Data migration planner

The planner we use on every migration, as a four-tab spreadsheet. It covers the timeline from export to go-live, a data inventory and mapping sheet, a trust balance check by client and a sign-off log.

Start it on the day you choose a go-live date. If Filebird is running your migration, we fill it in with you at the kickoff call. If you are moving between other systems, it works the same way.

The four tabs

• Timeline: every stage from export to go-live, with an owner and a due date on each task. Enter the go-live date and the other dates are calculated from it, counting working days only.

• Data inventory and mapping: every source of data, what it holds, whether it is coming across and where it will live in the new system.

• Trust balance check: one row per client ledger with a balance, comparing the old system, the bank and the new system at the cut-off date.

• Sign-off log: each stage, who approved it and when.

Each tab is set up for printing, so the trust check and the sign-off log can be signed on paper if your firm prefers.

The planner is a working document, not a report. Expect it to change daily during the first week as mapping decisions are made, and keep one copy that everyone works from rather than versions sent by email.

Planning the go-live date

The timeline counts back from go-live, so choose the date carefully: the start of a week, away from month end and any trust audit, and outside your busiest period. Once the date is set, tell everyone, including the lawyers who will not be involved until training.

Build in a buffer. If the trust check finds a difference late in the timeline, a few spare days mean you can investigate it properly instead of choosing between a rushed sign-off and a moved date.

Filling in the inventory

The inventory is the tab that saves the most trouble later. List every place the firm keeps data, not only the main system: spreadsheets, shared drives, email archives, the precedent folder and anything a single person maintains. For each one, decide whether it is migrated, archived or left behind, and record why.

• Matters and contacts, including closed matters inside their retention period.

• Documents and email filed to matters.

• Time entries, unbilled work, invoices and debtor balances.

• Trust ledgers and the trust cash book.

• Templates, precedents and custom fields.

Be generous with the inventory. It is easier to list a spreadsheet and decide to leave it behind than to discover after go-live that a team was relying on it. Ask each practice group what they use that is not in the main system. The answers are often surprising.

Running the trust check

The trust tab is where go-live dates are won or lost. Enter every client ledger with a balance at the cut-off date, then compare three figures for each: the old system, the bank and the new system after import. Any difference is investigated and explained before sign-off, however small.

Keep the completed tab. If an auditor later asks how trust balances moved between systems, it is the answer.

The check is the reason the planner exists. A migration can be late, over budget or awkward and still be a success. A migration that moves a trust balance incorrectly is a problem for the firm, its clients and its auditor, however smoothly the rest went.

Using it with Filebird

If Filebird runs your migration, we fill in the planner with you at the kickoff call and update it at every stage. You will see the same tabs we use internally, including the trust check, and you sign off each stage in the log before the next one starts.

If you are moving between other systems, the planner works the same way. Ask your new vendor who completes each tab, and do not go live until the trust check is complete and signed.

Whoever runs the migration, the firm should own the planner. Keep the finished copy with your records for at least as long as you keep the old system’s data.

How to adapt it

• Enter your go-live date on the first tab and every other date moves with it.

• List every source of data in the inventory, including spreadsheets and shared drives outside your current system.

• Add a row to the trust check for every client ledger with a balance, not only the large ones.

• Name one person at the firm who signs off each stage.

The sign-off tab matters most. Nothing leaves your old system until the firm signs off, and the log records who approved each stage and when. Keep the finished planner with your migration records, because auditors sometimes ask how trust balances were carried across.

Treat it as a starting point. Record retention and trust accounting rules differ between jurisdictions, so confirm what you must keep from the old system, and for how long, with your law society or state bar.