Moving off spreadsheets: a data migration plan for your first ERP

Start with a date, not a file

The most important migration decision is the go-live date: the day from which Modulix is the system of record. Pick the first day of a month, and ideally of a quarter, so that tax returns, bank statements and fiscal periods all start cleanly. Everything before that date is summarized in opening balances; everything after it is entered in Modulix.

Clean before you import

Spreadsheets tolerate things a business system will not: the same customer under two spellings, products without codes, suppliers without currencies. An hour of clean-up per list saves days later. In particular:

• give every product a unique SKU, a unit of measure and a tax class;
• give every customer company a country and an address, since tax rules depend on them;
• decide which customers are companies and which are people;
• keep each record's ID from your old system in its own column.

How importing works

Most lists in Modulix have an Import button. You can import CSV or Excel files of up to 20 MB and 50,000 rows. Modulix suggests a field for each column from its header, shows example values so you can check, and lets you ignore columns you do not need.

Two options matter for a migration:

• ID in your other system. Map your old ID column to it. Modulix remembers it, so a second import of the same file updates the records instead of duplicating them.
• Records already here. Choose to add new records only, or to add new ones and update existing ones. The second option lets you import, review, fix the spreadsheet and import again.

When the import finishes, you see how many rows were added, updated and not imported, with the reason for each rejected row. Fix those rows in the file and import it again.

Import in this order

1. Companies, then contacts, so people are linked to their company.
2. Product categories and units, then products and their variants.
3. Suppliers, linked to their companies, then the products each supplier sells, with their prices and lead times.
4. Price books for your customer groups, if you have them.
5. Leads and opportunities that are still open.

Then check a sample in the app: open ten customers and ten products at random and compare them with the spreadsheet.

Opening balances

The ledger. Post one journal entry dated the day before go-live with the closing balances from your previous system or your accountant's trial balance. Run the Trial balance and confirm it matches.

The banks. For each bank account, enter the bank's balance on the go-live date as the opening balance, with that opening date. Reconciliation starts from there, and statements imported from that date on will match.

The stock. For each warehouse, use Adjust with the reason Stock count to record the quantities counted on go-live day. Every adjustment becomes a numbered movement in the stock ledger.

Open invoices and bills. Decide with your accountant how to carry them. Recreating each open invoice in Modulix with its original date gives you correct aging and customer statements from day one; carrying only the total in the opening balance is quicker, but leaves the old invoices to be collected outside Modulix.

Rehearse first

Do a full trial import before the real one, ideally in a separate test organization so your live data stays clean. Time it, note every manual fix, and turn the notes into your go-live checklist.

The first week after go-live

• Import the first bank statement and match it.
• Issue the first invoices and check the tax on each line.
• Check the receivables Postings tab for anything that could not be posted.
• Review the audit log for unexpected imports or changes.
• Ask each team what they still keep in a spreadsheet, and why.

That last question is the useful one. The answer is usually a custom field, a saved view or a short workflow away.