What Does a Financial Reporting Software Implementation Involve?

A financial reporting software implementation involves defining the finance output an organisation needs, identifying the information and processes that support it, configuring the required structure inside the platform, and validating the resulting process with the finance team. The precise scope depends on whether the organisation wants to support management reporting, group consolidation, budgeting, forecasting, or another recurring finance requirement.

Many finance teams begin considering new financial reporting software when an established process becomes increasingly difficult to maintain through existing systems and spreadsheets. Producing a monthly management pack may require information from several sources, recurring data extracts, account mappings, calculations, adjustments, and manual checks. A consolidation may involve entity submissions, currency treatment, eliminations, and group reporting requirements. Budgeting and forecasting can introduce departmental contributions, planning assumptions, permissions, workflow, and several stages of review.

These requirements give the implementation its starting point. Once the required output has been defined, the project team can follow the route back through the source information, finance logic, organisational structure, contributors, and controls required to produce it. Solver Ireland uses this understanding to configure a supported reporting or planning process inside Solver.

Start with the finance output your organisation needs

A financial reporting software implementation should begin with an output that finance already needs to produce. This gives the project team a defined requirement against which the platform, data structure, implementation approach, and final configuration can be assessed.

The first output may be used by finance, management, departmental leaders, executives, or the board. It may also form part of a wider recurring process in which information moves through several contributors and review stages before finance produces the final version.

Common starting points include:

A monthly management reporting pack

A group consolidation across several legal entities

A departmental budgeting process

A recurring financial forecast

Board or leadership reporting

Entity-level finance submissions

Programme, service, project, or departmental reporting

Variance reporting and analysis

Cash flow or operational planning

Each starting point creates a different set of implementation requirements. A management report may depend on account mappings, reporting dimensions, calculations, and established presentation formats. A departmental budget may require input templates, assumptions, contributor permissions, review stages, and comparisons with actual performance. A group consolidation may require consistent entity submissions, currency conversion, adjustments, eliminations, and consolidated statements.

Beginning with a defined output allows the implementation team to understand what the process must achieve and which elements need to work together inside Solver.

Review how the finance output is currently produced

Once the required output has been identified, the implementation team needs to understand the information and activities involved in producing it. This review creates a practical connection between the organisation’s current finance process and the environment that will be configured inside Solver.

The review may consider:

Which ERP or accounting systems hold the relevant financial data

Whether payroll, project, CRM, operational, or other systems contribute information

Which spreadsheets finance or other departments currently use

How accounts, entities, departments, cost centres, projects, and other dimensions are represented

Which mappings, calculations, allocations, or adjustments finance applies

Who enters or contributes information

Which users review or approve submissions

How often the data needs to be refreshed

Which reports, templates, dashboards, or planning views are required

Who receives and uses the final output

This stage also helps the project team distinguish the organisation’s essential finance requirements from the manual activities that have developed around the current process. An established spreadsheet may contain valuable finance logic, reporting definitions, and institutional knowledge. It may also contain repeated data handling and workarounds created to accommodate the limitations of the existing environment.

Understanding both aspects allows the team to preserve the organisation’s required finance treatments and responsibilities as the new process is designed.

Identify the data required for financial reporting

Financial reporting software needs access to the information that supports the required reports or planning outputs. Depending on the organisation, this information may come from one ERP or from several financial and operational systems.

Relevant sources may include:

General ledger and transaction data

Accounts payable and accounts receivable

Payroll information

Project and job-costing systems

Customer and sales data

Operational databases

Departmental spreadsheets

Entity-level submissions

Planning assumptions and supporting schedules

Non-financial measures used in management reporting

The implementation team needs to establish which information is required, where it comes from, how it should be mapped, and how frequently it needs to be refreshed. The team also needs to understand the level of detail required for reporting and drill-down.

A management report may rely on general ledger balances and detailed transactions, supported by entity, department, project, or cost-centre information. A forecast may combine actual financial performance with assumptions supplied by finance and operational teams. A consolidation may require consistent information from several entities before finance can apply group-level adjustments and eliminations.

Defining these requirements early gives finance and IT a shared view of the data environment supporting the implementation.

Represent the organisation’s finance structure inside Solver

The information drawn from source systems needs to be organised according to the way the organisation reports, plans, and reviews performance. Solver Ireland configures the finance structure around the output the organisation needs and the definitions used by its finance team.

The configuration may include:

Chart-of-accounts structures

Account mappings and reporting hierarchies

Legal entities and business units

Departments and cost centres

Projects, programmes, services, or locations

Reporting periods and planning cycles

Currency treatment

Calculations, allocations, and adjustments

Budget and forecast assumptions

User roles and access permissions

Contributor responsibilities

Review and approval workflow

Reports, input templates, and dashboards

These elements need to work together consistently. If management needs to review performance by entity, department, and project, the model needs to represent those dimensions throughout the relevant reports. If departmental managers contribute to the annual budget, their input templates, permissions, deadlines, and review responsibilities need to reflect the organisation’s planning process.

Finance provides the definitions, treatments, and context applied to the outputs. Solver Ireland uses that finance knowledge to configure the relevant data structure, calculations, permissions, workflow, and reporting views inside the platform.

Define a practical first implementation phase

A first phase gives the organisation a focused finance requirement and a usable output against which the implementation can be planned and validated. The scope depends on the organisation’s priorities, available information, existing systems, and the dependencies between its finance processes.

A practical first phase may include:

Starting requirement	Possible first-phase scope
Monthly management reporting	ERP and operational data, account mappings, reporting dimensions, core management reports, and drill-down
Group consolidation	Entity data, currency treatment, adjustments, eliminations, consolidated statements, and group reporting views
Departmental budgeting	Historical actuals, planning assumptions, input templates, contributor access, workflow, and budget reports
Recurring forecasting	Actual performance, forecast periods, assumptions, departmental submissions, review stages, and comparison reports
Board or leadership reporting	Defined management information, reporting hierarchies, recurring calculations, commentary inputs, and presentation-ready outputs
Public sector reporting	Departmental, service, program, or funding structures, controlled inputs, reporting requirements, and review responsibilities

The first phase should contain the information, finance logic, users, controls, and outputs required to support the selected process during a recurring cycle. This creates a working foundation that the organisation can use and develop as further requirements emerge.

For example, an organisation may begin with monthly management reporting because the required reports and source information are already well established. Once the underlying accounts, mappings, dimensions, and reporting views have been configured, the same environment may support additional reports, planning inputs, forecasts, dashboards, and analysis.

Configure the reporting or planning process in Solver

Once the required output, source information, finance structure, and first-phase scope have been agreed, Solver Ireland can configure the process inside Solver.

The configuration may involve:

Connecting relevant financial and operational data

Creating account mappings and reporting hierarchies

Representing entities and organisational dimensions

Building calculations, allocations, and adjustments

Configuring currency treatment and consolidation requirements

Creating reports, input templates, dashboards, or planning forms

Establishing user permissions

Configuring contributor and review workflow

Enabling drilldown into the supporting financial information available within the model

The configuration follows the organisation’s required process. A management reporting implementation will centre on the structure, calculations, reporting views, and supporting detail required by finance and management. A budgeting implementation will include the assumptions, templates, contributor responsibilities, permissions, and review stages required during the planning cycle.

This approach allows the implementation to remain connected to a finance requirement that the organisation can recognise, review, and validate.

Validate the configured process with finance

Validation confirms that the configured process reflects the organisation’s finance definitions, source information, calculations, responsibilities, and required outputs. Finance therefore plays a central role throughout testing and review.

Validation activities may include:

Reconciling imported data with the source systems

Reviewing account mappings and reporting hierarchies

Checking calculations, allocations, and adjustments

Confirming currency treatment and consolidation logic

Comparing configured reports with established finance information

Testing input templates and planning assumptions

Reviewing user permissions

Testing contributor, review, and approval stages

Confirming that drilldown leads to the appropriate supporting detail

Gathering feedback from finance and other users

Agreeing how the process will operate during each recurring cycle

The implementation team can use the findings from this work to refine the configuration and prepare the environment for recurring use. Finance can also confirm the responsibilities, review expectations, and supporting guidance required by users.

A successful validation process gives the organisation a supported output that reflects its agreed finance structure and reporting requirements.

Prepare the process for recurring use

The purpose of a financial reporting software implementation is to support a process the organisation needs to complete repeatedly. Once the configuration has been validated, the reports, templates, workflow, and user responsibilities become part of the organisation’s reporting or planning cycle.

Recurring use may involve:

Refreshing financial and operational data

Collecting departmental or entity-level inputs

Applying established calculations and mappings

Reviewing submissions

Producing management or group reports

Investigating reported movements through drill-down

Comparing actual performance with budgets and forecasts

Updating assumptions for the next planning cycle

Distributing approved outputs to the relevant users

The configured environment gives finance an established route through these activities. The team can work with the same reporting definitions, organisational dimensions, contributor responsibilities, and review process during each cycle.

Users also gain a defined understanding of the information they need to provide, the areas they can access, and the stages at which their input will be reviewed. This supports more consistent participation across departments, entities, and other contributors.

Support the finance environment as requirements develop

Finance requirements continue to develop as organisations grow, reporting responsibilities change, and management requests additional information. New entities may be introduced, departmental structures may change, reports may need additional views, and more users may become involved in the process.

Ongoing support may include:

Helping users work with established reports and templates

Updating reports as management requirements develop

Adding entities, departments, projects, or other dimensions

Supporting changes to source information

Refining calculations, mappings, or planning assumptions

Extending contributor access and workflow

Adding further reporting or analytical views

Scoping another reporting, consolidation, budgeting, or forecasting phase

Solver Ireland provides local finance and platform support as the environment develops. The team’s knowledge of the original finance requirement and the configured process helps the organisation maintain continuity as changes are introduced.

Who should be involved in a finance software implementation?

A financial reporting software implementation often involves people from finance, IT, leadership, and the wider organisation. Each group contributes information required to define, configure, validate, and use the process.

Key participants may include:

Finance: Defines the required outputs, reporting treatments, calculations, dimensions, review responsibilities, and validation requirements.

IT: Provides information about source systems, data access, integrations, security, hosting, and technical responsibilities.

Leadership: Confirms the purpose, priorities, expected scope, and organisational requirements connected to the investment.

Departmental or entity contributors: Explain how information is currently prepared and participate in testing inputs, permissions, and workflow.

Solver Ireland: Brings the platform, finance-led implementation experience, configuration knowledge, delivery approach, and ongoing local support.

Bringing these perspectives together around a defined finance output gives the project team a shared basis for assessing the proposed environment and the work required to implement it.

Frequently asked questions about financial reporting software implementation

What is financial reporting software implementation?

Financial reporting software implementation is the process of configuring a reporting environment around an organisation’s finance data, reporting structures, calculations, users, controls, and required outputs. It may include data connections, account mappings, organisational dimensions, reports, planning templates, permissions, workflow, validation, training, and ongoing support.

What information is needed before implementing financial reporting software?

The implementation team needs to understand the output the organisation wants to produce, the source systems and information involved, the finance logic applied, the organisational dimensions represented, the people contributing or reviewing information, and the reports or templates required.

Existing reports, spreadsheets, process documentation, account structures, sample outputs, and information about user responsibilities can help the team understand the current requirement.

Can financial reporting software be implemented in phases?

Yes. An organisation can begin with a defined reporting or planning requirement and develop the environment over time. The first phase may focus on management reporting, consolidation, departmental budgeting, forecasting, or another established finance output.

The first phase creates an agreed structure that may support additional users, reports, entities, planning inputs, dashboards, and analytical requirements later.

Does Solver replace the organisation’s ERP?

Solver can connect relevant information from the organisation’s ERP and other source systems to support financial reporting, consolidation, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis. The ERP continues to hold and process the underlying financial transactions, and Solver provides an environment in which finance can structure and use that information for recurring reporting and planning requirements.

How does Solver work with Excel?

Solver provides an Excel-based reporting and planning experience, which allows finance teams to work within a familiar interface. The reports and templates connect to a structured finance model, so users can retain Excel familiarity within a controlled reporting and planning environment.

What can a tailored Solver demonstration show?

A tailored demonstration can follow the route from source information to a specific finance output. Depending on the organisation’s priorities, the demonstration may show a management report connected to ERP data, a consolidation process involving several entities, a departmental budget with controlled contributions, a forecast incorporating actual performance, or drilldown from a reported figure to supporting detail.

Begin with the finance output your team needs to produce

A financial reporting software implementation becomes easier to define when the organisation begins with a recurring finance output and follows the information, logic, people, and review process supporting it.

Solver Ireland works with finance and the wider project team to understand that requirement, configure the relevant environment inside Solver, validate the resulting process, and provide support as the organisation’s needs develop.

If your finance team is reviewing a management reporting, consolidation, budgeting, or forecasting requirement, tell us about the output you need to produce. We can help you understand what a practical first Solver phase could involve and which questions your evaluation should answer.

Speak to Solver Ireland about your financial reporting software requirements: https://solveruk.co.uk/contact-us/