5 pitfalls to avoid for ERP implementation success

By Sharon Barboza, Manager NetSuite Digital Services, Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC (Guest Post)

There are few systems in business that we can’t truly live without. The enterprise resource planning system (ERP) is arguably the biggest exception. Of the many (many) pieces of software we use to make daily tasks easier, safer, more efficient, etc, your ERP is the one that companies most rely on. It’s also where I see the biggest risk when ERP implementations fail.

If you are about to embark on a finance digital transformation, you need to know exactly where these projects tend to break so you can build a resilient foundation from day one.

Why ERP failures start in the planning phase

I work with growing companies to redesign how their finance operations actually work. I’ve seen hundreds of businesses attempt to scale their systems—to varying degrees of success—and a topic that keeps many finance leaders up at night is software transitions. Especially with ERP implementations.

When people ask me why ERP implementations fail, I tell them it rarely has anything to do with the actual software code. It’s because of what occurs—or doesn’t occur—before the system is ever turned on.

A successful ERP implementation requires a deep understanding of your people, your cross-departmental workflows, and your long-term business goals.

The human element of ERP implementations

When an ERP implementation goes sideways, the root cause usually traces back to the earliest stages of planning and scoping. Often, companies place their entire focus on the software’s new capabilities rather than the human element and the foundational data required to make those capabilities function properly.

Below are a few of the biggest pitfalls to avoid for a successful ERP implementation.

1. Leaving accounting out of the conversation

Accounting is routinely downstream of what sales, legal, or operations do, yet they are often the last department brought into system discussions.

In one memorable instance, a client casually mentioned a foreign subsidiary just one week before our go-live date. It was a massive detail nobody else had mentioned, and it completely altered our localization requirements.

2. Managing operational silos

When departments don’t collaborate, disaster strikes. I once worked on a project where the sales team completely overhauled their product SKUs without telling the finance team. By the time we started pulling their data into the new ERP, it broke all of the revenue recognition rules. That single lack of communication delayed the entire implementation by a year.

3. Designing for today instead of tomorrow

A common mistake is building a system based exclusively on your current operational needs without creating a roadmap for future growth. For example, a hardware company might not need complex revenue recognition right now. But if their three-year plan involves bundling software subscriptions, the ERP foundation needs to be built to handle that future complexity to avoid a costly redesign down the road.

4. Tolerating the breaking point for too long

People naturally stick with what they know until it catastrophically breaks. For one of my clients, their breaking point was a 78-tab forecasting spreadsheet. It was touched by dozens of people, full of hard-coded inputs, and took days to update.

Inevitably, a single requested change on a Friday afternoon would mean working through the entire weekend just to prepare for a Monday board meeting.

5. Failing to manage change resistance

Accountants and finance professionals often resist leaving their familiar Excel workflows. When you introduce a powerful new system, there is a genuine, quiet fear among team members that the computer will make them obsolete.

Users might drag their feet during testing or create “shadow” workflows, quietly running their old spreadsheets in parallel with the ERP.  If the whole team is not on board with the new way of doing things, you can be sure that it’s not going to be successful.

Understanding these pitfalls is the absolute first step toward a smoother transition. If you anticipate these operational and emotional challenges, your organization can proactively address them before they derail your timeline, drain your budget, and burn out your team.

Meeting your team where they are for an ERP implementation

You cannot force digital transformation on a team that is terrified of it. When a finance professional has managed the same complex spreadsheet for five years, taking it away feels like a threat to their job security. Leaders must actively show their teams the true value of the new tool without making them feel replaceable.

I always try to explain the downstream benefits. I show them that the system isn’t there to take their job; it is there to eliminate the manual data entry that keeps them working late. By automating the tedious parts of the month-end close, they are freed up to focus on strategic analysis and actually helping the business grow.

It takes patience, empathy, and a willingness to understand the unique quirks of how different generations and personalities adapt to new technology.

Rebuilding trust with seamless workflows in your new ERP

Sometimes, you inherit a project that has already gone completely wrong. I once worked with a client who came to us after a failed implementation attempt with a previous partner. They were highly skeptical and hesitant to trust any new system.

We successfully launched their ERP simply by rebuilding trust from scratch, which required active listening and a commitment to fixing the real pain points that their team faced every single day.

The power of embedded banking

A major part of regaining a finance team’s trust is demonstrating immediate, tangible improvements in their most frustrating daily tasks. Finance teams are exhausted by the constant cycle of broken bank feeds, security update loops, and manual file transfers.

When you introduce tools that genuinely alleviate this burden, the team’s perspective shifts rapidly from resistance to relief. For example, managing treasury across multiple international accounts usually involves downloading CSV files, manually uploading ACH batches, and praying the connections don’t break.

During one project, we implemented a seamless banking integration that allowed the client to process ACH payments, initiate bank transfers, and reconcile everything directly inside the ERP portal. The integration was so smooth and the relief was so profound that the client ended up switching all of their bank accounts to a single major bank just to fully leverage the efficiency of the integration.

When your ERP talks directly to your bank, the manual friction disappears, and your team finally gets to experience the true promise of digital transformation.

How can finance leaders ensure ERP implementation success?

Whether you are a finance leader about to start an ERP implementation, navigating a project that isn’t going well, or simply trying to decide if it is time to finally leave your Excel spreadsheets behind, you don’t have to do it alone. Ensuring your system is designed for the future requires the right advisory partner and the right technological tools.

At Citrin Cooperman, we help businesses navigate these complex digital transformations, ensuring your financial foundation is built to scale with your ambitions. And when it comes to maximizing the day-to-day efficiency of your new ERP, solutions like FISPAN are true game-changers.

By embedding banking services directly into your accounting software, FISPAN eliminates manual file transfers, secures your payment workflows, and automates reconciliation so your team can focus on growth.

To dive deeper into this topic and hear more stories from the trenches, listen to the full 5 Reasons ERP Implementations Fail episode on The Diary of a CFO with Wassia Kamon.

Ready to elevate your finance operations? Reach out to the Citrin Cooperman team today, or talk to an expert at FISPAN to learn how embedded banking can modernize and improve all your financial operations.