Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management projects succeed or struggle largely because of decisions made before configuration starts. This checklist is what we look for when an organization says it is ready to begin. If several items are still open, it is usually cheaper to close them first than to discover them during build.
1. Scope and objectives
- A written list of the business outcomes the project must deliver, agreed by the executive sponsor.
- Legal entities, countries and currencies in scope for the first release, and what follows later.
- A clear statement of what is out of scope, so requests can be measured against it.
- Success measures you can check after go-live, such as close duration or order accuracy.
2. Process maps
- End-to-end processes documented at a practical level: record to report, procure to pay, order to cash, plan to produce, and any industry-specific processes.
- Named process owners who can make decisions, not just attend workshops.
- Known pain points in today's processes, so the new design fixes them rather than copying them.
3. Fit-gap analysis
- Each requirement mapped to standard functionality, configuration, an ISV solution or a custom extension.
- Every custom requirement justified by business value, with an owner who will accept the cost of building and maintaining it.
- A short list of gaps that would change the licence or architecture, identified early.
4. Controls and compliance
- Approval limits, segregation of duties and audit requirements documented.
- Tax requirements for each jurisdiction, including GST/HST and provincial sales taxes for Canadian entities.
- Financial reporting requirements, including consolidation and management reporting.
5. Environments and technical setup
- Environment plan: development, test, user acceptance and production, and who manages each.
- Integration inventory with an owner and target method for each interface. See our integration architecture guide.
- Reporting approach: standard reports, financial reporting, Power BI or a data warehouse.
- A plan for applying Microsoft's service updates during and after the project.
6. Data
- Sources for every master data type, and who owns cleaning them.
- Decisions on history: what is migrated, summarized or archived.
- A migration approach with at least two trial migrations and reconciliation checks. Our data migration controls guide covers this in detail.
7. People and adoption
- Key users released from part of their day job for the project, with backfill where needed.
- A training approach by role, using your own data.
- A communication plan so the wider business knows what is changing and when.
- A support model for after go-live, agreed before the project ends.
8. Governance
- A steering committee that meets regularly and can make decisions on scope, budget and timing.
- A change request process with clear approval rules.
- Status reporting based on evidence, such as test results and data reconciliation, rather than percent complete.
How to use this checklist
Score each section as ready, partly ready or not started. Sections marked not started are where the first weeks of the project should go, often as a short discovery or advisory engagement before the main build.
Our Finance and Operations implementation page explains how we structure these projects, and our Advisory & Audit Services can help close readiness gaps. When you are ready, request an implementation consultation.