Ottimate Onboarding Prep Guide: A Checklist for Success!

While your contract with Ottimate is still being finalized, you should use this time to begin planning for your onboarding! We find that our most successful clients start preparing early for the most effective start to the implementation project. This packet includes resources to help you prepare for an efficient and effective onboarding experience.

Recorded Introduction

Onboarding Prep Checklist:

1. Build your team (Recorded Explanation)
   

   • Review the roles and responsibilities below and confirm the internal stakeholders that will be assigned to each of the roles below:

Executive Sponsor—The individual in this role is responsible for the overall success of the Ottimate implementation and attends monthly meetings to ensure the project meets expectations and KPIs.

Time Commitment: 2 hours per month

Implementation Project Manager - The individual in this role is responsible for keeping the wheel turning on the client end, ensuring key stakeholders are present when needed for meetings, and making sure the team does not fall behind with key action items.

Time Commitment: 3-4 hours per week

Administrator(s)—The individuals in this role are responsible for completing daily tasks to set up the account and progress the implementation overall. They will use the platform more than anyone during the implementation phase.

Time Commitment: 5-8 hours per week

Technical Liaison - The individual in this role is our go-to for all things technical and is able to either answer more technical questions or knows how to connect our team with the right contacts to get the answers needed.

Time Commitment: 0-2 hours per week

• Confirm the day of the week and the time that works best for your team to meet regularly over the course of the implementation (4-12 weeks). Your Onboarding Specialist will record this information on Kickoff and send calendar invites.

• Share Ottimate demo videos that the team can watch ahead of time to get acquainted with the platform.

  • Ottimate Core Platform Demo

  • Ottimate VendorPay Demo

  • Ottimate Spend Management Demo

2. Define success (Recorded Explanation)

   • Do you know why you’re transitioning to Ottimate? Does your team know? Take a moment to ensure that everyone knows what your goals are as an organization and how Ottimate will help you to accomplish your goals.

   • Take a moment as a team to map your current invoice/payment workflows and then outline what the planned workflow will look like highlighting key aspects of the new workflow that will cut down on time/effort.

3. Align internally on a timeline (Recorded Explanation)

   • Confirm GO LIVE dates for the entities included in your contract. Your Onboarding Specialist will ask about this on your Kickoff call.

   • At Ottimate, we define the start of the “Go Live” phase as the point when key user training is completed and your account is technically enabled to allow for successful export(s).

   • Look forward in the calendar year to ensure that there aren’t any major blockers that will impede your project (key stakeholders on vacation, office closures, busy seasons, EOY commitments, etc)

   • Align internally to ensure the team is able to devote a minimum of 5 hours a week over the next 4-12 weeks for the duration for the implementation

4. Choose a kickoff date (Recorded Explanation)

   • The Ottimate system works from data extracted from your integration system(s). Because of this, we require that your integrating systems be fully up and running prior to kickoff. If your ERP is not set up, we cannot begin the project.

   • If there are any major system “clean up” projects that need to be done, plan to give yourself time to complete those projects BEFORE you kickoff (ie vendor list overhaul, COA reduction, etc).

   • Confirm that your key stakeholders are available for the kickoff call (and the meetings that you can expect to take place afterward).

5. Prepare your system(s) (Recorded Explanation)

   • To ensure your systems are truly ready to integrate with Ottimate, finalize the following relevant lists for all entities include in your Ottimate contract:

                                            Vendor Lists

                                            Chart of Accounts (General Ledger Accounts)

                                            Additional Dimension Lists (Projects, Locations, Customers, Items, etc)

6. Proactively communicate to relevant parties (Recorded Explanation)

• Vendors - Send communication to your key vendors letting them know that you will be starting a new partnership with Ottimate as an AP and/or Payment resource. Let them know that there’s nothing to do today, but there may be future requests for them to route invoices directly into Ottimate (via a new email address) or receive payments from a new source (via Ottimate ACH, vCard, or check).

Use this template to quickly and easily alert your vendors

• End users - Let planned internal end users know that a change is coming their way. Even if the user plays a small role in the planned AP workflow, we find that informing them of the transition to Ottimate ahead of time helps them to be prepared down the road.

Use this template to quickly and easily update your end users

• 3rd parties - Depending upon your planned integration(s), it’s possible that our team will need important information about your supporting systems from your Account Manager with that organization. Reach out to your representative ASAP to let them know your plan and have them on standby.

Use this template to quickly and easily notify 3rd parties

7. Get a head start on your “homework” (Recorded Explanation)

   • Start considering how your Ottimate account will need to be structured
   • Understanding Ottimate Terminology

   • Review and prepare the information needed for the required review process to link your bank account(s) 

   • Ottimate Bank Account Verification Process

   • Export an entity list from your ERP (excel or CSV format)

   • Export vendor list(s) from your ERP for each entity (excel or CSV format)
   • Export chart of accounts from your ERP for each entity (excel or CSV format) - Ottimate Template
   • Export dimension lists for all dimensions in use (Projects, Customers, Items, etc)

   • Collect at least 20 invoices for initial upload

   • Ottimate offers EDI feeds for an extensive list of vendors. When enabled, EDI feeds allow vendors to seamlessly send invoices directly into Ottimate instead of requiring a manual upload. Start considering which of your vendors will need to be set up with feeds so that you are ready to go when the time comes.

Use this form to view our list of current available vendor EDI feeds. Our team will require your entity names, addresses, and customer numbers for each feed.

8. Get answers to your questions! (Recorded Explanation)

   • Most importantly, let us know if you have questions! We don’t want to wait until Kickoff to get your more basic questions answered. Now is the time to reach out to your Account Executive as they are your direct line of communication to your Onboarding Specialist.