Migrating your accounting software to the cloud: balance transfer

Quick answer. A successful accounting software migration rests on a clean balance transfer. The method: choose a switch date, ideally at the start of a financial year; export the data and the accounting entries file from the old software; carry over the opening balance and opening entries into the new one; check consistency to the euro; and archive the old system for the legal conservation period.

Changing accounting software, notably to move to the cloud, is a common but risky operation if the data transfer is botched. A poorly carried-over balance distorts the whole accounting and complicates the close. Here is the method to migrate cleanly, securing the balance transfer.

The switch date conditions the simplicity of the migration.

The ideal time to change software is the start of a financial year. At that date, the closing balance of the old year becomes the opening balance of the new one, which makes the transfer simpler and more readable. A mid-year switch is possible, but it requires carrying over the entries of the elapsed period, which makes the operation heavier and multiplies the risk of discrepancies.

Planning the migration in line with the accounting calendar is therefore the first decision, even before choosing the tool.

The heart of the migration is the faithful transfer of the old software's data.

You must export from the old software the essential elements: the trial balance, the ledger and the accounting entries file, whose format is framed by law (Tax Procedure Code art. L47 A). In the new software, you then carry over the opening balance and the opening entries, which carry the account balances at start-up. This transfer must be exhaustive: balance-sheet accounts, customer and supplier balances, fixed assets and depreciation.

A partial or approximate transfer is paid for at the close, when discrepancies appear. The rigour of this step conditions the reliability of all future accounting.

Two final steps secure the migration.

The consistency check consists of reconciling the balances carried over into the new software with those of the old, to the euro. Any discrepancy must be identified and corrected before continuing. Archiving, finally, is an obligation: you must keep the history and the accounting entries file of the old software for the legal period of ten years (Commercial Code art. L123-22), because the migration does not dispense with presenting prior data in case of an audit.

An accounting software migration succeeds or fails on the balance transfer. The classic mistake is to focus on the new tool's features while neglecting the data transfer, which is yet the heart of the operation.

Our approach is to plan the switch at the start of a year, to fully carry over the balances and opening entries, to check the balances to the euro, and to archive the old system for the legal period. Moving to the cloud brings real advantages, accessibility, backups, updates, but it does not dispense with the rigour of the transfer. A careful migration is invisible: the accounting continues without a break. A botched migration is discovered at the first close.

A company had migrated to cloud software mid-year, carrying over only the balances of the main accounts. At the close, discrepancies appeared on the customer and supplier accounts, for lack of an exhaustive transfer. The correction required a laborious reconciliation with the old system, fortunately archived. For a later migration of another entity, the switch was planned at the start of a year, with a complete transfer and a check to the euro, with no discrepancy.