Roadmap
You've selected Sage Intacct as your financial management solution and chosen Blytheco as your implementation partner. What happens next? Understanding the implementation journey helps you prepare appropriately and set realistic expectations.
Typical Sage Intacct implementations for mid-sized senior living organizations span 4-7 months from kickoff to go-live. Smaller organizations might complete in 4-5 months, while larger, more complex organizations might require 6+ months.
Timeline factors include:
Implementation begins with project foundation activities. The kickoff meeting brings together your project team and Blytheco's implementation specialists to confirm project scope and objectives, review implementation methodology, establish communication protocols, and set detailed timeline and milestones.
Initially, Blytheco conducts discovery sessions to understand current processes and pain points, document requirements and desired outcomes, identify integration needs, and review data quality and migration scope. Your team completes the Business Requirements Document (BRD) to formalize these findings.
Key Deliverables: Project charter, detailed project plan, Business Requirements Document (BRD), and resource assignment matrix.
Your Time Investment: Plan for 20-30 hours across your project team including project manager, CFO or controller, lead accountant, IT resource, and key power users from properties.
With requirements documented, focus shifts to establishing your general ledger foundation. You'll export your existing Chart of Accounts (COA) and partner with Blytheco on redesigning and mapping the old structure to the new. This phase includes designing your dimensional structure, entity setup and consolidation hierarchies, and migrating your GL trial balance data into Sage Intacct.
This phase involves iterative reviews where you provide feedback on the chart structure and Blytheco refines the design to meet your reporting and operational needs.
Key Deliverables: New chart of accounts and dimensional structure, old-to-new COA mapping documentation, migrated GL trial balance data.
Your Time Investment: 30-40 hours for COA export, design reviews, mapping validation, and trial balance verification.
This comprehensive phase brings your system to life through configuration, data loading, and user enablement. Working project team sessions walk through configured modules including AP, AR, cash management, and other functional areas to ensure solid design. Blytheco configures user roles and security permissions, workflow approvals, custom fields and forms, and reports and dashboards.
Core operational data is loaded into the system including vendors, customers, items, and employees, among other master records. Integration development proceeds for connections between Sage Intacct and your resident management system, payroll provider, banks and payment processors, and other critical systems.
User training runs throughout this phase with multiple approaches including administrator training for system management, power user training for the accounting team, end user training for AP, AR, and operational users, and custom training for unique processes. Training combines live sessions, recorded materials, and hands-on exercises in the system.
Key Deliverables: Fully configured modules, loaded core master data, functioning integrations, training materials and recordings, user guides and quick reference materials.
Your Time Investment: 60-80 hours for configuration reviews, data preparation and validation, integration testing support, and training participation (8-12 hours per user depending on role).
Before go-live, comprehensive validation ensures the system works as designed and users are ready. Testing phases include configuration testing by Blytheco, integration testing across all connected systems, user acceptance testing by your team, and month-end process testing.
Conference Room Pilot sessions allow users to perform real-world tasks in the system, processing test transactions through complete cycles and validating reports against known results. Critical go-live data is loaded for cutover including open AR invoices, open AP bills, and beginning balances.
The final weeks focus on go-live preparation with cutover checklist completion, communication to stakeholders, and contingency planning. Many organizations choose to go-live at the beginning of a fiscal period to simplify the transition.
Key Deliverables: Test results documentation, issue log and resolutions, sign-off on system readiness, loaded go-live cutover data, cutover plan and go-live support schedule.
Your Time Investment: 60-80 hours across your team for UAT (User Acceptance Testing) execution, Conference Room Pilot participation, data validation, and final preparation.
Go-live marks the transition to your new system. Blytheco provides intensive support during the initial weeks with daily check-ins and issue resolution during the first week, close monitoring of integrations, and rapid response to user questions.
Dedicated support helps users through critical first-time activities such as the first bank reconciliation, first AP and AR cycles, and the first month-end close. The first month requires patience as users adjust to new processes and workflows.
Key Deliverables: Successful first month-end close, issue log and resolutions, lessons learned documentation.
Your Time Investment: Heavy initial involvement (20-30 hours first week) tapering to normal operations as confidence builds.
After stabilization, ongoing support continues with regular check-in meetings by your Business Account Manager, access to support for issues and questions, optimization recommendations, and training for new users.
Blytheco remains a long-term partner in your success.
Successful implementations share common characteristics including dedicated project management, realistic timeline without rushed phases, active participation from key users, honest communication about challenges, flexibility and problem-solving mindset, and commitment to process improvement not just system replacement.
Even well-planned implementations face challenges. Be prepared for data quality issues requiring more cleanup than expected, integration complexities taking longer than estimated, change resistance from users comfortable with old processes, competing priorities pulling resources away, and scope creep as users request additional functionality.
Address these through clear scope management, adequate contingency time in timeline, proactive change management and communication, escalation process for prioritization decisions, and focus on core implementation before enhancements.
Assemble a strong internal team including executive sponsor, project manager (ideally dedicated 50%), CFO or controller (20-30% during implementation), lead accountants from corporate and properties (15-20%), IT resource (10-20%), and end user representatives (10-15%).
Inadequate internal resourcing is a primary cause of implementation delays and difficulties.
Measuring Success
Define success metrics before implementation begins including go-live date achievement, user adoption rates, first month-end close time, report accuracy and completeness, and stakeholder satisfaction.
Celebrate successes and address gaps systematically.
Ready to begin your Sage Intacct journey?
Blytheco's senior living implementation specialists are ready to guide you through every step. Schedule your implementation planning consultation today or reach out to solutions@blytheco.com.
For additional information, you can review the 5 Reasons Why Sage Intacct is the Right Choice for Senior Living.
Sage Intacct Solutions Engineer
Todd has over two decades of experience in marketing, sales, presales, and professional services and held roles as Director of IT and CFO. Throughout his career, he successfully established and developed nine practices from the ground up. This experience equipped him with a proven track record of implementing and managing various accounting and ancillary software solutions, including Sage Intacct. He leverages his vast business and software background to lead companies to successful and efficient solutions.
