Moving your books off Excel: a checklist for small businesses
Most businesses switch accounting software at the worst possible time. Here is what to prepare so the move takes days, not months.
Spreadsheets are a perfectly good way to start keeping accounts. They stop being good somewhere around the point where two people need to edit the same file, or your accountant asks for a trial balance and it takes you a weekend to produce one.
When businesses move to FullBagAccounting, the ones that go smoothly have almost always done the same few things first.
1. Pick a clean starting date
Start at the beginning of a month, ideally the beginning of a quarter or fiscal year. You will bring in opening balances as of that date, and everything after it is entered in the new system. Trying to re-enter a whole year of old transactions is rarely worth it.
2. Get your opening balances agreed
Before the move, get these numbers from your accountant, as of your starting date:
- Cash in hand and each bank account balance
- What each customer owes you
- What you owe each supplier
- Stock on hand, with quantities and cost
- Loans, advances and fixed assets
If your accountant signs off on these, your first balance sheet in the new system will match the old one.
3. Tidy your lists
Export your customers, suppliers and items into a spreadsheet and remove duplicates. "Himal Traders", "Himal Trader" and "HIMAL TRADERS PVT" should be one customer. This is dull work, and it saves you months of confusing reports.
4. Decide who can do what
Think about roles before you create logins. Who raises invoices? Who approves payments? Should the sales team see profit margins? Setting this up on day one is much easier than taking access away later.
5. Run both systems for one month
For the first month, keep your old spreadsheet going alongside. At month end, compare the totals. When they match, retire the spreadsheet.
We handle the import of opening balances, customers, suppliers and items for every new FullBagAccounting customer. If you are thinking about switching, talk to us and we'll tell you honestly how long it would take for your business.
