Accounting guide
Switching accounting software without losing your audit trail
What to migrate, what to leave behind, and why your accountant would rather you moved at year end than in the middle of a VAT period.
Changing ledgers is not difficult so much as unforgiving. What you plan before the move decides whether your history stays usable and whether your accountant can still sign off the year.
Pick the date before you pick the product
A year end is the cleanest moment to move. Balances are agreed, the prior year is closed and the new system starts from a trial balance your accountant has already signed off.
If you cannot wait, move at the end of a VAT period. Switching in the middle of one means your VAT201 has to be assembled from two systems, which is exactly the kind of avoidable complication that produces a query later.
What has to come across
Opening balances first. A trial balance as at the switch date, agreed with your accountant, is the foundation of everything that follows. Then the master data, meaning customers, suppliers, the chart of accounts and your items.
Open items next. Unpaid customer invoices and unpaid supplier bills have to be entered individually rather than as a single debtors total, otherwise you cannot age them or allocate payments against them.
What you can leave behind
Detailed transaction history usually stays in the old system. Migrating years of transactions is expensive, error prone, and rarely worth it. What matters is that you can still look it up.
Keep read only access to the old system, or a full backup and the ability to restore it, for at least a year and ideally through your next audit. Cancel the subscription only once you are certain you can retrieve history when SARS or an auditor asks.
Chart of accounts is an opportunity
Most charts of accounts grow badly over a decade, accumulating accounts created for one transaction and never used again. A migration is the natural moment to tidy that up.
Resist the temptation to go further and encode department or project into account codes. If you need that analysis, use the tracking or dimension feature in the new product rather than multiplying accounts.
Run both for a month
Capture at least one month in both systems and compare the trial balance, the bank balance and the VAT figures. It is duplicated work for four weeks and it is the cheapest insurance available.
Only stop the old system once a full period reconciles in the new one. Businesses that skip this step usually discover the problem at year end, when fixing it is far more expensive than the month of double capture would have been.
Tell the people who depend on your numbers
Your accountant, your bank if you provide management accounts, and anyone who receives a regular report all need to know the switch is happening and when. Reports will look different afterwards, and an unexplained change in format invites questions about the numbers themselves.
Send a short note with the switch date and a sample of the new report layout. It costs ten minutes and prevents the awkward conversation where somebody assumes the figures changed rather than the formatting.
Common questions
01When is the best time to change accounting software?
At a financial year end, because balances are agreed and the new system starts from a signed off trial balance. Failing that, at the end of a VAT period so that one return does not span two systems.
02Can I import my transaction history into new accounting software?
Master data such as customers, suppliers and the chart of accounts imports readily from CSV. Full transaction history usually does not, and is normally left in the old system with read only access retained.
03How long should I keep the old accounting system?
At least a year, and through your next audit. SARS record keeping obligations run for several years, so make sure you can still produce the underlying detail before you cancel anything.
Editorial note
This guide is general buying guidance and not accounting, legal or tax advice. Amounts and deadlines set by SARS change, so confirm the current figures for your own business before you rely on them.