ERP strategy & selection
ERP data migration: a practical plan for clean go-lives
Plan ERP data migration: what to migrate, data cleanup, owners, templates, validation, opening balances, mock loads and cutover for Philippine companies.
Data migration is the most underestimated part of most ERP projects. Duplicate customers, items with inconsistent units, employees with missing government numbers and unreconciled opening balances can delay go-live or make the new system untrustworthy from day one. A structured plan, with business owners for each data set and multiple trial loads, makes migration predictable.
What to migrate
| Category | Examples | Typical approach |
|---|---|---|
| Master data | Employees, customers, suppliers, items, chart of accounts, assets | Clean and migrate fully |
| Configuration data | Pay rules, tax tables, price lists, approval routes | Set up in the new system, validated by owners |
| Open transactions | Open invoices, bills, POs, sales orders, loans, leave balances | Migrate as of cutover |
| Balances | General ledger, inventory quantities and values, AR and AP | Migrate as opening balances, reconciled |
| Year-to-date payroll | Earnings, contributions and tax withheld to date | Migrate for correct annualization |
| History | Past transactions | Usually keep in the old system for reference |
Migrating full history is rarely worth the cost. Keep the old system or exports accessible, read-only, for audits and reference, following retention rules.
Assign data owners
| Data set | Owner |
|---|---|
| Employees and payroll year-to-date | HR and payroll |
| Customers and AR | Sales and finance |
| Suppliers and AP | Purchasing and finance |
| Items and inventory | Operations and warehouse |
| Chart of accounts and balances | Finance |
| Assets | Admin and finance |
Owners decide what is correct; the project team handles formats and loading.
Data cleanup checklist
- Remove duplicates (customers, suppliers, items, employees)
- Standardize names, addresses and units of measure
- Complete mandatory fields (TINs, government numbers, item categories)
- Deactivate obsolete records rather than migrating them as active
- Validate bank details through a controlled process
- Reconcile subledgers to the general ledger before extracting balances
The migration process
- Templates: define the import format and validation rules for each data set.
- Extract from legacy systems and spreadsheets.
- Clean and transform with owners reviewing.
- Mock load 1: load into a test environment; review errors and results.
- Fix and repeat: mock load 2 (and 3 if needed) until clean.
- Validate: owners sign off counts, totals and samples.
- Final load at cutover: with balances as of the cutover date.
- Reconcile: confirm the new system matches the old for balances and totals.
Validation techniques
- Record counts per data set compared with source
- Control totals: AR, AP, inventory value, GL balances
- Sample checks: owners review a random sample of records in the new system
- Payroll test: compute a cutoff and compare net pay employee by employee
Cutover timing
Choose a cutover date at a natural boundary: month-end for finance, a payroll cutoff for payroll, a quiet period for stores. Freeze master data changes in the old system during final extraction, and communicate the freeze to all users. See the go-live checklist.
Where Cirquolus fits
Cirquolus proposals account for data migration as part of the rollout scope. Plan data ownership, cleanup and trial loads with our team during discovery. Related: ERP implementation guide and Excel to ERP.
Frequently asked questions
What data should be migrated to a new ERP?
Master data, configuration, open transactions, opening balances and year-to-date payroll. Historical transactions usually remain in the old system for reference.
Who is responsible for ERP data migration?
Business data owners decide what is correct; the project team manages templates, loading and validation.
How many trial loads are needed?
At least two mock loads are common, with more for complex data, until results are clean and validated.
Why migrate year-to-date payroll data?
So year-end annualization and BIR Form 2316 reflect the full year's compensation and taxes.
Bring this workflow to a Cirquolus demo.
Show us your current process, companies and branches. We will map it to the modules you need and propose a realistic rollout.