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Go-Live Readiness

Applies to: All subscriptions

Purpose

Decide, on evidence, whether to go live — then cut over, watch the first day, and hand over so the customer can operate without the implementer.

Audience

The project manager, with every stage owner. The decision is the project manager's; the evidence is everyone's.

Prerequisites

  • Every stage gate 1 to 9 passed, signed and dated
  • Production provider credentials in hand and tested
  • A go-live date, and a decision point before it
  • Support arrangements agreed and known to the customer

Steps

1. Confirm every gate

Stage Gate
1 Environments verified, including failure paths
2 Master data loaded and quality-checked
3 Users created and activated
4 Roles verified by testing; segregation decision recorded
5 Registrations, provider, routing and flags configured
6 e-Invoice proven, including failures
7 e-Way Bill proven, and the Part-B process defined
8 Integration proven, including recovery
9 Business sign-off, no blockers open

A gate that was "mostly" passed was not passed. This is the last opportunity to be honest about it.

2. Work the readiness checklist

Compliance

Check Evidence
Statutory position confirmed in writing From the tax lead
Reporting window understood And the backlog approach agreed
Every registration onboarded, including dormant ones The list reconciles to registration records
Provider production credentials tested A successful connection test in production
Numbering unique per registration per year Confirmed by the ERP team

Technical

Check Evidence
Production verified end to end Full post-installation verification
Cross-tenant isolation confirmed Tested with two identities
Backup and restore proven A restore performed
Monitoring live and alerting An alert has actually fired
Certificates and credentials not near expiry More than 30 days, with owners

People

Check Evidence
Users trained on their own role Demonstrated in stage 9
Operations owner and deputy identified Both can run the daily routine
Part-B owner identified Named, with a defined point in dispatch
Exception owner identified Named, with a daily process
Two administrators At two individuals
Support path known The customer knows how to raise a ticket

Process

Check Evidence
Daily routine handed over Documented and rehearsed
Escalation path agreed Who, and when
Change control for configuration Agreed
Rollback decision agreed What would cause a return to the previous process

3. Cut over

# Step Note
1 Final verified backup Before any change
2 Apply production provider credentials The last configuration change, deliberately
3 Run the connection test Against production. It must pass
4 Confirm no non-production environment holds production credentials Verify by attempting a call, not by reading configuration
5 Enable the ERP feed
6 Process one real document end to end, watched Ingest, register, print, and confirm write-back reaches the ERP
7 Confirm the printed document QR scans from paper
8 Release to users

Step 6 is the moment go-live actually happens. Everything before it is preparation; everything after is operation.

4. Watch the first day

Watch Frequency
Documents arriving from each ERP Hourly
Validation rejections Hourly — the first day is when systemic faults appear
Registrations succeeding Hourly
Write-back reaching the ERP Hourly
Documents ageing towards the reporting window Hourly
Errors and alerts Continuously

Have the implementation team available, and have the customer's team performing the checks. The purpose of the first day is to transfer operation, not to demonstrate it.

5. Watch the first cycle

Some problems appear only at month end, or on a weekly job. Keep heightened attention until the customer has been through one full business cycle, including a month end.

6. Hand over

Deliverable Detail
Configuration record What is configured, and why
Baseline record Version, migrations, verification results
Operational routines Daily, weekly, monthly, year-end, with owners
Contact and escalation list Current, using distribution lists
Known issues and accepted workarounds From stage 9
Open items with owners and dates Nothing left implicit
Training record Who was trained, on what

Handover is a stage gate, not a formality. The customer demonstrates they can operate; they do not merely receive documents.

7. Revisit automatic registration

Once validation quality is proven over real volume — a few weeks, not a few days — revisit whether to enable automatic registration. It is a decision to take with evidence, not at go-live.

Validation

The go-live decision is yes when all of these are true. Any "no" moves the date.

Check Pass condition
Every gate passed Signed and dated
Production credentials tested In production
Environment separation verified By attempting a call
One real document end to end Watched, on the day
Print verified from paper QR scans
Monitoring alerting Tested by firing an alert
Owners named Operations, deputy, Part-B, exceptions, administrators
Customer can operate Demonstrated, not asserted
Support path known Before it is needed
No blockers open None

Rollback

Situation Action
Cutover fails before the first real document Revert credentials; disable the feed; no harm done
A systemic fault appears on day one Stop the feed first, then diagnose. A stopped feed is recoverable
Documents registered with wrong data Cannot be un-registered. Cancel within the window if appropriate; issue corrections. Consult the tax lead
The business cannot operate Revert to the previous process while the fault is fixed. Documents already registered remain registered

After the first real document is registered, go-live is not fully reversible. The government has it, the number is consumed, and no rollback returns that. This is why step 6 is watched and why every earlier stage runs on sandbox.

Common mistakes

Mistake Consequence Avoid by
Going live with a gate "mostly" passed The gap surfaces in production Be honest at the decision point
Applying production credentials early A test document permanently registered Apply them at cutover, and only then
Not verifying environment separation after cutover A non-production environment reaching production Verify by attempting a call
The consultant performing the first-day checks The customer cannot do them on day two The customer performs; you observe
Ending support at go-live The first month-end has nobody Stay through one full cycle
Enabling automatic registration at go-live Rejections at volume on day one Revisit with evidence, weeks later
Handover as a document transfer Knowledge that never lands Handover is a demonstration
No named exception owner Rejections accumulate to a deadline Name one before go-live

Troubleshooting

Symptom Cause Action
Production connection test fails Credentials not activated, or the egress address not allow-listed for production Confirm with the provider. Do not proceed
The first document quarantines A configuration or data difference between environments Compare configuration; do not force it through
Rejections at volume on day one A systemic fault Stop the feed, diagnose, fix, resume
Write-back does not reach the ERP Flag, subscription, or consumer Check in that order
Users cannot sign in on day one Mail, or access never verified in production Check mail first
A document reached the government with wrong data A mapping fault that survived testing It cannot be un-registered. Consult the tax lead