In our latest Office Hours session, It Never Just Works: What MSPs Miss in Every Tech Implementation, guest presenter and mentor Julie Ferraz from Next Level Now joined us to unpack the real reasons PSA implementations go sideways—and how to fix them with a finance-first mindset.
When Steve Taylor ran his MSP, he did what a lot of tech-minded business owners do: he dove in. “I would just open the software and see what I could break,” he joked in our latest Office Hours session. That works—until it doesn’t. Especially when you’re setting up the financial backbone of your company.
This blog is for every MSP planning a PSA implementation—or reimplementation. If you want to avoid the chaos, missed billing, blown budgets, and poor valuations that plague most projects, you need one thing first:
A finance-first approach.
Vision Before Vendor
Before you pick a new PSA, step back. What are you actually trying to solve? Julie Ferraz from Next Level Now put it clearly: “You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are.”
Many MSPs start the implementation journey in reverse. They evaluate demos, chase features, or fall in love with interfaces—before ever writing down their real pain points. But implementation success isn’t about picking the best tool on paper—it’s about solving the right problem with the right plan.
What’s not working? What’s costing you money? Where do your people get stuck? These are the questions to answer before a single feature gets evaluated. A finance-first lens helps clarify those answers by surfacing issues like:
- Missed or delayed billing
- Poor margin tracking
- Inconsistent time entries
- Weak reporting or dashboards
When you lead with these problems—not the promise of automation—you create a clear path to meaningful outcomes. Only then should you look at vendors.
And if you don’t? That’s when things go sideways. Implementation failure often has little to do with the tool itself—and everything to do with how it was approached.
Why PSA Implementations Fail
It’s tempting to think that implementation failure stems from poor software. But in most cases, the platform isn’t the problem—the process is. Even powerful tools will fail to deliver if they’re deployed in a rushed, fragmented, or finance-blind way.
Julie Ferraz outlined three common patterns that consistently lead to disappointing outcomes. Each one is a silent killer of momentum and ROI.
Skipping Discovery
MSPs love to move fast. But skipping discovery is like building a house without a blueprint. When you don’t map out your current pain points, data flows, billing structure, or integration requirements, you enter implementation blind.
Julie emphasized the importance of knowing exactly what you’re trying to fix before choosing a solution. Discovery isn’t just a project phase—it’s the foundation. Without it, the result is often feature bloat, poor adoption, or tools that can’t support long-term goals.
Siloed Decision-Making
Too often, one department—usually service—leads the charge on PSA selection and setup, while finance, operations, or sales are left out until it’s too late.
This siloed approach leads to disconnects between what’s implemented and what the business actually needs. For example, a PSA might be configured in a way that breaks margin tracking or introduces billing inconsistencies—things that only finance would catch.
Julie warned that “it’s never out of malice, but it creates a lot of frustration between departments.” Cross-functional buy-in is not optional; it’s strategic.
No System Champion
The biggest trap? Assuming that once a system is live, the job is done.
Julie sees it all the time: PSAs get launched and then neglected. Without a designated system champion, people default to old habits, create workarounds, or avoid using the platform altogether.
Implementation success demands someone to own the system—not just during setup, but through training, reinforcement, and optimization. No champion? No consistency.
These mistakes don’t just slow down projects—they undermine adoption, profitability, and valuation. So how do you avoid them? It starts with who’s at the table.
The result? 70% of digital transformation projects don’t meet goals. And 56% deliver less value than promised. Often, that’s not the software’s fault—it’s the implementation.
Who Should Be in the Room
Every department that touches the PSA should have a voice—especially finance. When you’re selecting and setting up a core system like a PSA, cross-functional representation isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s essential for long-term success.
Julie recommends having at least one person from each key area: operations, service, marketing, and most importantly—finance. “Ideally, a controller,” she noted, because controllers bring a unique lens to the table: they think in outcomes. What are we tracking? How do we report it? What’s the business impact?
Finance minds don’t just think about setup—they think about sustainability. They’ll ask questions like: Can this platform track margin accurately? How does it handle deferred revenue? Can I get the board-ready reports I need in two clicks instead of twenty?
Steve added that marketing should also be looped in, especially when it comes to things like PSA-triggered email notifications. “There’s a lot of messaging that goes out automatically,” he said. Without oversight, you might end up spamming clients with poorly formatted alerts.
And someone—someone with project management chops—needs to lead the whole thing. “Everybody wants their DNA in the project,” Steve pointed out, “but not every idea is a good idea.” Your implementation needs a clear decision-maker who can keep things moving and veto distractions when needed.
Who’s in the room determines how well your PSA supports the rest of your business. Don’t make it an afterthought—make it a strategic decision.
And once the right voices are at the table, one of them needs to take the lead. Because if finance isn’t front and center during your implementation process, you’re setting up for rework, not results.
Finance as the Anchor
Finance isn’t just an afterthought. It’s the foundation—the operating system that every other business function plugs into.
“Finance is the backbone of the company,” Julie said. “We’re not just a drip pan that collects cash. We tell you where you’re going, how well you’re doing, and what needs to be adjusted.”
A finance-first implementation means you’re not just setting up a system to manage tickets—you’re setting up a system that reflects the economic engine of your business. Finance ensures that everything—from time entries to contracts to invoicing—flows correctly, can be audited, and supports strategic decision-making.
When finance is at the helm, your implementation isn’t based on preference or convenience—it’s based on operational precision. You’re thinking beyond ticket status workflows and into:
- How revenue is recognized
- How expenses are mapped
- How service margins are tracked
- How billing aligns with contracts
And perhaps most critically: how the business gets measured, valued, and forecasted.
When finance is embedded in your implementation, you’re building a system that supports:
- Profitability and pricing
- Accurate forecasting
- Clean reporting
- Valuation readiness
It’s not just about setting up the PSA—it’s about setting up the business to grow, raise, merge, or exit. And that only happens when finance is in the driver’s seat.
So how do you ensure your financial foundation is solid before, during, and after implementation? Julie shared a six-part framework built specifically for MSPs making major infrastructure changes.
The Six-Pronged Finance Framework
Julie shared six foundational pillars every PSA implementation must get right. These aren’t just accounting preferences—they’re operational guardrails for growth-minded MSPs. When each one is thought through carefully, the result is cleaner billing, better visibility, and fewer implementation regrets.
Chart of Accounts
Your chart of accounts is the foundation of your financial clarity. Julie called it “the roadmap and the backbone of your business.” If you’re implementing a new system—especially something like a PSA or payment platform—your GL structure needs to be ready.
One common pitfall? Chart of account names that are too long to sync properly with your PSA. Julie shared a real-world example where a naming convention caused errors and delays during the integration. Always test your chart against the tool’s capabilities.
Products & Services
Your PSA needs a clean, consistent list of what you sell. That sounds obvious—but quoting tools that sync with vendors like Dell or Amazon can flood your system with redundant entries.
Julie emphasized that this creates massive blind spots in margin tracking. If you’re using dozens of slightly different SKUs for the same firewall, you won’t know which deals are profitable.
Start with a standardized catalog. Group similar products. Align them with GL codes. Keep it clean.
Roles & Permissions
Every system needs gatekeepers. Who can edit invoices? Who can change time entries? Who can delete tickets?
Julie noted that roles and permissions are often overlooked until there’s a breach or a major error. During implementation, make sure access is defined by role and purpose—not convenience. Finance users should be able to run reports without having admin-level access to unrelated modules.
Time Tracking & Labor
You can’t measure profitability—or utilization—without accurate time data. Julie explained that even for all-you-can-eat MSPs, time tracking is vital.
It tells you whether your team is staffed correctly. It surfaces which contracts are underwater. And it can make or break your valuation if you ever want to exit.
Make time tracking easy for techs. Automate where possible. But make it mandatory.
Documentation & SOPs
Julie encouraged MSPs to document not just after implementation—but before. “You can’t rely on old SOPs for new systems,” she warned.
Start by cataloging what exists. Then update or create new documentation for every workflow that touches the PSA. Without this, you’re flying blind—and onboarding new employees will take twice as long.
Reporting & Dashboards
This is where finance shines. Your PSA should feed the dashboards and reports you need to lead your business—not just run it.
Julie put it bluntly: “You can’t scale what you can’t measure.”. Build dashboards that answer questions like:
- Are we billing for all labor?
- Are any clients underpriced?
- Is our recurring revenue growing?
Without clear, reliable reporting, your data has no story—and your leadership has no compass.
So how do you choose a PSA that checks all these boxes and stays aligned with your strategy? That’s where the next pitfall shows up.
Don’t Get Derailed by Features
Every PSA promises automation, AI, and dashboards. But features aren’t strategy.
Julie warned against falling in love with what software could do, instead of focusing on what your business needs to do. That mindset leads to bloated implementations, half-baked integrations, and disconnected reporting. It also makes it harder to train your team and harder to get adoption.
It’s tempting to get excited about feature lists. Salespeople love to run through all the things a tool might help you do. But the truth is: even the most powerful tool will fail your business if it’s set up without intention, prioritization, and financial clarity.
As Sonja noted, “All the tools do a lot of the same stuff.” What matters more is how they’re implemented, how they’re maintained, and how they support your long-term vision.
If you can’t explain how a feature directly contributes to reporting, cash flow, margin, or scalability—it’s probably not critical on day one.
So how do you prioritize the right features and phase your rollout without losing control of scope? That’s where a phased approach comes in.
The Four-Phase Rollout Plan
A successful PSA rollout isn’t something you rush. It’s a structured, step-by-step journey. Julie and Sonja recommend a four-phase approach that provides enough time to plan, test, and adapt before going live.
Here’s how to roll it out without unraveling your business in the process:
Discovery
This is your planning phase—and it’s the most critical. Map out your current processes, identify where things are breaking, and get clear on your must-haves and nice-to-haves. This is where you define your KPIs, document your tech stack, and ensure alignment between leadership and day-to-day users.
“Start with your discovery, not the features,” Julie reminded us. Too many MSPs skip this and pay for it later.
Vetting
Once you know what you need, pressure test the tools. Ask each vendor to walk you through a real-world scenario—especially your worst-case ones. Will the tool solve the problem that’s actually costing you money?
Talk to your peers. Compare notes. And don’t rely only on demos—ask for documentation, case studies, and references.
Pilot
Before you commit, try before you buy. Most vendors will offer a 30 to 60 day trial. Use this period to implement a subset of clients or workflows in the tool. Break it. Stress test it. Have your internal champions document what works and what doesn’t.
Choose a few loyal clients to test the external experience too—log into portals, submit tickets, view invoices. This is where you catch the friction.
Rollout
Once the tool is vetted and tested, it’s time to roll it out—but this doesn’t mean flipping the switch overnight. Train obsessively. Assign ownership for post-launch QA. And hold 30, 60, and 90 day reviews to catch issues early.
A rollout without reinforcement is just a rebranding of your old system. Adoption doesn’t happen by accident—it happens through leadership.
And yes, ask for flexibility. “If you’re a $5 to $10 million MSP, you’ve got leverage,” Steve said. Negotiate longer pilots, phased billing, or opt-out clauses if the product doesn’t deliver.
Sometimes, despite all the planning, you realize your current system is too far gone. That’s where the next decision comes in: rebuild or reset?
Burn It Down? Or Build It Better?
Sometimes your system is such a mess that a fresh start sounds easier than a rescue mission. Steve admitted he once preferred switching tools entirely rather than reworking his bad setups.
Julie acknowledged this impulse—but cautioned: “Burning it down is expensive.” When Sonja and Julie discussed the financial implications of poorly planned implementations, they pointed to a staggering figure: over $2 trillion is lost each year due to failed software implementations and poor system quality. That number isn’t just for enterprise giants. It includes smaller companies that jump from platform to platform, chasing fixes instead of building a solid foundation.
Every time you abandon a system and start from scratch, you lose time, you burn cash, and you risk continuity. “That’s how it starts adding up,” Julie explained. “You think you’re solving a problem, but you’re just rebuilding the same mess in a new tool.”
Instead of asking, “What should we switch to?” ask, “What’s worth salvaging?” A rebuild may be necessary—but only after a deep evaluation and discovery process.
And when you do rebuild, finance still needs to lead. Because the ROI of a good implementation goes far beyond convenience.
The Real ROI of Doing it Right
“A mediocre tool implemented well will outperform a best-in-class tool implemented poorly,” Julie said. That one line sums up the entire philosophy behind a finance-first implementation.
When you approach your PSA rollout with the right foundation, you’re not just improving back-office operations—you’re setting up the entire business to function more efficiently, scale more confidently, and present better to investors or acquirers.
This isn’t about chasing perfection. It’s about designing systems that:
- Create clear financial visibility — so leaders always know where the business stands.
- Enable stronger reporting — so forecasting, board meetings, and M&A conversations are rooted in clean, trustworthy data.
- Accelerate billing and cash flow — because manual invoicing delays hurt your bottom line and stress your team.
- Drive higher valuation — because clean data, reliable reporting, and predictable margins make your business more attractive to buyers and investors.
When you get your implementation right, you don’t just save time—you build equity.
So what does it actually take to pull it off? Let’s wrap with some field-tested advice from the people who’ve been in the trenches.
If someone came in today to evaluate your business, could you answer their questions in 10 minutes—or would it take 10 spreadsheets?
Closing Advice from the Trenches
After working through dozens of PSA implementations and system overhauls, Julie Ferraz and her team have seen what works—and what goes off the rails. If you’re about to start (or restart) your implementation journey, keep this short list close. These aren’t just tips—they’re survival tools.
- Start with your discovery, not the features
- Map what’s broken
- Don’t let one department run solo
- Assign a system champion
- Train, train, and train again
- Build structure before automation
And above all: take your time. “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast,” Julie reminded us.
About Julie Ferraz & Next Level Now
Julie Ferraz is a Controller at Next Level Now, a firm that provides embedded finance teams to growth-focused MSPs. With deep experience leading PSA and accounting platform implementations, Julie brings structure, financial clarity, and hard-won wisdom to every engagement. Her work sits at the intersection of operations, accounting, and strategic growth.
Next Level Now offers fractional CFOs, controllers, and accountants to MSPs who want more than clean books—they want decision-ready data and long-term financial alignment. Whether you’re preparing for an acquisition, fixing broken billing workflows, or rolling out a new PSA, Next Level Now can help you do it right.
Watch the Full Session
Want to hear Julie’s full breakdown and see the slides from this conversation? Watch the full Office Hours session here and go deeper into what it takes to run a finance-first implementation.
If you’re looking for help, Next Level Now can embed a finance expert inside your business who will not only help you implement a PSA—but make sure your financial engine is built for growth, visibility, and a strong exit.
