SERVICES / SYSTEM MIGRATION
Accounting system migrationMove your data across
without moving the mess
Migration goes wrong when it is treated as a data transfer. Import everything, hope the balances match, discover three months later that they do not. Done properly, migration is a chance to fix the structure at the same time.
Import is easy.
Reconciling isn't.
Most accounting platforms offer some form of import, and the marketing makes it sound like a button press. Getting data into the new system is genuinely the easy part. Getting it in correctly, with balances that tie back to the old system and to reality, is where the work is.
The most common failure is balances that do not match. Opening balances get imported at a summary level, the detail behind them does not follow, and a difference lands in a suspense account where it stays permanently. Nobody notices until a year later when the balance sheet is questioned.
Historical detail is the second issue. How much history you bring across is a real decision with trade-offs. All of it means a slower migration and importing old problems. None of it means no comparatives and a harder tax season. Usually the answer is somewhere in between, and it should be chosen deliberately.
Then the chart of accounts. Migration is the single best opportunity to restructure, because you are touching everything anyway. Importing a chart of accounts that never worked into a new system just moves the problem to a nicer interface.
And the connected pieces — bank feeds, payroll, e-commerce integrations, payment processors — all need reconnecting and testing, and each is a chance for data to start flowing into the wrong place.
Where migrations fail
- Opening balances that never tie back to the old system
- A suspense account absorbing an unexplained difference
- Historical detail lost when it was needed for comparatives
- A broken chart of accounts carried across unchanged
- Bank feeds connected wrong, creating duplicates
- Integrations pushing data into incorrect accounts
- Old system switched off before the new one was verified
From $750 · Scoped before we start
What migration
involves
Data moved, reconciled and verified — with the structure improved on the way through.
Data extraction
Everything pulled from the old system, including the detail behind summary balances rather than just the totals.
Structure review
Chart of accounts rebuilt if the old one did not work, so you are not importing a problem into a new home.
Balance reconciliation
Every balance in the new system tied back to the old one and to source documents, with differences explained rather than parked.
History decision
How much history to bring, decided deliberately based on what you need for comparatives and tax.
Integrations
Bank feeds, payroll, payment processors and e-commerce reconnected and tested with real transactions.
Parallel verification
Both systems checked against each other before the old one is retired, so problems surface while you can still look.
How migration
runs
Review and plan
What exists, what needs to come across, and what should be restructured on the way. Scope and price agreed first.
Build the new system
Set up properly with a chart of accounts that fits, before any data is moved.
Migrate and reconcile
Data moved and every balance tied back to source. Differences investigated, not absorbed.
Verify, then retire
Both systems compared and integrations tested. Only then do you stop using the old one.
What a proper
migration gives you
Balances you can trust from day one. Every figure in the new system reconciled to something rather than assumed, which means the reports built on them are reliable immediately.
A structure that works. Migration is the cheapest moment to fix a chart of accounts, because everything is being touched anyway. Doing it later means a separate cleanup project.
Integrations that actually work. Reconnected and tested with live transactions rather than assumed to have carried over, which is where a lot of post-migration mess comes from.
And a clean cut-over. The old system stays available until the new one is verified, so you are never in the position of having switched off the only reliable record.
BOOK A FREE CALLEvery client gets
- Replies within 48 hours, guaranteed
- Books closed by the 15th, every month
- Flat monthly pricing, no hourly billing
- A plain-English summary with every report
- The same team every single month
- Cancel any time, files handed over cleanly
Migration questions
Spreadsheets, Xero, Wave, FreshBooks, QuickBooks Desktop, Sage and most other small business systems. If you are on something unusual, tell us and we will be honest about whether it is straightforward.
Usually the current fiscal year in full detail plus summary balances for prior years. Enough for comparatives and tax without importing years of old problems. We will recommend based on your situation.
Better, usually, because migration is when we fix a chart of accounts that was not producing useful reports. That is the main reason to treat it as a project rather than an import.
One to three weeks for most businesses. Longer with several years of history, complex inventory or multiple integrations. You get a timeline before we start.
Yes, and you should. We keep the old system available until balances are verified in the new one. Switching off early is how businesses end up with no reliable record at all.
From $750, scoped before starting. Price depends on how much data, how much history and how many integrations. Cleanup, where the old data needs correcting, is quoted alongside.
Move systems
without the drama
Thirty minutes, no pitch. Tell us what you are on now and where you want to be, and we will scope what it takes.
BOOK YOUR FREE CALL