Switching Bookkeeping Software: Migration and Reconciliation Checklist
Preserve opening balances, documents and report history, then test bank CSV mappings and reconcile a controlled cutover before switching accounting systems.
1. Fix the cutover boundary
Choose the reporting date and identify who owns the migration. Avoid entering real operating transactions into both systems without a reconciliation process. Record fiscal year, accounting basis, base currency, tax settings and the last reconciled bank statement. A date agreed with an accountant is more useful than importing everything because the file allows it.
2. Export before cancelling
Retain a dated trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet, bank reconciliation, receivable/payable ageing and relevant tax reports. Export contacts, open invoices/bills and source documents separately. Check whether attachments require a separate ZIP and whether an export role is restricted. A report download is not the same as a database backup or a promise that a different system can restore it.
3. Identify what each file contains
A bank statement contains cash activity, not account allocations, unpaid invoices, payroll history or inventory quantities. Confirm whether an import creates unreconciled transactions, invoices or journal lines. Importing the same economic event through both invoices and bank entries can double-count it if matching is not handled correctly.
4. Preflight a small bank sample
Set the source date convention explicitly. Distinguish signed amounts from positive money-in/money-out columns. Check the bank’s meaning of credit/debit rather than guessing from the header. Validate leap dates, decimal notation, missing cells and duplicate candidates. Our local converter preserves rows and flags problems; it cannot see transactions already inside a provider.
5. Reconcile totals and balances
For one account and currency, confirm opening statement balance plus net activity equals closing statement balance. A matching total does not prove every row is correct: a missing payment and missing receipt can cancel. Review transaction count, dates, direction and a sample of source descriptions. Then use the provider’s own mapping and duplicate review before posting.
6. Compare the books after import
Check the opening trial balance, cash balances, open invoices/bills and reports at the cutover date. Resolve differences before operating solely in the new system. Keep the original export and a record of manual adjustments. Only then consider closing old access, subject to legal record-retention and tax requirements in your jurisdiction.
7. Know the test boundary
We tested our own CSV parsing and export formats using synthetic files. We did not create authenticated provider accounts or verify native acceptance. Always test a small batch in the actual selected edition and review it before a larger import. Credit cards, multiple currencies, historical FX and tax adjustments need separate treatment.
Continue with source-linked tools
Compare selected plans · Validate a bank CSV · Official source register