Software planning guide ยท English
Moving business records into new software safely
Start with a field map and a representative trial import. Reconcile counts, balances, relationships, and reports before switching daily operations. Keep an agreed backup and rollback path until the business accepts the migration.
Prepared 2026-10-23. General planning guidance; confirm the exact product, provider, and terms for your requirement.
Inventory the data you actually need
Separate master records, open transactions, documents, and historical records. Identify duplicate contacts, missing identifiers, different date formats, and inconsistent units. Decide what must be imported into the application and what can remain in a searchable archive. Do not assume that every historical screen in an old system maps directly to a new one.
Rehearse with representative sample records
Include a normal transaction, a return, a partially paid bill, and records with special characters or missing optional fields. Check how staff search, edit, and export the imported records. A successful file upload does not show that opening balances, stock quantities, or document relationships are correct. Have the person responsible for the business records review the reconciliation.
Agree the cutover and recovery process
Define when the old system stops accepting changes, who runs the final import, and how new transactions are checked. Preserve the original export and a documented backup. Agree how long the old environment remains available and which system staff should use during the transition. Retention and deletion depend on business and applicable recordkeeping requirements; a migration should not promise universal deletion.
Questions for your brief
- Which records are essential at launch?
- Who signs off the reconciliation?
- What is the rollback trigger and procedure?