Ask any finance leader why they haven’t upgraded their systems, and you’ll hear the same handful of reasons on repeat. Losing years of historical data. Vendors charge licence fees just to let you access your own old records.. A return on investment that feels miles away.
These worries are real but they’re also out of date. The finance software of today has quietly solved the exact problems that used to make change feel like a gamble, most people just haven’t caught up with that yet.
Fear #1: “We’ll lose our historical data”
This is the single biggest hesitation holding finance teams back, 42%* point to it as their main reason for staying put, which is an understandable concern. Finance teams can’t risk losing years of management accounts and audit trails, and HMRC expects seven years of records to stay intact.
However, losing that history isn’t actually what happens anymore. Newer platforms carry your historical records over during the switch and drop them into a searchable archive you can access anytime. You never have to juggle an old system just to find last year’s numbers.
Fear #2: “We’ll get hit with licence costs”
32%* cite the price of right-to-use licences as a reason to avoid switching, the ongoing charge some vendors impose just to keep accessing your own old data. It’s a legitimate frustration, and a slightly outdated business model.
Cloud‑first systems avoid that trap entirely. When historical data moves with you rather than staying locked in the old platform, there’s nothing left to pay a licence for. The cost that used to make switching feel expensive simply isn’t part of the equation anymore.
Fear #3: “It’ll take too long to pay off”
27%* believe a new finance system takes too long to show a return. That belief made more sense a decade ago, when implementations were long, disruptive, and required teams to relearn everything from scratch.
That’s no longer the reality. Automation strips out the manual admin that used to eat entire weeks. Real-time reporting means the value shows up almost immediately; faster closes, fewer errors, less time spent chasing numbers. The payback period has tightened, and teams often see ROI in a matter of months.
Change doesn’t have to mean chaos
There’s a mental image a lot of finance leaders still carry: swapping systems means ripping everything out and starting again, disruption everywhere, months of chaos. That image belongs to an earlier generation of ERP.
Today’s approach works more like keyhole surgery than major reconstruction, it targets the essentials, stays efficient, and minimises disruption for the people doing the work. You don’t need to overhaul your entire operation to get the benefits. You need a system designed to slot in cleanly and start delivering value from day one.
Yesterday’s problems, already fixed
None of these concerns are unreasonable, they’re shaped by genuine experiences with clunky, expensive, slow-moving software, but the technology has moved on faster than the reputation has. The things holding finance teams back today are largely solved problems.
Your next finance system shouldn’t scare you, it should support you.
Ready to leave those old fears behind? See how iplicit makes upgrading painless.
* Source: iplicit’s Adding to the Pressure guide.
