SaaS · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Three years of spreadsheets, one migration window
A startup moving from spreadsheets to a real ledger had to decide how much history to bring and from where.
UK startup, migrating from spreadsheets, 14 staff. Client identity withheld — we publish names only with written permission, so this engagement is described by its shape rather than by who it was.
3 years
History assessed
1
Verified conversion balance
9 days
Migration window
The situation
- The company had grown to fourteen staff on spreadsheet bookkeeping and needed a proper ledger before its next audit.
- The instinct was to migrate all three years of history.
What we found
- Only the most recent eleven months could be tied to bank statements with confidence.
- Earlier periods had gaps in source documentation that could not be closed.
- VAT had been calculated manually throughout, with errors in two quarters.
What we did
- Established a verified conversion balance at the last point that could be genuinely tied out, rather than migrating unverifiable history.
- Migrated detail from that point forward and archived earlier records with a documented explanation.
- Corrected the two VAT quarters and moved the return into the ledger.
The outcome
- The migration completed in nine days with a defensible opening position, rather than importing three years of unverifiable data.
- The auditor accepted the conversion approach and its documentation.
What we'd flag
The founders wanted full history migrated. Carrying unverified balances forward would have made the ledger look complete while being wrong — the archive-and-document approach is less satisfying and more defensible.
Start with a conversation
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