Accounting Data Migration

Change accounting systems without losing the numbers

The Software Is the Easy Part

Picking new accounting software is a decision. The accounting data migration is a project, and it's the part that goes wrong: opening balances that don't agree, receivables that don't match the aged report, or a chart of accounts that comes across with all its old mess intact.

We're a data and systems firm, not a bookkeeping practice. We do the extraction, mapping, transformation and reconciliation, for businesses changing systems and for accounting firms converting clients. Your accountant keeps control of the accounting decisions and signs off the result.

Conversions We Do

Every pair of systems has its own awkward parts. These are the ones we see most.

MYOB → Xero

The most common move we see. MYOB header accounts disappear, account numbers need a decision, and jobs and categories have to become Xero tracking categories.

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Reckon → Xero

Reckon Accounts started life as the Australian version of QuickBooks desktop, so its data has the same shape: customer:job hierarchies, item lists and classes. Most of the work is flattening jobs and classes into something Xero tracking can hold.

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QuickBooks → Xero

QuickBooks classes, locations and sub-accounts don’t map one-to-one to Xero. Xero allows only two active tracking categories, so we agree up front what gets kept as tracking, what becomes separate accounts and what is dropped.

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Xero or MYOB → MYOB Advanced / NetSuite

For businesses outgrowing small-business accounting — multiple entities, real inventory, job costing. The new system has dimensions and subsidiaries the old one never had, so the mapping is a design exercise, not just a lookup.

Ask about this conversion

Spreadsheets & legacy systems → Xero or MYOB

For ledgers kept in Excel, or an old system that can only export reports, we rebuild a clean opening trial balance and open items, and work out how much history is worth keeping.

Ask about this conversion

What Every Conversion Gets Right

Whatever the systems, these four things decide whether it worked.

Conversion date

Ideally the start of a financial year, otherwise the start of a BAS quarter. Converting mid-period works, but means bringing across year-to-date P&L balances and splitting a BAS.

Chart of accounts mapping

Every old account is mapped to a new code and type in a workbook you can review. A conversion is the cheapest time to clean up a chart of accounts that has grown messy.

Open items, not just balances

Receivables and payables go across as individual invoices and bills so customers can still be chased and suppliers paid — and the aged reports agree to the ledger.

A reconciliation you can sign off

Old and new trial balances side by side, account by account, with zero variance. That’s what your accountant needs, and what we hand over at the end.

Working With Accounting Practices

A big client conversion ties up senior staff on data work that isn't really accounting. Send us your spec or mapping template and we'll return a mapping workbook, import files and a reconciliation pack for your review — before anything touches the client's live file.

We're happy to work behind your practice. If the job turns out to be simple enough for the software vendor's free conversion tool, we'll tell you that too.

Accounting Migration FAQs

Four things: agreeing a conversion date, mapping the old chart of accounts to the new one, loading opening balances and open invoices and bills, and proving the new trial balance agrees with the old one. History, payroll, inventory and multiple entities add to that, but those four steps are the core of every conversion.

MYOB to Xero is the most common move, but we also convert Reckon and QuickBooks to Xero, move growing businesses from Xero or MYOB to MYOB Advanced or NetSuite, and bring spreadsheet or legacy-system records into a proper accounting system. If both systems can export and import data, we can usually move it.

No. We do the data work — extraction, mapping, transformation and reconciliation. Your accountant or bookkeeper stays in charge of the accounting decisions and signs off the result. We are happy to work directly for the business or behind an accounting practice.

Every conversion ends with a reconciliation pack: the old and new trial balances side by side at the conversion date, account by account, with zero variance, plus aged receivables and payables agreed to the control accounts. The transformation is scripted, so it can be re-run if figures change after a late adjustment.

Related

Xero vs MYOB

Which to move to, for businesses with staff

MYOB vs QuickBooks

How the two compare for Australian businesses

MYOB Advanced vs NetSuite

Mid-market options when you outgrow Xero or MYOB

Xero & MYOB Integration

Connecting your accounting system to everything else

Got a Conversion Spec?

Tell us which system you're moving from and to, and roughly how big the file is. We'll tell you what the job involves and what it costs.

Choosing new software? We'll check the vendor's integration and data claims against your systems before you sign. What to ask

Free initial chat. No sales pressure - if we're not the right fit, we'll say so.

Prefer to talk? Call 1300 470 091

Got a spec or files? Email [email protected]

Name, email and message are required. We'll respond within 24 hours.