Moving from spreadsheets to accounting software

A spreadsheet works until it does not. The usual signs are errors you cannot trace, a file only one person understands and a slow end-of-quarter scramble.

This is general information about moving records, not financial or tax advice.

Choose a start date

Pick a clean date, such as the first day of a month or a financial year, and move from there. Everything before that date stays in the spreadsheet as an archive.

Bring across opening balances

The new software needs to start from the right place: bank balances, what customers owe you, what you owe suppliers and any loans. Take them from statements and the closing figures of the old file.

Set up the chart of accounts

Keep the list of categories short and in plain words. You can add more later, but merging dozens of near-duplicates is slow.

Connect bank feeds

Bank feeds remove most typing. Connect them early, then work through the first month by hand so you see how each transaction is matched.

Run both for a month

Keep the spreadsheet updated for one month alongside the new file. If the totals agree, you can retire the spreadsheet with confidence. If they do not, you find out while the cause is still fresh.

Keep the old file

Store the final spreadsheet somewhere safe. The ATO website explains record-keeping requirements, so check it for how long to keep business records.

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