The Historical Data Trap: Why You Should Not Migrate Everything
The instinct is to bring every invoice from 2018 into your new system. Here is why that instinct kills projects.
When switching accounting software, the most common request we hear is: "We need to migrate all our historical data so we can run year-over-year reports."
It sounds reasonable. But in practice, attempting to migrate full transactional history (every invoice, bill, and journal entry) is the #1 cause of implementation delays and budget overruns.
The "Garbage In, Garbage Out" Multiplier
Your old data is likely messy. Vendors have changed names. Chart of Accounts (COA) codes have shifted. Old tax rates are obsolete.
When you try to force 5 years of "messy" legacy data into a "clean" new ERP, you trigger thousands of validation errors.
"We spent 3 months trying to map 2019 invoices to our new 2024 cost centers. In the end, we realized nobody even looked at 2019 data anymore."
The Better Strategy: Opening Balances + Archive
The industry standard for successful implementation is not full migration. It is the "Opening Balance" approach.
What You Migrate
- Master Data: Customers, Vendors, Items.
- Opening Balances: Trial Balance as of the cut-over date.
- Open Transactions: Unpaid invoices and bills (AR/AP aging).
What You Archive
- Closed Transactions: Paid invoices from 3 years ago.
- Old Journals: Adjustments from closed fiscal years.
- Legacy Reports: Keep a "Read-Only" license of your old software for lookups.
But What About Year-Over-Year Reporting?
This is the main objection. "If I don't have 2023 data in NetSuite, how do I compare it to 2024?"
The Solution: Import Summary Monthly Balances (Net Change) for the past 2 years.
This gives you the numbers needed for financial statements (P&L, Balance Sheet) without the headache of millions of individual transaction lines. You get the reporting capability without the migration risk.