Financial management tips

Here's what the experts recommend for financial system success:

* Senior-level leadership is critical to the program. Implementing a financial system is hard work, and there are times when the only thing keeping the program from falling by the wayside is the commitment of senior management.

* Devote the right level of resources to the programs, in terms of people and money.

* Have the right people. Financial systems are different, and they are not something that most organizations do that often. And they do require expertise.

* Understand the technology you are rolling out.

* Communicate. You can never spend too much time on the people aspect of rolling out a financial system. The system may be automated, but people still run it and if they don't support it, it won't work.