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Bectran Product Team
I
January 9, 2026
7 minutes to read
For a credit manager, an ERP conversion is an operational overhaul that fundamentally changes how risk is assessed, how orders are released, and how cash is applied. While the IT department focuses on server loads and data mapping, the credit team faces a different set of pressures: maintaining daily cash flow and order velocity while simultaneously learning, testing, and troubleshooting a completely new system.
The disruption is often underestimated. Implementation timelines slide, training sessions overlap with month-end closes, and the specific nuances of credit management (like complex parent-child relationships or custom scoring models) can be lost in translation during the move from a legacy environment to a modern cloud-based ERP. This guide addresses the specific operational challenges credit teams face during an ERP switch. It looks at the reality of resource contention, the technical hurdles of moving data from legacy systems, and the practical frameworks managers can use to stabilize operations during the transition.
When an organization decides to switch ERPs, the assumption is often that the new system will immediately solve old problems. However, the period between the decision to switch and the actual go-live date is fraught with operational friction. The primary challenge is not always the software itself, but the availability of the people needed to run it.
Credit leaders are often expected to serve as subject-matter experts (SMEs) for the implementation team. They must define workflows, approve data mappings, and validate test results. Yet, their day job (approving credit limits, managing hold releases, and overseeing collections) does not pause. Resource contention significantly impacts daily communication and decision-making. Credit directors frequently find themselves double-booked or triple-booked during ERP conversions, pulled into training sessions while high-priority credit decisions await approval. The situation becomes nearly impossible when key personnel serve on the implementation training team while simultaneously managing daily operations.
The second major hurdle is the complexity of the systems being left behind. Many credit departments run on stable but antiquated platforms that have been customized over decades. These systems often contain layers of tribal knowledge hard-coded into their logic, which do not easily transfer to a standardized modern ERP. Organizations frequently operate on legacy solutions built for specific industries or use cases. Moving data from older enterprise platforms (IBM iSeries, AS/400, or industry-specific systems) involves untangling years of patches, workarounds, and customizations. Fields that meant one thing in the old system might mean something entirely different in the new one. For a credit manager, this presents a significant risk: if customer master data, credit limits, or payment histories are migrated incorrectly, the new system will generate false credit holds or incorrect risk assessments from day one.
To manage the transition, it is necessary to understand why these disruptions occur. The friction usually stems from three specific areas where B2B credit logic conflicts with standard ERP implementation processes.
ERP implementations generally aim for standardization. Implementation partners often push for out-of-the-box workflows to reduce complexity and cost. However, credit management is often effective precisely because of its exceptions: the specific terms negotiated with a strategic customer, or the manual workaround used to ship to a high-risk account with a specific guarantee. When a legacy system is retired, these custom processes are often flagged as inefficiencies to be removed. If the new ERP cannot handle the nuances (e.g., complex cross-corporate guarantees), the credit team is forced to manage them outside the system, creating additional manual work.
Legacy systems often treat customer data differently from modern systems. For example, an older system might treat a Bill-To and a Ship-To as entirely separate customer records with no link. Modern ERPs typically require a hierarchical structure (Parent, Child, Bill-To, Ship-To). During migration, if these relationships are not explicitly mapped, credit history may be fragmented. A credit manager might look up a parent company in the new system and see zero exposure because the balances are stranded on unlinked child accounts. This forces the team to manually reconcile exposure before releasing orders, significantly slowing turnaround times.
The people best qualified to test the new system are the same people required to operate the old one. An entry-level analyst cannot validate whether the complex tax logic or credit scoring rules are triggering correctly. Only experienced managers can do that. This structural conflict ensures that the most valuable operational resources are the ones most unavailable during the project, leading to impossible scheduling and resource allocation challenges.
Surviving an ERP conversion requires a defensive strategy. Credit managers cannot passively wait for the IT team to deliver the new system. They must actively manage the transition to protect their department's performance.
Before any data is moved, the credit team must perform a data integrity audit. The goal is to prevent garbage in, garbage out. Migrating bad data into a new ERP is one of the most common causes of post-go-live failure.
Step 1: Inactive Account Purge
Identify customers who have not purchased in the last 18-24 months. Do not migrate them. Segregating active from inactive customers reduces the testing volume and lowers the risk of migrating obsolete credit limits.
Step 2: Hierarchy Re-mapping
Review the top 20% of customers by revenue. Ensure their parent-child relationships are clearly defined. In the legacy system, these might be linked by a shared name or a manual note. In the new system, they will likely need a formal database link to ensure credit exposure rolls up correctly.
Step 3: Credit Limit Validation
Run a report of all credit limits in the legacy system. Identify any limits that are unlimited or set to dummy high values (e.g., $9,999,999) used to bypass hold logic in the old system. These must be reset to realistic values before migration, or the new ERP's risk module will be ineffective.
During the cutover period (which can last from a few days to a few weeks), access to the legacy system may be read-only, and the new system may not be fully trusted. The credit team needs a Bridge operating model.
To address resource contention, credit leaders should implement a rotation schedule for UAT. Instead of having the entire team balance daily work and testing simultaneously, assign dedicated days for each role.
This rotation signals to the rest of the organization (and sales teams) exactly who is available when, reducing the friction of unreturned calls and missed meetings.
The success of an ERP implementation is often judged by whether the system turns on. For the finance team, success is judged by whether cash keeps coming in. A failed credit migration has immediate, tangible financial consequences.
If credit limits are not migrated correctly, the new ERP may place false holds on good customers. This stops shipments, frustrates sales teams, and can drive customers to competitors. By actively managing the data mapping, the credit manager protects the revenue line.
If the AR aging data is corrupted during migration (for example, if open invoices lose their original due dates and are reset to the migration date), collections logic will fail. Dunning letters will not go out, and collectors will not know who is truly past due. Ensuring the integrity of legacy data as it moves to the cloud is essential for maintaining predictable cash flow.
Legacy systems often obscure the audit trail behind manual overrides. A new ERP brings visibility. By defining clear processes during the transition, the credit manager ensures that the new system supports internal controls, reducing risk during the next external audit.
Surviving an ERP switch is about managing two parallel realities: the legacy operations that pay the bills today, and the future operations that will sustain the business tomorrow. It requires a shift in mindset from user to architect.
By taking control of the data and the process, credit managers can turn an operational disruption into an opportunity to clean up legacy debt and build a more resilient department.
Managing an ERP conversion while maintaining daily credit operations? Bectran's implementation team specializes in credit-specific data migration from legacy platforms, provides parallel-run support during cutover periods, and includes preconfigured credit workflows that reduce customization requirements, helping you maintain cash flow velocity throughout the transition. Learn about Bectran's ERP integration.
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