Advice to A Young ERP Consultant Part 6:

Get the Errors

• Account number for transaction type...does not exist.

• Cannot insert data into staging due to unique key violation.

• The transactions on voucher do not balance as per...

• The fiscal period is closed for module Ledger on the date...

• Category must be specified.

• You must select a value in the Department field in combination with the following dimension values that are valid.

Stop.

Did you actually read the lines above, or did your eyeballs just glaze over that section until they landed here?

To learn your your ERP, you need to do stuff in your ERP (not just read about it). When you first do stuff in your ERP, you will do it wrong. When you do it wrong, you will get errors.

Advice Part 6: Get The Errors

Believe it or not, there was an era of error-free ERP. ERP used to be a leather-bound book with a line down the middle of each page for double-entry accounting. Write whatever you wanted, anywhere, and no pop-up would stop you. People may debate the benefits of on-prem vs cloud ERP, but NOBODY is trying to go back to pen and paper.

And here's a secret: ERP errors are your friend. They're trying to stop you from doing something you shouldn't. They're even giving you a message to help you figure out what you shouldn't do.

Practice in your ERP and get the errors. But also, get the errors, i.e. understand them. (it's a pun! save your applause for the comments section)

When you get an error:

• Read the error

• Think through what the error is trying to say

• If you still don't get it, Google the error

• If you still don't get it, ask for help

• Once you get it, fix the error

And once you get the error (understand it) keep doing the work and get more errors.