Getting started · 20 October 2026 · 6 min read
Moving off spreadsheets feels risky because the business keeps trading while you change the tools. A staged plan keeps the risk small.
Week 1: decide what moves and what stays
- List every spreadsheet and tool, who uses it and what it produces.
- Pick a cut-off date, ideally the start of a month or BAS quarter.
- Decide which data comes across: customers, suppliers, products and opening balances.
Week 2: clean the data
Spreadsheets collect duplicates, odd spellings and missing codes. Fix them before you import, not after. Remove duplicate customers, standardise product names and categories, and check that every product has a price and tax setting.
Week 3: set up and test
- Configure locations, registers, users and tax settings.
- Import products, customers and suppliers from CSV files.
- Run a handful of real transactions end to end: a sale, a return, a purchase and a payment.
- Have your accountant look at the resulting reports.
Week 4: train and switch
Train the people who will use it daily and give them a one-page cheat sheet. Switch on the cut-off date, keep the old files read-only for reference, and check totals against the old system for the first few days.
Common mistakes
- Importing messy data and hoping to tidy it later.
- Switching mid-month, which makes reconciling painful.
- Skipping the accountant review.
Our team helps with set-up and data migration. Contact us and tell us what you use today.