Switch in a fortnight

Lukas leads migrations at Filebird. In this session he takes Stuart Lowe back through Whitlock Rowe’s switch, stage by stage: export, map, check and go live. Stuart explains what the partners worried about, what turned out to matter and what they would do differently.

It is for managing partners, practice managers and anyone weighing up a move from another practice management system or from spreadsheets. You will see the actual planner the firm used, with client data removed. Stuart also shares the questions his partners asked before they agreed to the move, and the answers that settled them.

Why hear it from a client

Most migration stories are told by the vendor. This one is told by a managing partner who was sceptical about switching and is candid about it. Stuart’s partners had two concerns: losing a week of billing during the move, and moving trust balances without a mistake. The session shows how each concern was handled.

It is not a product demo. Filebird appears on screen where it helps explain a step, but the focus is on the decisions a firm has to make and the order they come in.

How the session runs

The recording is 38 minutes. Lukas and Stuart talk through the switch in the order it happened, with screens from the planner and the trust check where they help. You can pause at any point to compare a step with your own firm’s situation, and the chapters let you jump straight to the part you need.

Watching needs only your name and email, and nobody from Filebird will call you unless you ask.

Agenda

1. Choosing the go-live date

2. Export and mapping decisions

3. Checking every trust balance

4. The first week after switching

What you will see

• Choosing the go-live date: why Whitlock Rowe picked a Monday in the middle of the month, away from its trust audit, and how the date was announced to 22 lawyers.

• Export and mapping decisions: what history the firm brought across, which old matter types were merged and how custom fields were handled.

• Checking every trust balance: Lukas shows the client-by-client trust check, including the two ledgers that needed investigating before go-live.

• The first week after switching: the questions the team asked on days one to five, and the settings that answered most of them.

Stuart also shares the mapping sheet the firm approved, with client details removed, so you can see the level of detail involved.

Stuart is frank about the parts that did not go to plan. Two template dates were wrong on the first import, and a group of contacts came across twice. Both were found in the check stage and fixed before go-live, which is the point of having one.

Before you watch

• Make a list of the systems and spreadsheets your firm uses today, including anything kept outside your main system.

• Note any dates that would make a go-live difficult, such as a trust audit, month end or a heavy settlement period.

• Think about who at your firm would own the migration. Stuart’s answer was the practice manager, with a partner as a backstop.

If you are still choosing a system, watch with the person who would own the migration. The questions Stuart’s partners asked are a useful checklist for any vendor, not only Filebird.

Your hosts

Lukas Berg runs migrations at Filebird and checks every trust balance before a firm goes live. Stuart Lowe is managing partner of Whitlock Rowe, a 22-lawyer firm that moved to Filebird this year. The firm kept its old system read-only for a quarter and opened it twice.

Recorded on 30 September 2026 and available to watch at any time. Migration is free and takes about a fortnight, and Lukas is clear about which steps the Filebird team handles and which ones the firm owns. If you have questions about your own data, book a call with the migration team after you watch.

Common questions

Did the firm lose billable time during the move? Very little. Lawyers kept working in the old system until the Friday before go-live, and the final import picked up everything that had changed.

What happened to the old system? It stayed read-only for a quarter. Stuart says it was opened twice, once for an auditor’s question and once out of curiosity.

Can a larger firm switch in a fortnight? The fortnight applies to firms of up to about 50 lawyers. Larger firms follow the same four stages over a longer timeline, which Lukas outlines at the end of the session.

Does the firm need to stop taking new work during the switch? No. New matters opened in the old system before the Friday cut-off come across in the final import, and anything opened after it is opened in Filebird on Monday.

After you watch

The data migration planner shown in the session is available as a free template, and our guide, The switching playbook, sets out each stage in writing. If you are considering a move, book a call with the migration team. They will look at what your current system can export and give you a realistic timeline before you commit to anything.

Firms moving from spreadsheets rather than another system may find our article on Fairlie & Co. useful as well. Their switch took 11 days and needed more mapping than an export from another system usually does.