From spreadsheets to one platform: a four-week plan

Why spreadsheets stop being enough

Spreadsheets are flexible, everyone can use them and they serve you well in the early years. The trouble starts as the business grows and the same information lives in several places. A customer’s phone number is one thing in the CRM sheet and another in the invoice sheet. A payment arrives by email, one person checks the bank and records it, someone else records the same payment again. At month end nobody can give a single answer to “what is this customer’s balance?”

With a single record, a customer is created once, and the quote, invoice, collection and reconciliation all link to that same customer. That is the point of the move.

What to move first

Trying to move everything at once drags the migration out. We suggest this order, because each step prepares the data the next one depends on:

1. Counterparties: The customer and supplier list. Every other record links to these.
2. Accounts: Bank, cash and credit card accounts.
3. Catalog: The products and services you sell, with default VAT rates.
4. Opening balances: Current-account balances, open invoices, bank and cash balances.
5. Staff: Employee records, leave balances, pay details.
6. Processes: Quote templates, service status flows, recurring expenses, automation rules.

The first four steps are required for bookkeeping to work. Steps five and six can follow after the first month is closed.

Cleaning the data

Bad data stays bad in a new system. Before moving, run these checks on your spreadsheets:

• Duplicates: The same company may appear three times as “ABC Ltd.”, “ABC Limited” and “A.B.C.”. Sort by tax number and merge.
• Tax and ID numbers: Business counterparties need a complete tax number and tax office; individual customers need a national ID number where required. Invoices and reconciliations depend on these.
• Consistent names: Keep the legal name in one column and the short name in another.
• Phone and email: Write phone numbers in one format and remove invalid emails. Reminders and reconciliation emails will go to these addresses.
• Currency: Flag counterparties you deal with in foreign currency.
• Personal data: Before moving data about people you no longer work with, review your reason for keeping it. Not carrying unnecessary data into the new system is also the right call under KVKK, Turkey’s data protection law.

Arrange the cleaned sheet to the import template’s columns and run a test import with a small sample first (say, 20 counterparties).

Opening balances

Opening balances are the most sensitive step; one wrong opening balance distorts every report for months.

• Source: Ask your accountant for the closing trial balance and the current-account balance list at the switch date. Opening balances should come from this official record, not from your own spreadsheet.
• Current-account balances: Where possible, enter balances per open invoice rather than as a single amount. Each invoice’s due date and collection are then tracked separately, and ageing works from day one.
• Bank and cash: Enter them to match the bank statement balance at the switch date exactly. If the statement and the trial balance differ, explain that first.
• Check: After entering opening balances, compare the platform’s trial balance with your accountant’s. Debit and credit totals should agree.

In the bookkeeping module opening entries are double-entry records too; the trial balance updates immediately and differences show up at once.

The parallel run

A parallel run means doing new work on the platform while keeping the old setup as a backup for a while. The goal is to see once that both give the same result.

• Create every new quote, invoice, collection and expense after the switch date on the platform.
• At the end of the first month, follow the steps in the month-end close guide on the platform.
• Compare the trial balance, bank balances and the balances of your ten largest counterparties with the old records.
• Note the differences; most come from a gap in an opening balance or a transaction entered twice.
• When the figures agree, make the old spreadsheets read-only and archive them. Continuing to do the same work in two places is the most common reason migrations fail.

Preparing the team

• Define roles: Who issues invoices, who records collections, who only sees reports? Grant permissions accordingly.
• Open in stages: Bookkeeper first, then sales, then everyone else.
• One source rule: After the switch date, do not say “let’s keep it in the spreadsheet too”.
• Connect integrations: Connect your email, SMS, e-signature and online payment accounts from the integrations page so reminders go out under your own sender name.
• Merge customer records: Move leads from the sales team’s spreadsheets into the CRM so quotes and invoices link to the same record.

What to measure in the first month

Judge whether the move is working with a few simple indicators rather than a feeling:

• Close time: How many working days did the first month-end close take? Is the second one shorter?
• Unmatched bank movements: As rules settle in, this number should fall every month.
• Questions from your accountant: Fewer questions about missing documents and unexplained differences mean data quality is improving.
• Spreadsheet use: Is anyone on the team still keeping a side spreadsheet? If so, find the need that is not being met.

Noting these for the first three months shows which habits have stuck and where support is needed.

Common mistakes

• Moving before cleaning and starting with duplicate counterparties.
• Entering opening balances from your own spreadsheet instead of the accountant’s trial balance.
• Trying to move every invoice from past years and delaying the switch for months.
• Letting the parallel run go on forever.
• Thinking about permissions only after the move; opening everything to everyone and trying to narrow it later.
• Telling your accountant at the end. Involve them from the first week for opening balances and chart-of-accounts decisions.