Pronto Xi Requirements Gathering: A Practical Guide to Scope, Costs and Acceptance

Pronto Xi requirements gathering defines what the business needs its ERP system to do, why the change matters and how success will be verified. It connects business processes, data, controls and user needs to a deliverable scope, an implementation approach and measurable outcomes.

For CFOs, CIOs and IT leaders, the purpose is to make a better investment decision: what should change, what will it cost, and what evidence will demonstrate that it works?

This guide explains what management should expect from requirements work, then provides a workshop agenda, process map and reusable worksheet for business analysts and ERP managers.

The approach is recommended guidance, not an official Pronto Software methodology. Product statements are sourced; the worked example is hypothetical.

What should executives expect from a requirements workshop?

A useful workshop produces decisions and evidence that can support scoping, estimation and testing.

Commission focused requirements work when teams disagree about the desired outcome, proposed changes cross departments or systems, or uncertainty prevents a credible estimate.

A small, well-understood configuration change may only need a short documented review. A change affecting finance, warehouse operations and an external application requires broader investigation.

The scale of requirements work should follow the complexity and consequences of the decision.

Why requirements gathering matters for Pronto ERP ROI

A request such as “improve reporting” leaves too much unresolved. Which decision must the report support? Which figures must reconcile? How current should the data be? Who is allowed to see it?

Without those answers, even an attractive demonstration can leave important business needs untested.

Pronto Software describes an implementation approach that includes a project charter, alignment with business processes, data conversion, training and business simulations during testing. Requirements work helps define the outcomes and scenarios that those activities must address.

Keep two measures separate:

• Delivery success: the agreed process or solution passes its acceptance tests.
• Business success: the organisation achieves the intended operational or financial improvement.

A functioning report, for example, does not automatically shorten month-end. Its benefit depends on whether it addresses an activity that actually delays completion.

For broader project decisions, see SAAPRO’s Pronto Xi implementation guide.

Who should lead and attend the workshop?

A business analyst or experienced ERP process specialist can facilitate the work. The process owner approves business rules and outcomes; a Pronto functional specialist assesses how the system could deliver them.

Include users who perform the work, plus finance, IT, data or integration specialists where their responsibilities are affected. Give an executive sponsor responsibility for resolving competing priorities.

One person may cover several roles, but confirm both their capability and their available time. See which Pronto Xi role your business needs.

Prepare evidence before discussing solutions

Choose one process and define its boundaries. For example: from receipt of a supplier invoice to approval for payment, rather than “fix accounts payable”.

Ask participants to bring:

• Representative transactions and relevant source documents.
• Reports, spreadsheets and manual reconciliations.
• Examples of errors, delays, exceptions and support tickets.
• Approval rules, access responsibilities and process ownership.
• Available transaction volumes, handling times and error measures.
• The relevant Pronto Xi version, modules, interfaces and customisations.

Use appropriately protected data.

Write a problem statement describing the observed difficulty and its impact. Record suspected causes separately. A recurring delay could involve data quality, unclear responsibility, training, configuration or a software limitation; the workshop must help establish which explanation fits the evidence.

A practical requirements workshop agenda

The following two-hour agenda is a starting point for one focused process, not an estimate for completing an entire ERP requirements exercise.

Allow separate time for system demonstrations, data investigation, estimates and review. Mark unverified points as open questions.

Questions that uncover the real requirements

Map decisions and exceptions as well as process steps

A process map should identify responsibilities, hand-offs and alternative paths. The following simplified example shows a proposed invoice-review process. It is not a representation of a standard Pronto Xi workflow.

flowchart TD
    A["Accounts payable: record invoice for review"] --> B{"Invoice agrees with order and recorded receipt?"}
    B -->|Yes| C["Authorised approver: approve for payment"]
    B -->|No| D["Accounts payable: log discrepancy and hold"]
    D --> E["Purchasing or receiving: resolve discrepancy"]
    E --> F["Accounts payable: recheck evidence"]
    F --> B
    C --> G["Finance: include in controlled payment process"]

Alongside the diagram, record where each action occurs: Pronto Xi, another application, email or a manual register. Identify the relevant document or record at each step.

For a partial receipt, explicitly decide how the delivered portion, remaining quantity and invoice are handled. Define who may resolve discrepancies and what evidence is required. Validate the proposed handling with the process owner and Pronto specialist.

Map the current process first, then mark the proposed changes. This makes it easier to explain what the project will improve and what still requires investigation.

Validate every requirement against the actual Pronto Xi environment

An ERP requirement is not technically confirmed because somebody has seen a similar feature elsewhere. Ask for evidence applicable to the customer’s version, modules, data, permissions and existing changes.

Classify the proposed response as existing capability, process or training improvement, configuration, reporting or data work, integration, custom development, or further investigation.

Assess simpler options before committing to development.

Pronto Software documents Pronto Connect as a platform for connecting external applications with Pronto Xi. For any proposed interface, separately confirm the relevant endpoints, access, licensing, compatibility, error handling and support arrangements.

Reusable Pronto Xi requirements worksheet

Copy this table for each distinct requirement. Retain the requirement ID in the design, estimate, test case and approval record.

A template can contain placeholders. An approved requirement must resolve the placeholders that affect delivery or acceptance.

Worked example: a historical overdue-debt report

This teaching example uses invented transactions and targets solely to demonstrate the method. It is not a client result or a claim about a particular Pronto Xi report.

Completed requirement

The example’s narrow scope does not justify ignoring excluded cases in production. Finance must decide how credits, reversals, backdated postings and other relevant transactions are handled before approving a live solution.

Exact acceptance test

Set the reporting date to 31 August 2026. In an isolated test dataset, use these AUD transactions with no other activity:

Pass conditions:

1. The report shows the three balances above and a total of $3,100.
2. The 1–30 days overdue total is $2,600; the not-yet-due total is $500.
3. Invoice B remains outstanding at 31 August despite its September payment.
4. The output reconciles exactly to this controlled test dataset, with $0 unexplained difference.
5. An authorised credit-control test user can run it; the warehouse test user is denied access.
6. The test evidence records the environment, configuration and result against AR-01.

For production-scale performance, agree a separate test specifying data volume, environment, concurrent workload and maximum response time. Do not approve “fast enough” as an acceptance criterion.

The useful distinction is between a balance effective at a historical date and a report exactly as originally issued. Later backdated entries can make those different questions. Finance must specify which outcome is required and validate the available data accordingly.

Prioritise requirements and approve expenditure in stages

Separate mandatory obligations and critical controls from discretionary improvements. For other requirements, compare business impact, frequency, delivery cost, uncertainty and dependencies.

Use three decision points:

An investigation can legitimately conclude that the proposed change should be deferred or abandoned.

Include configuration or development, data preparation, interfaces, internal staff effort, testing, training, release work and ongoing support in the investment estimate. Document relevant future upgrade costs and estimate uncertainty.

For related readiness considerations, see SAAPRO’s Pronto Xi upgrade checklist.

Measure ROI without overstating savings

For repeatable activities:

Annual hours released = annual activity volume × minutes saved per activity ÷ 60

In the hypothetical reporting example, reducing a monthly task from four hours to one releases 36 hours per year, assuming the change is adopted for all 12 reviews.

Those hours represent capacity. Claim a cash saving only where spending actually changes, such as reduced overtime or contractor expenditure. Track cost avoidance separately and document its assumptions.

Distinguish one-off working-capital release from recurring savings. Avoid counting the same improvement twice.

For each benefit, record the baseline, target, owner, measurement source and review date. Then compare actual results with the business case. See SAAPRO’s Pronto Xi upgrade business case guide for related investment considerations.

Match the support to the work

If your team needs help clarifying business needs, look for business-analysis capability. If it needs to validate configuration or functional design, look for relevant Pronto expertise. If priorities, vendors and ongoing ownership are unclear, assess the need for ERP management capacity.

Talk to SAAPRO about the Pronto skills needed to take your project from requirements through delivery. Bring the process you want to improve, the current difficulty and the decisions your team needs to make.