WorkflowMax Implementation 101: Testing Your System

Ok, moving on from the last two weeks of implementation advice (Scope and Setup), we now need to test the system. This is a great time to get out the workflow diagrams which we talked about in the scope section, as these will be particularly useful to help you run information through the system.

Also, I would suggest that you disconnect Xero at this point if you are already using it for your accounts live within your business, as the last thing that you want to do is put false information into your accounting package.

An alternative if you still want to test the Xero link is to connect WFM to the ‘Demo Company’ within Xero. You can do this from Settings > Xero > Connect to Xero > Select ‘Demo Company’.

My ‘general’ advice for people in terms of testing, is to use current real company data, but try and pick a selection of jobs/projects to work with. Although it can seem easier to use just one department, or just one project manager, this can sometimes fail to properly test the system as they only operate in one format. Instead, we recommend using a variety of jobs, preferably from the last few months within your company, so that you can run them through WorkflowMax and ensure that everything fits your workflows.

This is also a great opportunity to make sure that the job figures looks accurate, your pricing is set correct, and the margins make sense. There is no such thing as a stupid question at this point, so make sure that plenty of key people within your business are either involved, or at least have the opportunity to look over the data.

Once this is done you will ideally want to remove this information from the system prior to running live, so that your reports and figures aren’t negatively affected by wrong data. In most cases you are able to archive a project/job in WFM, or remove it from the invoice queue. You can also ‘cancel’ the job which will in most cases remove it from reporting (if it doesn’t, you can always build a report to suit your requirements, more on this in part 4).

The other areas to test within jobs are costs and tasks. Try and set up jobs with a range of tasks and costs in them, and ensure that they all run as expected. Although the general settings within WorkflowMax apply to all areas of the system, each task and cost can have individual tax settings, linked accounts from Xero, and pricing, so it’s important to make sure that no single item has anything unusual in it’s setup. Spotting this at the testing stage is much easier to resolve that months down the line when everything has also flowed into Xero and been reconciled.

Keep entering job information and involving staff at your company until you are happy that the system is working as expected. As mentioned above, at this point if you have questions on anything, shout out to WorkflowMax Support or engage a WorkflowMax partner to work with you. It’s important to get everything locked away prior to using the system live.

From here, our next (and final) article will look at reviewing system setup, and improvements you can make after going live.

If any of this is seems confusing, working with an expert to implement WorkflowMax might be the solution you've been looking for! Get in touch with a WorkflowMax implementation partner to help you get everything up and running smoothly.