08 · Implementation & go-live · Cutover day
If old documents are not closed out, the new system will not reconcile the moment it opens
The implementation consultant walks the cutover steps on the floor. He does not use insufficient training as a shield for a defect.
- Before cutover Freeze. The time the old system stops opening new documents is written down. Unfinished documents are listed.
- That day Compare. The first new document uses a real arrival. Someone stands next to it and watches whether stock moved.
- Open the gate Sign. Accounts, paper, guns, and old-document ownership on the gate checklist are all ticked before the entrance opens.
The implementation consultant owns cutover, not scope
Whether in-scope functions are done belongs to the delivery manager and test sign-off. What marks the implementation consultant is organising the customer actually starting to use it: accounts, base data, unfinished old documents, the first new document. He is on the floor before cutover day, checking whether the warehouse clerk can log in, whether the printer can put paper out, whether tomorrow's goods exist in master data. If these wait until 8 a.m., cutover becomes a queue to fix accounts. How the observation window covers night shift, and how tickets are triaged, belongs to Launch support. This page does not write that algorithm.
How old documents are closed out
Goods not yet received before cutover must have a clear owner. Either finish receiving in the old system, or turn unreceived qty into opening pending-receive in the new system. Doing both doubles the stock. The implementation consultant takes the list and has the warehouse lead sign a choice. If they cannot sign, he recommends delaying cutover. Delay is a successful implementation judgement, not a failure.
The first truck and the gate checklist
At a DC, when the first morning truck arrived, the old system still had an open receiving document. The warehouse clerk received on both sides. The implementation consultant immediately disabled the new-document entrance, kept the goods on one side only, voided the other and left a record. Then he finished the late signatures on the open list, and only then opened the gate again. That day they did not receive the same truck in parallel again. This handling matters more than staying up to change a function.
Before leaving the floor, the gate checklist must be ticked: which paths have actually run, who owns open old documents, print paper and gun charge, the night-shift key, who watches the observation window. If the list is missing an item, the first hour after opening the gate is spent finding admin, not doing the first live document. When the sheet on the office wall is stale, he strikes it and signs, so two contradictory papers do not exist at once. How to sample on day three after cutover, and how to split tickets in week one, do not continue on this page. This role ends at the gate-checklist signature.
The gate checklist has at least six items. Missing one means it still cannot be signed. Warehouse clerks and shift leads can log in. The password is not the shared implementation password. Tomorrow's first-truck items can be found in master data. Every open old document has an ownership signature. The printer has put out one real new document. The gun has enough charge for one shift. The observation-window watcher's phone is posted on the floor, not only in the project group. These six do not look like software. Missing any one in the first hour, the floor will announce the system does not work. The implementation consultant writes them as conditions for opening the gate, not something to find admin for after the gate is open. He exports an account matrix by role for the configuration consultant to check. This role does not change the privilege model on the floor. The first live document number is written on the last line of the list, as evidence that it has actually run. Without that document number, opening the gate only opened the entrance. The time shared passwords were changed to personal passwords is written on the list. If someone still uses the implementation login after the gate opens, it is not done. The night-shift key does not overnight in the implementation consultant's own pocket. The floor paper must say who the next shift finds for it. The phone on the list must be a person who answers, not the project manager's WeChat ID. Taping over the gun's charge port and calling that “enough charge” is not a tick. He wants to see the charge number.