ERP Implementation Checklist: 15 Questions

Why a checklist helps

An ERP (enterprise resource planning) system joins finance, stock, sales, and other work in one place. It touches many teams, so mistakes can cost a lot. Most trouble starts before anyone writes code.

The 15 questions below help you find gaps early. Use them with your own team and with any vendor you talk to.

Goals and scope (questions 1 to 4)

• 1. What problem are we solving? Write it in one sentence. "Month-end close takes too long" is clearer than "We need a better system."
• 2. How will we know it worked? Pick a few measures, such as time to close the books or errors in stock counts.
• 3. Which processes are in scope? List them, such as orders, purchasing, stock, and payroll. Mark what can wait for a later phase.
• 4. Should we buy, build, or mix? A ready product fits common processes. Custom work fits unusual ones. Many firms use a product and add custom parts.

A small first phase is easier to finish than a big one. Many teams start with the process that hurts the most. Write down what is out of scope too. That list stops the project from growing without anyone choosing it.

People and process (questions 5 to 8)

• 5. Who owns the project? Name one business owner who has time and the right to make decisions.
• 6. Who will use it each day? Talk to those people early. Users who help shape the system tend to accept it more easily.
• 7. Are our processes clear? If two teams do the same task in two ways, settle that first. Software will not fix unclear rules.
• 8. How will we train people? Plan training, practice time, and a way to ask for help in the first weeks.

Change is the part many projects forget. People may worry that the new system will make their work harder. Talk about this openly. Show how the system helps with daily tasks, and listen to what worries them.

Data and connected systems (questions 9 to 12)

• 9. What data must move over? Think of customers, items, open orders, and history. Decide how many years of history you need.
• 10. How clean is our data? Duplicates and gaps follow you into the new system. Set aside time for clean-up.
• 11. Which systems must connect? List each one, such as your online store, CRM, bank, or shipping tool. Note how data flows between them.
• 12. What reports do we need? Collect the reports your leaders use today. Ask what is missing from them.

Plan a trial move of your data early. Load a copy into the new system and check it. Errors found in a trial are cheap to fix. Errors found on launch day are not.

Connections are often where cost and delay grow. Each extra system adds work to build and to test. Our custom software development page explains how we usually handle links between systems.

Cost, risk, and go-live (questions 13 to 15)

• 13. What is the full cost? Include licenses, setup, data work, training, hosting, support, and later changes. Cost depends on scope, the number of connected systems, rules you must follow, and team size.
• 14. How will we test and switch over? Test with real data. Decide how you will move to the new system, and plan a way back.
• 15. Who supports it after launch? Agree who fixes bugs, applies updates, and changes settings. Decide this before you sign.

Also ask what a change request costs, and who pays when the plan shifts.

There are two common ways to switch over. The table compares them.

Approach	Good points	Watch for
All at once	One switch date, one system to run	Higher risk if something fails
In phases	Lower risk, and teams learn step by step	Two systems run side by side for a time

How to use this checklist

Go through the 15 questions with your team. Mark each one as clear, partly clear, or unclear. Start with the unclear ones. A question you cannot answer today points to work that needs doing before you buy or build.

Share your answers with each vendor you talk to. Their questions back to you also tell you a lot about how they work.

Next step: If you want help turning these answers into a plan, see our ERP solutions page. We write down the scope, timeline, and price before work starts. Please contact us to talk it through.