For many businesses, the decision to switch accounting platforms is driven by a need for better control, more integrated operations, or the limitations of legacy software.
But while the benefits are clear, the migration process can be complex.
At Akita Intelligent Solutions, we’ve supported a number of organisations migrating from Sage, Xero and QuickBooks to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
These accounting software migrations are more than just technical upgrades—they represent strategic decisions to modernise financial management, improve insight, and prepare for long-term growth.
Based on our experiences, this guide is designed to help finance and operations leaders plan for a smooth, low-risk transition by outlining the key stages of a successful accounting software migration:
Why Organisations Are Moving To Modern Accounting Software
Businesses often encounter the same finance roadblocks as they become more successful. As companies scale, they may find that their current platform lacks the flexibility to support more complex operations, such as multi-entity management or international accounting standards. This, in turn, can hamper their growth.
Integration with wider business tools is also a typical point of contention, and reliance on spreadsheets for reporting and forecasting becomes unsustainable.
There’s also the issue of real-time insight. Decision-makers increasingly need live data and automated reporting to inform strategy, something traditional platforms often struggle to deliver.
Migrating to a more advanced, often cloud-based solution (like Dynamics 365 Business Central) resolves these issues by consolidating financial data, streamlining processes, and offering built-in business intelligence.
Planning Your Accounting Software Migration
The foundation of a successful migration starts with clarity.
Before diving into technical decisions, it’s vital to define your objectives. Whether your goal is to improve reporting, eliminate manual processes or support future growth, setting clear outcomes is vital. This will help align your internal stakeholders and guide your implementation partner in configuring the system to suit your needs.
Next, invest time in understanding your current financial processes. This includes everything from how invoices are raised and expenses tracked, to how your organisation manages reconciliations, approvals and compliance reporting. Mapping these workflows will help you spot inefficiencies and identify opportunities for improvement, rather than simply replicating old ways of working in a new system (better yet, have an external partner assess processes – they’ll likely know the most effective ways of working).
Data preparation is another crucial step. It’s easy to underestimate how much legacy data you’ve accumulated - much of which may no longer be relevant.
Use this opportunity to clean your records, removing duplicates, archiving outdated entries, and standardising names and codes. Starting with clean data not only ensures the accuracy of your new system, but it also shortens the migration timeline and reduces the risk of complications later on.
Building A Team And Choosing A Partner
A migration will typically require input from across your organisation. While finance will typically lead the project, it’s important to involve representatives from operations, IT, sales and any other departments that touch financial systems.
Clearly assigning roles and responsibilities from the outset will help avoid confusion and ensure progress stays on track.
Just as critical is your choice of implementation partner. Accounting software migration is not a one-size-fits-all process. An experienced partner will guide you through key decisions, manage data transfer, tailor workflows to your requirements and train your team.
At Akita, we’ve supported organisations across multiple sectors with successful migrations to Business Central; always with a focus on minimising disruption and maximising long-term value.
Timelines, Testing & Go-Live Planning
With objectives defined and a team in place, the next step is to establish a realistic timeline. This should include milestones for data cleansing, sandbox environment setup, training sessions, testing and final deployment.
While a detailed plan is important, it’s equally vital to allow for flexibility. Migrations can uncover unforeseen issues, especially when dealing with older systems or inconsistent data structures. They’re also an opportunity to take on the most effective ways of working, and sometimes these don’t become apparent until a project is already underway.
Testing is a phase too, should not be rushed. Before going live, trial the new system in a secure test environment to validate workflows, reporting outputs, user permissions and integrations. This gives your team the chance to familiarise themselves with the new interface, identify gaps, and provide feedback that can be addressed before launch.
Training is also a vital success factor. The functionality of a platform like Business Central can dramatically improve efficiency - but only if your team is confident using it. So plans for user adoption are key. Deliver focused training tailored to different user roles, provide clear documentation so that knowledge is retained, and signpost exactly when a change is taking place. That way staff will know there’s no reverse gear to this project.
Go-live should also be carefully timed; ideally at the start of a new accounting period or financial year. This reduces the complexity of reconciling data between systems and helps ensure a clean break.
Be sure to have your migration partner available to support you during the go-live window and consider contingency planning for the early days of live use (developers like Akita will typically offer a period of hypercare for assisting an organisation adjust).
Post-Migration Optimisation
Going live with your new accounting system is a milestone. But it's not the final destination.
After migration, monitor how users are interacting with the software, review feedback regularly, and look for areas to optimise. Many organisations find it useful to introduce more advanced features, such as automation, analytics dashboards or predictive forecasting, once the fundamentals are running smoothly.
This ongoing refinement ensures that your accounting software continues to evolve with your business, offering even greater value over time.
Akita: Expert Accounting Software Migration Partner
Akita Intelligent Solutions has helped numerous organisations across sectors make the move from Sage, Xero and QuickBooks to Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Our experience ensures that your accounting software migration is handled with precision, from initial scoping and data cleansing, through to training and post-launch support.
We don't just replicate what you had—we help you build something better.
By combining expert consultancy with hands-on support, we deliver a tailored solution that simplifies financial management, improves data visibility, and scales with your organisation’s ambitions.
Thinking about migrating your accounting software to a Microsoft solution? Speak to Akita’s Business Central consultants today and discover how we can support your journey to smarter finance systems:
