The introduction of cloud-based software platforms has resulted in a significant rise in software conversions across industries. Just imagine—you’ve received a notification from your financial software provider announcing an upgrade with a rollout of a new platform that is cloud-based, with all sorts of new features. The financial software that you have come to rely on for the last 20 years is no longer going to be supported. This one simple email impacts your entire organization, regardless of its size, industry, company culture, management, or resources. While change is a common reality that we all face throughout our careers, it’s important to assess how you are going to manage this change. This software conversion can have a lasting impact on your company’s culture, reputation, financial accuracy, and overall success.
Deciding to Make a Change
With the lasting implications of the software conversion in mind, it’s important to take time to consider all your options and impacting factors before making any drastic changes. Michels and Murphy suggest that, before making decisions, companies “understand their own capacity for change.”[i] If your organization is not in a position at this point to make a software conversion, consider reaching out to the software provider to determine if they can temporarily extend the support of the old platform. If the provider won’t extend the support, you might continue to use the old platform unsupported for a short period of time. Bear in mind, each of these alternatives could result in additional costs and should only be a temporary solution. If your organization is in a position where it can handle a change, weigh several elements before you decide what your new software platform should be. Consider the budget capacity and human resources needed for new software, overtime labor, and training support. Your current provider may be a great choice if they know how you currently utilize the system. However, if your current platform is only successful with manual processes and corrective measures, it may be time to consider what else is out there.
Without doing an assessment and considering the options, the risks of employee resistance, technological mismatches, and resource waste are higher. According to Sherry Scott, an estimated 70% of change efforts fail outright—often due to employee resistance.[ii] However, the difference between a successful change process and a failed process is a very fine line. Sometimes a company does not have the resources to move forward when it runs into an issue during the implementation process, resulting in a failure. On the other hand, some companies originally facing failure in a change process require adjustments to make the software work as designed, but the change is a success in the long run.[iii] The key is to accurately assess where your company currently is, and to plan diligently towards a shared vision for the future.
Assessing Critical Success Factors
As accountants, we regard consistency, accuracy, and reliability as some of the signs of success. However, in change-management, different measures of success need to be considered. Before beginning the process of software conversion, each organization should assess what factors are critical to that conversion being successful.[iv] The factors depend on what the organization hopes to achieve when implementing new financial software. Are company stakeholders hoping for cost savings, process automation, or just hoping to have the closest thing to the current software that is continuously supported? It’s crucial to have conversations with all of the stakeholders who utilize the software, to determine what the objectives should be. Then determine how you will measure the success of the implementation. From there, specific goals on the software conversion can be set.
Different stakeholders, such as customers, employees, managers, and board members, may have different goals in mind. That’s why it is critical to include representatives from each of these groups in the conversation when identifying the goals of the conversion. For instance, an employee may be focused on having an accurate paycheck, while a board member may be focused on having accurate reports that can be presented to them. Success can only be measured when there are objectives by which to measure it.
Addressing the Challenges of Change Management
Each change process has its own unique challenges. These challenges might include employee resistance, technological limitations, financial liquidity problems, incorrect data mapping, or lack of proper training, among others. These challenges may appear during any of the three main phases in the project life cycle: the pre-implementation phase, the implementation phase, or the post-implementation phase. These challenges can make stakeholders feel like they are cyclists needing to “adjust to changing terrain, unpredictable weather, and the strategies of their competitors.”[v]
To limit these challenges, it’s imperative to do proper research in the pre-implementation phase of the software conversion. By considering the resources available and the critical success factors decided upon by the organization, the software that best fits your organization can be identified. Another crucial part of the pre-implementation phase is testing the software. For instance, ensuring that payroll deductions are working as expected can have a huge impact on the accuracy of payroll checks. Through proper software selection and testing, we can minimize the risks in the most mission-critical areas. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to test every scenario prior to implementation and errors are not always caught prior to the post-implementation phase. With this in mind, it’s important to understand how your financial software provider will continue to work with you beyond the go-live stage of the implementation and assist you with making necessary corrections.
Consider the example of Rochester City School District, which has been in the news frequently since July 1, 2025. On that date, after four years of the pre-implementation phase, they transitioned their payroll software.[vi] Almost instantly, there were reports of teachers being unpaid and incorrect withholdings. After months of some teachers going unpaid or underpaid, the School District was forced to issue manual paychecks, to correct errors in withholdings, to accurately reflect timesheets, and to properly distribute withholdings to pension funds. Challenges such as these put additional stress upon employees who have already been working to get through the implementation, which can result in staff turnover and additional training being required. Unfortunately, larger organizations have greater challenges, as there are more factors to consider during an implementation—more employees, assets, customers, and stakeholders.
Benefits of Proper Change Management
Despite the challenges, there are key benefits to updating your financial software, especially when it involves transitioning to cloud computing. These benefits may include monetary benefits, increase in efficiency and effectiveness of internal processes, and improvement in agility, with the ability to implement and deliver fast and effective services.[vii]
Each financial software system has its own limitations and challenges. With proper change management, a software conversion can help eliminate the limitations and challenges of older software, while finding solutions to the limitations and a reduction of the challenges associated with any new software. Financial software conversions can also serve as an audit, during which the organization can review current processes and determine what processes are not working efficiently or effectively, taking steps to improve them.
This increase in efficiency can help to boost productivity, resulting in cost savings and providing monetary benefits. Furthermore, cloud-based platforms enable an organization to streamline services, such as offering electronic time entry on mobile devices rather than requiring the inputting of timesheets. These platforms can also provide more accessibility, which could allow more options for employees to work remotely. Greater flexibility and other benefits could directly improve the culture and success of an organization. A successful change management process can look completely different from one case to the next, depending on each organization and its individual goals. Therefore, it’s important to perform a thorough analysis that considers all benefits and challenges, in order to determine whether a change should be made with financial software.
Impact for CPAs
No matter your current role, CPAs are impacted by software conversions. Auditors can be impacted by a change of their own audit software or by a financial software conversion of their clients. They may need to change their procedures based on the reports that a new system is able to provide, or increase the risk level of clients who are facing issues with their conversion process. Those working in the private sector could face a complete change in their day-to-day operations, needing to document new procedures, build new reports, perform variance analysis to identify critical issues, and communicate with customers, vendors, employees, and staff who may be impacted by the change. CPAs should take time to consider every aspect of the conversion throughout the process and proactively address challenges as they arise. In this way, CPAs can help make the software conversion process a success. Software conversions can lead to great things such as improved productivity, greater transparency of financials, and better user experience. Yet the challenges of these conversions make it critical for CPAs to engage in the change process and manage the process efficiently.
[i] Michels & Murphy, “How good is your company at change?”
[ii] Scott, “Nine business transformation stats.”
[iii] Gargeya & Brady, “Success and failure factors of adopting SAP in ERP system implementation.”
[iv] Harun et al., “Enterprise resource planning implementation within …”
[v] Michels & Murphy.
[vi] Augustin, “I don’t know if this is sustainable.”
[vii] Miyen & Marnewick, “The Influence of Change Management Process on Cloud Transitioning.”
Citations:
Augustin, Marsha. 2025. “‘I don’t know if this is sustainable’: RCSD considering alternative payroll system as nearly 200 teachers still unpaid.” News10NBC. https://www.whec.com/top-news/rcsd-considering-alternative-payroll-system-as-current-one-fails-to-guarantee-timely-payments/.
Gargeya, Vidyaranya B., & Cydnee Brady. 2005. “Success and failure factors of adopting SAP in ERP system implementation.” Business Process Management Journal 11, no. 5: 501–516.
Harun, Sharbani, et al. 2023. “Enterprise resource planning implementation within science and technology park (STP) organisations: an avenue for future research. A systematic review.” PubMed Central, National Library of Medicine. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10432887/.
Michels, David, & Kevin Murphy. July-August 2021. “How good is your company at change? A new system for measuring (and improving) your ability to adapt.” Harvard Business Review. https://www.studocu.com/in/document/xim-university/it-strategy-design-and-implementation/how-good-is-your-company-at-change-hbr-2021-removed/121359279?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
Miyen, Rito, & Carl Marnewick. 2023. “The Influence of Change Management Process on Cloud Transitioning.” South African Computer Journal 35, no. 2: 25–49.
Scott, Sherry. March 5, 2019. “Nine business transformation stats you can’t afford to ignore in 2019.” Institute for Public Relations. https://instituteforpr.org/nine-business-transformation-stats-you-cant-afford-to-ignore-in-2019/.
