An accounting system refers to processes for collecting, accumulating, organizing, and reporting the organization's transactions. The main importance of an accounting system to an organization is to ensure the generation of reports or information that supports managerial decision making. The implementation of a new accounting system to an organization provides an opportunity for improved decision making. New accounting systems have enhanced reporting features that help the management in making well-informed decisions. However, implementation of a new accounting system in an organization is a process that involves a series of steps starting with planning for the opportunities of improvement required and ending with the achievement of improved organizational accountability and improved decision making.
For effective implementation of a new accounting system, the organization should develop a project plan that will guide the various implementation milestones and their respective timeline. The plan should also include all the required resources to make the project a success. As a project, it should have a manager who shall champion its implementation. The main project team members should be different stakeholders from different functionality area across the organization and with different vested interests in the new system. A data conversion plan (mapping) to migrate the existing accounting information into the new system should be devised to ensure the new system captures all the existing organization's data in the new system.
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For effective implementation of a new accounting system, creating a Conference Room Pilot is essential. The Conference Room Pilot exposes all other system users to the functionality of the new system. It provides them an opportunity to identify the new systems opportunity for transaction processing as well as understanding the limitations of the new system as compared to the old or existing system. The power users in the Conference Room Pilot provide suggestions on how the new system can be improved. The system improvement suggestions collected in the Conference Room Pilot assist in the new system application configuration to ensure it facilitates better processing of transactions. Thus through the Conference Room Pilot, new opportunities and system improvement are revealed.
The main expectation of any new accounting system is the opportunity to generate information or reports that assist in managerial decision making. Sometimes the new system does not provide reports in an exact format as the existing system or in formats that the consumers of the information are accustomed to. Thus, there is an opportunity to further improve the new system by customizing the reports into a format that the users are accustomed to. The final part of implementing the new accounting system is training all the system users in the organization on how to use and maximize the new accounting system. Every department in the organization needs to be trained on how to use the system to ensure that the final reports generated by the system which is a consolidation of reports from all departments is correct and presents the correct position of the organization. Investment in training also ensures appreciation of the system by all stakeholders and fast adaptability of the system.
In conclusion, the implementation of a new accounting system in an organization is an opportunity for improvement of the organization's transaction reporting and management decision making. The main reason for the implementation of a new accounting system is to achieve improved organizational reporting for better decision making. The implementation involves project planning to offer a guide on the project milestones and their timelines, conducting the Conference Room Pilot to establish opportunities for improvement and the customization of system reports and training of the system users to ensure system optimization and fast adaptability.