Week 1 of 8
Where you really are
Welcome to The Sign-Off Table. For the next 8 weeks you will get one practical move a week for testing your ERP, whether that is Epicor, IFS, Sage, Acumatica, Odoo, Unit4 or something else, in the order you will need them. After that, a weekly roundup of new research, guides and templates.
We start with the calendar, because it sets the back end of every test plan. Before go-live that is your go-live date and your fiscal year-end. After go-live it is the vendor’s release schedule: two releases a year on IFS Cloud and Acumatica, four on Sage Intacct, a new major version every year on Odoo. You do not get to pick those dates.
This week: write down your real dates and work backwards
- Name your stage in one line: selecting, implementing, live and taking vendor releases, or upgrading and moving to cloud.
- Write down the date that actually constrains you: go-live, fiscal year-end, a support end date, or the next vendor release you cannot defer.
- Work backwards from it: hypercare through one month-end close, two mock cutovers, UAT, SIT, data load rehearsals. What is left is your build window.
- Add every vendor release and preview window for the next 12 months to one calendar, next to your own freeze periods.
- If you are still selecting, ask each vendor for its release cadence, preview environment and deferral rules in writing. They decide how much regression you will run every year.
Number of the week
Almost 1 in 4
organizations in Panorama’s 2026 ERP Report said their project ran over schedule. The most common reason was organizational issues, not technology.
Source: Panorama Consulting Group, The 2026 ERP ReportUse this week
- ERP Release Calendar →
Vendor releases, preview windows and your own freezes on one calendar, with regression windows.
- ERP Selection: Testability & Release-Readiness Scorecard →
Still choosing? Score each vendor on cadence, test environments, deferral rules and how customizations survive upgrades.
- Guide: ERP vendor update cadences compared →
Epicor, IFS, Sage, Acumatica and Odoo release calendars, with every date cited.
Next week: the vendor runs the upgrade. Someone in your organization still has to prove it works. We settle who.
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