Migration Best Practice

The best time to start moving to Rebased is today. Open Settings → Accounting → Migration and talk with the Migration specialist in Intelligence. It recommends the next step, asks one question at a time, and does the migration work with your approval.

Pick your cutover date

There is one migration conversation. The main timing question is when Rebased takes over. Tell the specialist about your BAS cycle, last lodged period, payroll, and preferred timing in your own words. It recommends one date, explains why, and asks you to approve it.

For Australian businesses, prefer a BAS quarter start for the accounting cutover (the specialist uses this when it fits your answers):

• 1 July
• 1 October
• 1 January
• 1 April

1 July is the cleanest overall date when payroll is involved (BAS quarter, financial year, and STP income year align). Other quarter starts still work for GST; payroll can move on the next clear pay-date handover.

Product programmes (Standard Cutover, Books Recovery, Full History) describe how deep the import goes. Most businesses use Standard Cutover with the cutover date that fits them.

See Migration from Other Systems for the conversational journey, evidence list, and what happens when the destination already has data.

Standard Cutover expectations

• Native CSV / Excel exports from the source (Xero first), not a PDF-only import.
• Export balance reports as at the day before your cutover date — Rebased shows you the exact date to use.
• One current question at a time in Intelligence — you can still drop all exports, or a ZIP, into the composer at once and Rebased sorts them.
• Optional 0–3 prior-year Trial Balances if you want comparative reporting — not required to go live.
• Optional Fixed Asset Register, loan detail, Payroll employee list, and Opening leave balances when those apply — records only, no duplicate journals.
• If the destination already has data, tell the specialist whether you intended to keep and merge it or start with a fresh business.
• If cutover is ahead, early chart-of-accounts setup lets Onboarding finish linked accounts and item defaults; a final re-export at go-live is expected while the old system keeps moving.
• After your accountant finishes the source year, drop the updated Xero reports into Intelligence so Rebased can issue a Final Migration Certificate (see How Migration Works). The first drop is held for comparison only and does not change your books.

Payroll

Payroll can move to Rebased at any clear pay-date handover on or after your accounting cutover.

Your old payroll software owns the pays it already processed. Rebased owns pays from your first Rebased pay date.

During migration, Rebased can bring across employee records and opening leave balances from your old system. Leave carries over for tracking; your old provider still finalises its own STP. After that, Migration hands to Onboarding, which routes remaining payroll setup when it is due.

Before your first Rebased pay run:

1. Process the final pay in your old payroll software.
2. Lodge or finalise the payroll reporting required in the old software.
3. Confirm employees and leave balances in Rebased (imported via migration and/or completed in Team & Payroll), then finish Onboarding → Payroll setup (pay details, cycles, super, STP registration).
4. Process the next pay in Rebased.

Do not import previous-provider STP YTD into Rebased. Mid-year switches may produce income statements from both providers for that year — that is expected when each provider reports the pays it processed.

Payroll during an earlier accounting cutover

If your accounting cutover is before your first Rebased payroll date, treat earlier pays as external payroll in Rebased.

Example:

The April and early-May pays stay in the old payroll software for STP. In Rebased, reconcile the bank payments to wages/super/PAYG payable or clearing accounts (or match a posted payroll summary journal). Do not create Rebased pay runs for those old-provider pays.

Old platform close-out

Before you finish migration:

1. Finish reconciliation in the old platform up to the day before cutover (balances as at that date).
2. Export the final Trial Balance as at the day before cutover (the specialist names the exact date) and the other reports it requests.
3. Export Aged Receivables/Payables Detail, invoices and bills since cutover, and GST/BAS evidence as requested — plus asset register, loan detail, employee list, or leave balances when those appear on your list.
4. Finalise or close out old-provider payroll according to STP obligations.
5. Stop entering new operational activity in the old platform once Rebased is live.

Bank reconciliation

Bank reconciliation starts from your Rebased cutover date (the cutover day is included).

• Match invoices and bills where they exist.
• Code income and expenses to the right accounts.
• For old-provider payroll payments, clear to the relevant payable/clearing accounts — do not invent Rebased pay runs.

Opening balances

Opening balances should include amounts that already exist at cutover and will not be generated again in Rebased — bank, AR, AP, GST/PAYG, super/wages payable, loans, assets, equity as applicable.

Do not include a payroll obligation in opening balances if Rebased will create it from a future Rebased pay run.

Related Pages

• How Migration Works — Migration Certificate (Provisional or Final)
• Getting Started
• Migration from Other Systems
• Fresh Start Setup
• Opening Balances
• Setup Checklist
• Bank Reconciliation
• Payroll

Last updated: 22 August 2026