This is the story of a masterpiece from a certain point of view. I had to throw in an Obi-Wan reference, I couldn’t help myself. For those of you who know me well, I love Star Wars and I consider the original trilogy a masterpiece with the Mandalorian ranking right up there too. Enough about Star Wars and on with the tale.

Over the past month I completed a migration of accounting data and processes to the cloud. As a practitioner, this is probably one of my proudest moments and to be able to see my client really love the end result, that just brings a smile to my face.

This migration was a little bit different for me. I did something that I had not done before and that was to work on the books via a desktop accounting software before migrating to Xero. This allowed me to get an even deeper understanding of their processes before migrating and allow for a cleaner cutoff of data for various filings.

My previous migrations typically involved businesses with a year or less of data. In those cases it was quite easy to start from scratch. This organization had been on desktop software for years. They liked the idea of being able to easily retrieve reports as previously they had to always ask the bookkeeper to email them.

Xero and their migration partner Movemybooks did the heavy lifting of moving a couple years of data for me. Movemybooks can convert Quickbooks and Sage desktop files to Xero. I just had to tidy a few things up before and after to get the systems matched up perfectly. 

As well, to handle the payroll moving forward, I switched the organization to Wagepoint. This has eliminated some data entry time and again provided more easily accessible reports. We are also in the process of looking into an online time card system called Track to save time collecting time from staff and reviewing their hours. Track is a Wagepoint product that integrates with Wagepoint.

I have also set up two receipt and invoice capturing applications Hubdoc and Receipt Bank to help match payments to transactions on their bank statements. Now with a couple of clicks, the client can find out exactly where they spent their money.

This whole process was about improving efficiencies and freeing up the organization’s time to do other things. It has also been a learning experience for me. I had to use this piece of software in the past but I had only pulled reports from it. I have also learned a couple of new things in Xero with respect to how to print cheques and how to adjust the sales tax rates for non-recoverable amounts.

With all of that, how organized are your systems?

If you have any questions or are interested in having your books converted to Xero please reach out to me to find out more.