Data Migration Guide

Fr8labs • Client Data Migration Guide (Audit‑Ready)

This guide explains—in plain language—how Fr8labs migrates your accounting and operations data so your books tie out (to the cent) and your team can work immediately after cutover. It covers start‑of‑fiscal‑year, mid‑fiscal‑year, and historical migrations, with examples of how opening AR/AP and the opening journal entry clear a Temporary Migration Account (TMA).

1) Core Approach (What to Expect)

  1. Start with current fiscal year so your auditors can trace every number.

  2. Full line‑item detail for the current fiscal year (matches your existing ledger), making year‑end audits clean.

  3. Opening balances for AR/AP and GL to connect prior periods, plus a balancing opening journal entry to clear the Temporary Migration Account.

  4. Cutover sequence:

    • Rush outstanding invoices as of cutover (so collections and payables continue without interruption).

    • Load all current‑year invoices as drafts → marry them with payments/receipts so outstanding balances remain correct.

    • Post opening balances & current‑year journals.

    • Map invoices to Jobs/Shipments so teams can see Job P&L.

    • Run sanity checks on the GL and key reports (P&L, Balance Sheet, AR/AP ageing) and sign‑off.

Data we bring over

  • Opening balances (AR/AP/GL): invoice‑level for AR/AP; GL summarised to opening journal(s).

  • Current fiscal year: line‑item invoices, credit/debit notes, and payments/receipts. When systems lack line‑item reports, we merge invoice listings with the general ledger to reconstruct line items.

  • Operational links: Invoices mapped back to Jobs (Bookings/Shipments) for Job P&L.

Temporary Migration Account (TMA)

  • Used to reconcile what the opening AR/AP do not contain (their counterpart entry).

  • Example (Sales invoices at opening): Dr Trade Debtors; Cr Temporary Migration Account (TMA).

  • Then an Opening Journal Entry posts the equal and opposite total, clearing TMA to zero after all opening entries are in.

Worked Example (simplified):

Transaction

Debit

Credit

Opening Entry (Sales invoice 10,000)

Trade Debtors 10,000

TMA 10,000

Opening Entry (Purchase invoice 4,000)

TMA 4,000

Trade Creditors 4,000

Opening Journal Entry

TMA 6,000

Opening Balance Equity 6,000

Trial Balance Snapshot:

  • Trade Debtors: 10,000

  • Trade Creditors: 4,000

  • Opening Balance Equity: 6,000

  • Temporary Migration Account (TMA): 0 (cleared, and should not show in balance sheet reports)

2) Migration Scenarios

A) Start of Fiscal Year Cutover

A good option if you are starting a new year, but not the only good time to go live—Fr8labs is designed to support mid‑year cutovers smoothly as well.

Sequence

  1. Master data (customers, suppliers, items, taxes, ports).

  2. Opening AR/AP (invoice‑level) + ageing snapshots.

  3. Opening GL journals → Temporary Migration Account cleared.

  4. Begin day‑to‑day in Fr8labs; all current‑year transactions originate in Fr8labs.

  5. Sanity checks: Trial Balance, P&L, Balance Sheet, AR/AP ageing.

Pros: Clean year start, simpler reconciliations. Considerations: Prior‑year detail not in system unless requested as historical load, and waiting until year‑end may delay business automation benefits that could be realized earlier.

B) Mid‑Fiscal‑Year Cutover

Most common for go‑lives during the year.

Sequence

  1. Rush outstanding AR/AP at cutover.

  2. Load current‑year invoices (line‑item) as drafts, then attach payments/receipts so outstanding balances are preserved. Posted at similar times to prevent operations impact.

  3. Post opening AR/AP (invoice‑level) + opening GL journals to clear Temporary Migration Account.

  4. Map invoices ↔ Jobs; validate Job P&L.

  5. Sanity checks and sign‑off.

Pros: Keeps current operations flowing; audit‑ready line items. Watchouts: Requires careful timing migration wise so outstanding balances are unaffected.

C) Historical Migrations (Prior Years)

When you need prior periods for analysis or audits inside Fr8labs.

Options

  • Summary mode: prior years as GL summaries + invoice‑level AR/AP.

  • Detail mode: prior years with line items (subject to source data availability).

  • Always staged so that Temporary Migration Account nets to zero per period.

D) Other Patterns We Support

  • Phased module cutover (Sales & Ops first, then Finance; or vice‑versa).

  • Multi‑entity / multi‑currency with consolidated and entity‑level books.

3) What We Need From You

The exact checklist depends on the migration type. Fr8labs will confirm the migration scope with you before requesting files.

A) Opening Balance Only Migration

Use this when you are starting fresh from a cutover date and do not need full current-year transaction history in Fr8labs.

Please provide, as of the opening / cutover date:

  • Trial Balance / opening balances

  • Balance Sheet support, if available

  • Opening Customer Statement of Account (SOA) with invoice-level details

  • Opening Vendor Statement of Account (SOA) with invoice-level details

  • Opening journal details, if separately maintained

For AR/AP, SOA with invoice-level details is preferred over a summary ageing report. Ageing reports are useful as reconciliation support, but the migration needs invoice-level outstanding balances.

B) Full Current Fiscal Year / Full History Migration

Use this when current fiscal year transactions need to be migrated so reports can tie out for the full year after cutover.

Please provide:

  • Trial Balance as of the cutover date

  • Financial statements as of the cutover date, where available:

    • Profit & Loss

    • Balance Sheet

  • Opening Customer SOA with invoice-level details

  • Opening Vendor SOA with invoice-level details

  • Cutover Customer SOA with invoice-level details

  • Cutover Vendor SOA with invoice-level details

  • General Ledger details from fiscal year start to cutover date

  • Multi-currency ledger details, if available

  • If multi-currency ledger details are not available, invoice listing is fine

The General Ledger normally covers most transaction requirements for finance migration. Additional listings are requested only when the GL does not contain enough detail for reconciliation, multi-currency handling, or invoice-level matching.

C) Historical Prior-Year Migration

Use this when prior years are required for audit, analytics, or reporting inside Fr8labs.

Depending on the agreed scope, Fr8labs may request:

  • Prior-year Trial Balance / financial statement summaries

  • Prior-year General Ledger details

  • Opening and closing SOA / AR/AP support

  • Invoice listings if historical invoice-level reconstruction is required

D) Ops + Finance Migration

If the Operations module is included in the migration, Fr8labs may also request job / shipment listing details so invoices can be linked back to jobs and Job P&L can be validated.

If your system can export an ideal combined report

Option A (ideal): A database-level item-wise report that combines invoice details, ledger postings, tax breakdown, currency values, and debit/credit accounts in one place. This is audit-grade and minimizes reconciliation effort.

If your system exports separate reports

Option B (practical reality): Most legacy systems provide separate General Ledger, SOA, invoice listing, and payment/receipt references. Fr8labs will merge the available files as needed to reconstruct the migration dataset.

4) Checking the Data & Signing Off

When we finish loading your data, we do a few simple checks together:

  • Check totals: Trial Balance, Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet match your old system.

  • Check ageing: Accounts Receivable / Accounts Payable reports (before and after load) match.

  • Check jobs: Pick a few jobs and see if their invoices are linked correctly and Job P&L makes sense.

  • Check history: Every file we load can be traced back, and all current‑year invoices still show their full line‑item detail.

This way you and your auditors can be confident everything was carried across correctly.

5) Visuals

We include two charts below in this guide:

  1. Mid‑year migration phases


  2. Start‑of‑year migration phases


6) FAQs

  • What if our system lacks line‑item reports? We reconstruct by merging invoice listings with the GL.

  • Do you migrate payments first? We load outstanding invoices immediately, then current‑year invoices as drafts, and only then attach payments so outstanding balances stay correct.

  • Can you show Job P&L after migration? Yes—by mapping invoices to Jobs during the load.

Documentation owner: Fr8Labs Customer Success. Formatting reviewed: 21 September 2026; product behaviour not reverified in this formatting pass.