Migration from Other Systems

Move your books into Rebased through a guided conversation with the Migration specialist in Intelligence. Tell it about your business in your own words, drop in the files it requests, and approve the prepared migration when you are ready.

For the ownership model and official Migration Certificate types (Provisional or Final), see How Migration Works first.

Overview

Start from: Settings → Accounting → Migration, or continue your active Migration conversation in Intelligence.

Intelligence opens in the centre for migration so there is room to talk through the work. You can move it beside another page or collapse it whenever you prefer.

The specialist asks one question at a time. It saves only the fact you established, explains what it did, and immediately continues with the next question. If your answer is unclear, it asks for clarification rather than guessing.

The first supported journey focuses on Xero → Standard Cutover for Australian GST-registered service businesses. Other sources follow the same idea when their migration journeys are available: provide the requested exports, let Rebased check and prove them, then approve go-live.

For cutover-date tips and payroll close-out, see Migration Best Practice.

How Standard Cutover works

Standard Cutover brings the minimum you need to run day-to-day from an agreed cutover date, then proves that opening position:

1. Tell the specialist about your GST/BAS timing and when you want Rebased to take over. It recommends a cutover date for you to approve.
2. Answer its source-finalisation questions in your own words: which financial year is final, whether year-end journals are posted, and any useful tax-return context.
3. Answer only the discovery questions that apply, such as comparative years, fixed assets, loans, and payroll.
4. Drag the named exports into the Intelligence composer. Native CSV or Excel is preferred; multiple files and ZIPs are welcome.
5. The specialist tells you which files were accepted, duplicated, rejected, or still missing, then asks for the next required item.
6. Rebased prepares mappings and runs proofs. The specialist handles safe routine fixes and asks about business intent only when it needs you.
7. The specialist explains the prepared opening position and asks for approval. Your confirmation applies only to that exact action.
8. Rebased issues a Provisional Migration Certificate or Final Migration Certificate, depending on whether the source books are final. See How Migration Works.
9. Intelligence says the opening books are live and hands day-to-day setup to Onboarding. Chart of Accounts, Linked Accounts, and Opening Balances are already filled from the migration — do not re-enter them by hand.
10. If the certificate is provisional, keep using Rebased. When your accountant finishes the source year, drop the updated Xero reports into Intelligence. The first drop is held for comparison only. Intelligence confirms the updates are final, reports accepted or missing files once, compares only what changed, and asks for approval only if a ledger adjustment is needed. If nothing changed, Rebased issues a Final Migration Certificate without posting an adjustment.

The specialist recommends a programme; you should not need to study all three up front.

Destination already has data

If this Rebased business already has accounts, journals, invoices, bills, or bank transactions, the specialist explains what it found and asks whether you intend to:

• Start a fresh business if this was test data you do not want to keep, or
• Continue and merge if you understand migration will land into the existing ledger.

Prior-year comparisons (optional)

During discovery you can ask for 0–3 prior years of comparative balances. That adds optional Historic Trial Balance uploads (one Excel file per prior financial year end). It improves comparative reporting in Rebased; it is not a full history import and is not required to finish Standard Cutover.

What you will typically upload (Xero)

The specialist names the exact reports and dates it needs. For a clean Xero Standard Cutover, expect items such as:

Export your Trial Balance and other balance reports as at the day before your cutover date — Rebased tells you the exact date. If a later export uses the wrong date, Rebased asks you to re-export for that date.

If you have fixed assets, loans, or staff, Rebased can bring across your asset register, loan details, employee records, and leave balances too. Those create the operational records you need — they do not post duplicate accounting entries; your balances stay exactly as imported from the Trial Balance.

Follow the single current question in Intelligence. It is fine to export everything while you are in the old system and drop all files, or a ZIP, into the composer at once. The specialist sorts the bundle and reports the result once.

Cutover date tips (AU)

Migration is one continuous conversation. The specialist asks a few short questions first (GST/BAS cycle, last lodged period, clean quarter vs mid-period), recommends one date, and asks whether you approve it. You do not need to choose from a preset grid.

For Australian businesses, a BAS quarter start is usually easiest:

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

1 July is the cleanest overall when payroll is involved because it also starts a new STP income year. Other quarter starts still work; keep payroll handover on the next clear pay date.

Linked accounts and bank

After the chart of accounts is in (including early setup before a future cutover):

1. Rebased remounts core linked accounts (receivable, payable, GST, sales, retained earnings, BAS) from your imported chart. Confirm anything still open under Settings → Accounting → Linked Accounts — that is Onboarding, not a second migration.
2. On Bank, set up each imported bank account — connect a live feed or use statement import. Do not create a duplicate manual account for the same bank if the chart already brought it in.

When you Connect live feed from Ready to Set Up, the live feed starts from your conversion date (the books boundary you approved in Migration — that day is included). Activity before the conversion date stays represented by the opening balance. If you set up statement/manual first, you can connect a live feed later from that account’s card without creating a second bank.

After a Migration Certificate is issued, optional Lock Dates protect periods you have closed — Rebased applies the period lock only after that certificate exists.

Payroll during migration

Keep payroll handover separate from the accounting cutover:

• Accounting cutover — when Rebased becomes the accounting system of record.
• Payroll start date — the first pay date Rebased processes and lodges through STP (on or after cutover).

During migration, Rebased can import your Payroll employee list and Opening leave balances so staff and leave tracking are ready. Leave balances carry over for tracking only — your old payroll provider still finalises its own STP reporting. Rebased starts STP from zero for wages it processes.

After that import, Migration hands to Onboarding, which routes payroll setup (pay details, pay cycles, super funds, STP registration, and your first pay run) when it is due. Do not recreate old-provider pays as Rebased pay runs, and do not import previous-provider STP YTD.

See Migration Best Practice when accounting cutover is earlier than your first Rebased payroll date.

After migration

• Opening Trial Balance ties to the source
• Outstanding invoices and bills look right
• Linked accounts confirmed
• Bank setup complete from conversion — see Live Bank Feed
• Migration Certificate issued (Provisional or Final)

Then connect bank feeds, reconcile forward, and keep the old system available for historic audits. Getting Started has the remaining day-to-day tasks. The Accounting specialist monitors ongoing book health — it does not finish Onboarding.

Inspecting progress

The optional Migration workspace is a quiet, read-only place to inspect status and your Migration Certificate. Use it when you or your accountant want a closer look; you do not need to leave the conversation to continue.

Related Pages

• How Migration Works — Ownership transfer and the Migration Certificate
• Migration Best Practice — Cutover date, BAS quarters, payroll close-out
• Fresh Start Setup — New businesses with no migration
• Opening Balances — Conversion balance concepts
• Setup Checklist — Broader onboarding tasks
• Lock Dates — Protecting closed periods after go-live
• Bank Reconciliation — After cutover

Last updated: 24 August 2026