Practical steps for migrating data to a new ERP or CRM: deciding what to move, cleaning data, repeated trial runs, reconciliation before go-live, and common mistakes to avoid.
When a business moves to a new system, its data is the most valuable thing it carries across: customers, suppliers, items, balances, contracts and transaction history. Yet data migration to an ERP or CRM is often treated as a technical task done in the last week before go-live, and the results show quickly: balances that do not match, duplicate customers, items without cost, and a team that loses trust in the new system in its first days.
Successful migration is a small project inside the project, with its own plan, owners and tests. In this article we set out an approach we find practical for companies in Saudi Arabia and Syria, whether the source is a legacy system, a local accounting program or Excel sheets.
What to migrate and what to leave behind
Not everything in the old system is worth moving. The first decision is to separate three kinds of data:
- Master data: customers, suppliers, items, chart of accounts, employees and cost centres. These are always migrated after cleaning.
- Opening balances: account balances, open customer and supplier items in detail, and stock quantities and cost at the go-live date.
- Historical data: old invoices and transactions. Moving all of it is costly and complex; a common alternative is to move summaries or only the latest period, while keeping the old system available for reference.
In Saudi Arabia, before retiring any old system, make sure invoices and accounting records are retained for the period required by regulation, and check current requirements on the ZATCA website. For CRM, decide in advance whether you will move past calls and correspondence or only open opportunities.
Cleaning and standardising data before migration
The simple rule: whatever enters the new system with errors will stay with errors. Cleaning therefore comes before any transfer and includes:
- Removing duplicates, such as a customer recorded under three spellings or two numbers.
- Standardising formats: mobile numbers, addresses, VAT numbers and city names.
- Completing fields the new system requires, such as an item's tax category or a supplier's default currency.
- Archiving inactive records instead of deleting them, or deferring them if they are not needed.
This stage needs the data owners themselves: the accountant reviews accounts and receivables, the storekeeper reviews items, and the sales manager reviews customers. The implementation team provides templates and tools, but it cannot decide on its own which two records are the same customer.
A step-by-step data migration plan
- Inventory the sources: identify every place data lives, including side files kept by staff.
- Map the fields: a table showing, for each field in the new system, its source in the old one and any transformation needed.
- First trial migration: load a sample or a full copy into a test environment and review the results with users.
- Fix and repeat: correct templates and data, then run a second and third trial if needed until material errors disappear.
- Freeze the data: set a cut-off after which entry in the old system stops, or anything entered afterwards is documented.
- Final migration and reconciliation: load balances as at the go-live date and formally reconcile them before opening the system for work.
Do not forget attachments and documents linked to records, such as contracts and commercial registration copies; they are often spread across shared folders and need a clear transfer and naming plan.
Transfers are usually done with the system's import tools, or with scripts and custom integrations when volumes are large or structures complex. What matters is that the process is repeatable, not a manual effort redone from scratch each time.
Reconciliation: how do you know nothing was lost?
Reconciliation is what turns migration from a transfer into a reliable process. At a minimum, the trial balance at the go-live date should match between the two systems, customer and supplier ageing should match, and stock quantities and value should match for each warehouse. The finance lead signs off the reconciliation before go-live.
In Syria, where books are often kept in more than one currency, reconciliation should cover balances in both the original currency and the base currency, with the exchange rate used at the migration date documented. In CRM, check record counts and that every contact is linked to its company and every opportunity to its owner.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Leaving migration to the final week with no prior trial run.
- Relying on one person who knows the data without documenting what they know.
- Moving total customer balances without the detail of open invoices, which makes collection and follow-up impossible.
- Deleting the old system or cutting off access before reconciliation is complete.
Conclusion
Data migration is a core part of ERP implementation or a CRM rollout, and it deserves to start early, with the project itself. It is one phase of a wider process we describe in our article on ERP implementation steps. At Haaltech we begin by inventorying your data sources and assessing their condition before drawing up the migration plan.
If you are preparing to move to a new system and want to be sure your data arrives intact, contact us.