CFOs and Controllers—or anyone responsible for accounting operations, maintenance of the accounting system and financial reporting—must establish clear and unambiguous policies and procedures for data migration in a software implementation.

As a former controller on the client side, and now a financial systems analyst on the implementation side, I’ve gained a lot of perspective on the factors that contribute to a successful ERP implementation. In this blog post, I am going to lean on my experience and will take a look at policies and procedures surrounding control accounts that need to be established in order to ensure data migration is performed seamlessly with no adverse consequences.

Some of the questions a CFO or Controller might pose after migration are:

  • Is my data reconciled?
  • Do the various components sync up?
  • Why are there differences between the converted data and my source data?
  • Where are these differences coming from?

Many issues can be prevented by establishing clear procedures and policies pertaining to the following control accounts prior to data migration: Cash, Accounts Receivables, Accounts Payables, Inventory and Fixed Assets.

CASH

Before data migration, the main objective with respect to Cash is to make sure that the following tasks are performed:

  • Bank is reconciled and cash reconciliation module balance agrees with the General Ledger Trial Balance Cash account as of the cutoff date
  • Outstanding check list (if any) is compiled
  • Deposit in transit list (if any) is compiled

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

The policy here is to make sure the appropriate Accounts Receivable personnel have reconciled the Receivable sub-ledger and the following steps have been taken:

  • Post any unposted receivable transactions and cash receipts
  • Though not required, applying unapplied documents will make your data cleaner
  • Print Aged Receivable as of the cutoff date
  • Reconcile the Receivable Sub-Ledger to the General Ledger Receivable Trial Balance control account

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE

The strategy here is similar to Accounts Receivable above:

  • Post any unposted Accounts Payable transactions and cash Payments
  • Though not required, applying unapplied documents will make you data cleaner.
  • Print Aged Payables as of the cut-off date
  • Reconcile your Payables Sub-Ledger to the General Ledger Trial Balance Payable Control account.

INVENTORY

Inventory Sub-Ledger must be reconciled and tie to the General Ledger:

  • Post any unposted Inventory transactions
  • Perform physical inventory count and make necessary adjustments
  • Print Inventory Item Valuation Report
  • Reconcile your Inventory valuation report to the General Ledger Trial Balance

FIXED ASSETS

Your Fixed Assets module must be reconciled to GL Property Plant and Equipment Accounts:

  • Enter and post all Fixed Assets related items
  • Perform depreciation calculation as of the cutoff date
  • Print Fixed Asset, Depreciation and Net Book Value Report
  • Reconcile asset balance and accumulated depreciation balance to the General Ledger Trial Balance

Once the Sub-Ledger has been reconciled in the source data, migration to a new system should be seamless.

If you’re looking for support on your ERP financial system implementation, please get in touch with our team – we’re happy to help!

Additional ERP Resources

The Data Dilemma – Managing Data During An ERP Implementation

3 Ways Executives Can Avoid ERP Project Pitfalls

Two ERP Implementation Methodologies Compared

10 Factors That Ensure a Successful ERP Implementation Project