Implementing Planyard

This guide provides recommendations on implementing Planyard in your organization.

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Adopt Planyard Fully
3. Assign Roles and Responsibilities 
4. Start With Core Functionalities
5. Provide Access to Training Resources
6. Set Milestones for Adoption

Introduction

Implementing Planyard is a powerful step toward streamlining your company’s financial management processes. This guide outlines a clear path to ensure a successful adoption, from establishing commitment and defining roles to introducing essential workflows and providing the necessary resources for your team. By following these steps, you can ensure your team is fully equipped to maximize the benefits of Planyard and achieve a smooth, efficient transition.

Adopt Planyard Fully

When you decide to implement Planyard, it’s crucial to set clear expectations with your team to ensure a successful adoption. Communicate that all relevant processes—such as purchase orders and invoice management—must be carried out exclusively in Planyard.

Here are key steps to reinforce this:

• Update Process and Policy Documents: Revise any internal guidelines or documentation to reflect that these workflows are now managed in Planyard. This eliminates ambiguity and ensures consistency across your organization.
• Eliminate Parallel Systems: Make it clear that running processes outside Planyard is not permitted. Operating in parallel can lead to inefficiencies, confusion, and fragmented financial data.
• Emphasize the Benefits: Highlight the importance of having all financial data centralized in one platform for improved accuracy, transparency, and decision-making.
  Set the Tone from Leadership: Ensure managers and team leaders advocate for and model the use of Planyard to build buy-in from all team members.

Taking a firm, unified approach ensures a smooth and efficient implementation process, preventing delays or complications down the line.

Assign Roles and Responsibilities

To ensure a smooth and effective implementation of Planyard, it’s important to clearly define roles and responsibilities within your team. Assigning specific tasks and ownership creates accountability and helps establish champions who can guide others through the transition.

• Appoint a Planyard Champion: If not already done, make sure to designate a team member to take the lead in managing the implementation process. This person will be the primary point of contact for questions, coordinate training sessions, and ensure workflows are properly set up.
• Map Real-World Roles to Planyard: Assign roles in Planyard that reflect your team’s actual responsibilities. For example:
  • Project Managers: Oversee budgets, purchase orders, and approvals.
  • Bookkeepers or accountants: Manage invoices. 
  • Site Managers: Input data on-site and collaborate on relevant workflows.
• Define Workflow Ownership: Clearly establish which team members manage what aspects of Planyard, such as who creates purchase orders, processes invoices, or manages contracts.
• Provide Training and Support: Ensure everyone understands their specific role in the system and how to use Planyard to fulfil their responsibilities.

By assigning roles and responsibilities early, you create a clear structure for implementation and ensure that everyone knows how they contribute to the platform’s success.

Start With Core Functionalities

Introducing Planyard to users working at the project level is a crucial step in improving your company’s financial management processes. To ensure a smooth transition and deliver immediate value, we recommend introducing the team to these key functionalities that streamline essential workflows. These include Budget Management, Purchase Orders, Invoice Management, and Client Contract Management. Mastering these features early on will set the foundation for efficiency and accuracy in your projects.

 

Budget Management: Gaining a solid understanding of how to effectively track and manage budgets in real time is essential for maintaining control over project finances and preventing cost overruns.

Purchase Orders: Familiarizing your team with the management of purchase orders from the outset provides clear visibility into financial commitments, reducing the risk of confusion and discrepancies. Implementing purchase orders will eliminate a lot of double data entry while also enhancing the accuracy of financial forecasts.

Invoice Management: Learning how to handle sales invoices efficiently will save valuable time by eliminating the need for duplicate data entry, and ensuring that all financial figures are consistently updated as invoices are processed within the platform.

Client Contract Management: Initiating this workflow allows all project stakeholders to maintain a clear understanding of contracts and any modifications made by clients. Additionally, utilizing the payment application feature can significantly streamline processes and save time.

Provide Access to Training Resources

To help your team quickly master essential workflows, Planyard offers comprehensive guides and tutorial videos. Share these resources internally to ensure everyone receives a thorough introduction to the workflows and has detailed support available as they start using the features.

Budget management

Budget management video tutorial 

Budget management guide 

Purchase orders

Purchase orders video tutorial

Purchase orders comprehensive guide

Invoice Management

Invoice management video tutorial 

Invoice management comprehensive guide

Client Contract management

Client contract video tutorial

Client contract guide

Set Milestones for Adoption

Establishing clear milestones helps guide your team through the adoption of Planyard and ensures the transition is smooth and well-organized. By breaking the process into manageable steps, you can track progress and address challenges as they arise.

Full Rollout Preparation:

• Update process and policy documents to reflect Planyard as the primary tool for financial management.
• Provide training resources to all relevant team members, including guides and videos.
• Ensure all necessary users are set up in the system with proper permissions and roles assigned.

Transition Period:

• Set a clear deadline for transitioning all purchase orders, invoices, and client contracts to Planyard.
• Communicate with your team to confirm they are no longer using legacy systems or parallel processes.
• Monitor workflows to ensure the team is utilizing Planyard consistently and correctly.

Implementation Review:

• After a defined period (e.g., 1-2 months), review the adoption progress with key stakeholders.
• Evaluate whether processes are running smoothly and data is accurate.
• Address any remaining challenges through additional training or adjustments to workflows.

Setting clear milestones ensures that your team has a structured path toward full adoption, minimizing disruptions and maximizing the benefits of Planyard.