The ERP Implementation Checklist

Before any configuration begins, a real implementation plan documents current-state processes (even the informal, undocumented ones), the specific pain points driving the project, and which stakeholders need to sign off on what. Skipping this step is the single most common cause of a implementation that technically launches but doesn't actually fix the real problem.

Migrating customers, items, suppliers, and open transactions is necessary but not sufficient — the step that's commonly skipped or rushed is reconciliation: confirming the migrated data actually matches the source system record for record, not just that a migration script completed without erroring. Budget real time for this, and assign a specific owner, not "the implementation team" as a vague catch-all.

Configuration decisions — who can approve what, at what dollar threshold, and how documents are numbered — deserve as much planning attention as which modules to buy. A role structure copied uncritically from a generic template rarely matches a specific organisation's real approval chain, and retrofitting it after go-live is more disruptive than getting it right upfront.

Test the specific workflows your organisation actually runs, not just a generic smoke test — the order-to-invoice sequence a real sales team will use, the requisition-to-payment sequence a real buyer will use. Training that happens once, weeks before go-live, is consistently less effective than training scheduled close to go-live with a real, hands-on task to complete.

A real cutover plan names a specific go-live date, a rollback contingency if something goes materially wrong, and — critically — a defined post-launch support period with a named point of contact, not an assumption that go-live is the finish line. The weeks immediately after go-live are when real usage surfaces gaps a testing phase didn't catch.