (for example elimination totals match legacy consolidated P&L within X currency units or elimination entries post-run)? Options: Elimination totals exact match, Within 0.1% of legacy consolidated close, Within 1% of legacy consolidated close, Other - specify
• Identify the required intercompany matching rules (by invoice number, purchase order, matching percentage, tolerance amounts). Options: Invoice number, Purchase order, Amount tolerance, Percent tolerance, Other
• Who will maintain the intercompany master mappings for entity-vendor-customer cross-references after go-live? Options: We handle, You provide, The integration partner handles, Split — define in notes

Implement Financial Close Automation and Period Close Routines

• How many close tasks exist in your current period close checklist (examples: FX revaluation, accrual posting, fixed asset run, inventory adjustments)? Options: Less than 10, 10-25, More than 25
• How long is your target close window post-implementation (days after period end)? Options: 5 business days, 10 business days, 15 business days, Custom
• Do you require task-level automation for reconciliation ownership and sign-off (automated task assignment, reminders, electronic sign-off)? Options: Yes, No
• Specify critical reconciliation reports that must be automated during the close (trial balance by entity, intercompany eliminations, bank reconciliation, AP/AR aging reports).
• When do you run your first-post-close legal filings that must align to the system close (statutory deadlines in days)?
• Who will be the primary owner for enforcing close cadence and resolving failing tasks during the first three closes? Options: We handle, You provide, The integration partner handles, Split — define in notes

Deploy Accounts Payable and Procure-to-Pay

• How many vendor invoices per month does AP process and what percentage require three-way matching to purchase orders? Options: Less than 1,000, 1,000-5,000, More than 5,000
• Do you require automated PO match rules (2-way, 3-way, tolerance thresholds) and where are those tolerances defined? Options: 2-way, 3-way, 3-way with tolerances, Other
• How are supplier payment runs scheduled and which payment methods must integrate at cutover (ACH, bank file, virtual card)?
• Specify tax and withholding requirements that AP must enforce at invoice posting (VAT, sales tax, withholding tax codes).
• Who will own vendor invoice exceptions and PO mismatch resolution during the initial post-go-live period? Options: We handle, You provide, The integration partner handles, Split — define in notes
• Do you require supplier portals for invoice submission and PO acknowledgements at phase one? Options: Yes - portal required, No - manual submission only, Portal in later phase

Migrate Supplier Records and Procurement Catalogs

• How many supplier master records and site locations must be migrated, and which key attributes are mandatory (tax ID, remit-to, bank details)?
• How complete are your procurement catalog records (SKUs with price, lead time, unit of measure) and how many catalog items need normalization? Options: Mostly complete, Partial - needs enrichment, Mostly missing
• Do you require supplier onboarding workflows (KYC, tax forms, W-9 or local equivalent) as part of the migration? Options: Yes, No
• Specify the required vendor master deduplication rules (matching on tax ID, bank account, or name/address fuzzy match).
• Who will validate migrated supplier banking details and vendor payment terms prior to the first payment run? Options: We handle, You provide, The integration partner handles, Split — define in notes
• Provide the format of supplier price lists or procurement catalogs we should ingest (CSV columns, item codes, effective dates).

Deploy Accounts Receivable and Order-to-Cash

• How many customer accounts and active sales order lines will be in scope at go-live? Options: Less than 5,000 customers, 5,000-25,000 customers, More than 25,000 customers
• Do you require AR credit rules and holds integrated with customer master (credit limit per customer, aging-based holds)? Options: Yes, No
• Which order types need to be supported at phase one (standard sales order, blanket order, project billing, consignment)? Options: Standard sales order, Blanket order, Project billing, Consignment, Other
• Do you require automated invoice generation from shipped/confirmed orders and integration to your billing engine or invoicing format? Options: Yes - automated invoices, No - manual invoicing, Integration in later phase
• Who will own credit memo approvals and cash application reconciliation during the first three billing cycles? Options: We handle, You provide, The integration partner handles, Split — define in notes
• Specify AR aging buckets and dispute SLA thresholds that must be configured for dashboarding and escalation.

Configure Fixed Assets and Depreciation Schedules

• How many fixed asset records need migration and do assets have physical tag IDs that must be preserved? Options: Less than 5,000, 5,000-20,000, More than 20,000
• What depreciation books and methods are required (tax book, statutory, management; straight-line, declining balance, custom)?
• Do you require mass asset revaluation or impairment runs during the cutover period? Options: Yes, No
• Specify the acceptance evidence for fixed asset migration (for example number of assets matched to tags and depreciation balances within tolerance). Options: 100% tag-to-record match, Balance within 0.5%, Balance within 1%, Other - specify
• Who will perform physical count reconciliation for tagged assets and resolve exceptions post-migration? Options: We handle, You provide, The integration partner handles, Split — define in notes
• Provide required asset reporting outputs at go-live (asset register format, movement history, depreciation schedules).

Deploy Inventory and Warehouse Management

• How many SKUs and warehouse locations must be modeled, and do you use multi-location lot or serial tracking? Options: No lot/serial, Lot tracking, Serial tracking, Both
• How do you operate cycle counts today and what frequency must be configured by warehouse/bin? Options: Monthly, Quarterly, Continuous cycle counts, Custom schedule
• Do you require warehouse putaway/slotting rules and outbound wave picking configured at phase one? Options: Yes - putaway and wave, Putaway only, Wave only, No
• Specify inventory valuation method required at go-live (FIFO, LIFO where allowed, weighted average, standard cost). Options: FIFO, Weighted average, Standard cost, Other
• Who will validate physical inventory counts against migrated on-hand balances during cutover? Options: We handle, You provide, The integration partner handles, Split — define in notes
• Provide the format of inventory master extracts we should use for SKU, UOM, bin locations, and on-hand balances.

Implement Manufacturing: BOMs, Routing, and Work Orders

• How many Bills of Material (BOMs) and routing templates will be migrated and what versioning rules apply?
• How do you handle work order routing and shop floor operations today (discrete, job shop, engineer-to-order)? Options: Discrete, Job shop, Engineer-to-order, Process manufacturing
• Do you require capacity calendars and resource calendars integrated into work order scheduling at go-live? Options: Yes, No
• Specify acceptance criteria for a migrated BOM (for example structure match, correct unit of measure conversions, costing accuracy within X%). Options: Structure match exact, Cost within 1%, Cost within 2%, Other - specify
• Who will own engineering change notices (ECNs) and BOM updates during the migration window? Options: We handle, You provide, The integration partner handles, Split — define in notes
• Provide sample routing and work order templates we should validate with your production scenarios.

• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Subscription Agreement / Order Form
• Implementation Cost Model & Contingency Schedule
• Program Governance Charter
• Acceptance & Go/No-Go Criteria
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
• Industry Compliance Addendum (conditional)
• Systems Integrator Responsibility Schedule
• Change Order Agreement

• Go-Live Health Check
• First Measurement Review
• 90-Day Realization and Incumbent Wind-down
• Quarterly Success Review

• Create backlog items for prioritized enhancements with acceptance criteria and target delivery quarters.
• Present 90-day outcome dashboard vs Solution Scope targets
• Confirm the legacy incumbent is either fully decommissioned or formally retained read-only with data archived and no active fallback usage.
• Document remediation items required to meet Solution Scope targets and assign owners and completion dates.
• Agree a prioritized list of enhancement requests and the timeline for addressing them in the operational backlog.
• Execute the remaining legacy decommissioning steps and provide evidence of archive, read-only status, or termination of legacy contracts.
• Publish the 90-day realization report showing metric trends, outstanding gaps, and agreed remediation actions.
• Re-confirm success criteria and owners
• Agree the top three operational priorities for the next quarter with owners and delivery expectations.
• Confirm whether key realization metrics are on a sustained trajectory to meet Solution Scope targets and document any variance reasons.
• Trend review against Solution Scope targets
• Ensure the enhancement backlog is prioritized and that at least one high-impact enhancement is scheduled for the upcoming quarter.
• Publish the quarterly realization dashboard with trend lines, variance explanations, and next-quarter priorities.
• Assign owners and target dates for the top three priorities and create follow-up checkpoints.
• Update the operational readiness checklist for any planned module rollouts and distribute to stakeholder leads.
• All high-severity production issues have an assigned owner, documented mitigation steps, and a target resolution date.
• Deployment health summary published and distributed to hypercare contacts within 24 hours.
• Named owners confirmed for each success criterion recorded in Solution Scope.
• Publish a one-page go-live health summary listing open issues, owners, and target dates.
• Open remediation tickets for each high-severity item with target resolution dates and required resources.
• Circulate the hypercare escalation contact list and confirmed on-call rotations.
• Present first measurement data vs targets
• Determine whether month-end close cycle time and data migration completeness % meet or are trending toward Solution Scope targets.
• Assign corrective actions with owners and firm due dates for each off-target metric.
• Agree the evidence required to consider each remediation item closed at the next checkpoint.
• Document root causes for each off-target metric and publish a remediation plan with owners and dates.
• Schedule targeted reconciliation runs or re-migration for affected entities and report results at the next measurement.
• Provide access to the metric data sources used for the review to the buyer's finance and IT leads for independent validation.
• Persistent issue burn-down
• Deployment and migration validation
• Root-cause diagnosis for metric gaps
• Incumbent system wind-down status
• Agree corrective actions and owners
• Enhancement backlog and prioritization
• Process validation and reconciliation results
• Early adoption signals and usage patterns
• Confirm follow-up cadence to resolve open items
• Blockers and open issues triage
• Enhancement requests and persistent blockers
• Operational readiness for next-phase rollout
• Agreement on next steps and close criteria
• Agree immediate remediation actions