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Plan to Migrate to QuickBooks

By the end of this lesson, you'll gain valuable insights into planning for migration to QuickBooks Online. Here's a breakdown of what you'll learn:

  1. Navigating the QuickBooks Online Journey: Discover how to plan for switching to QuickBooks Online using the CAPMO planning framework.
  2. Aligning your business: Learn to define the scope and purpose of the migration.
  3. Supporting your team members: Understand how to support team members during and after the conversion.

The Journey to QuickBooks Online

Using the CAPMO Planning Framework

When you decide to switch a business solution, you're effectively altering how day-to-day operations are managed. And with an accounting solution deeply integrated into the business process, the impact is felt organization wide.

To ensure a smooth transition to QuickBooks, you can rely on a structured approach, such as the CAPMO framework: Consider, Align, Plan, Migrate, and Optimize.

This framework will guide you through the process of client migration and ensure you are well-prepared to support their transition to QuickBooks Online.

Each step in migrating to QuickBooks Online is essential for a seamless transition and the success of your business. Let’s walk through a hypothetical example with "EcoGear," an e-commerce company that has decided to migrate its operations to QuickBooks Online to enhance its business efficiency.

Why migration to QuickBooks may be crucial for a business?

QuickBooks Online offers a robust platform for managing your e-commerce business. By transitioning to this system, EcoGear aims to streamline its operations, improve financial management, and provide better customer service.

Align Your Business for Migration

Even though QuickBooks Online is easy to get started with, you cannot just get up one day and switch your business solution.

Generally, the accounting solution is deeply integrated into business operations, so as the champion of this migration, you're responsible for aligning teams and staff members for this upcoming change.

Developing and Implementing a Migration Plan

When preparing to transition your business to QuickBooks Online, creating a detailed migration plan is vital. Investing time in planning will ensure a smoother process and save time in the future.

Setting Up Your Migration Plan

At EcoGear, the project is led by the operations manager, Emma Brown, who works closely with the finance team to create a comprehensive plan for transitioning their business to QuickBooks Online.

Key Aspects of Your Migration Plan:

  1. Identify affected segments: Determine which segments of your business operations to transition first, such as inventory management or order processing, and ensure the appropriate QuickBooks Online plan is chosen.
  2. Data Conversion and Accounts Setup: Plan the data conversion from your existing system to QuickBooks Online and set up an appropriate chart of accounts to reflect your business operations.
  3. Bank Integration: Check if bank feeds can be established for your business accounts, ensuring seamless integration with QuickBooks Online.
  4. Product Demonstrations: Develop a standard demonstration to showcase the benefits of QuickBooks Online to your team, highlighting features like real-time inventory tracking and automated invoicing.
  5. Ongoing Support and Training: Develop support and training plans for your team, including regular check-ins and training sessions to ensure they are comfortable with the new system.
  6. Team Access and Personalization: Ensure each team member has access to QuickBooks Online and can personalize it to meet their specific needs, such as setting up dashboards for inventory levels and sales reports.
  7. Effective Communication: Maintain clear and consistent communication with your team throughout the migration process to build confidence and ensure everyone is on the same page.

For instance, EcoGear identified that their sales team needed customized sales reports and order tracking templates. They addressed these needs by setting up tailored features in QuickBooks Online and integrating it with HubSpot.

The Importance of Communication

To build confidence in the migration process, you must be transparent with your team. You can also provide each team with checklists and templates to plan ahead for migration.

Supporting Your Business Through Transition

If you're managing the migration process in-house, you'll have to provide additional support to your team or at least guide them in the right direction.

Even though QuickBooks is a user-friendly business solution, you may want to provide these useful links to your team members:

Summary and Next Steps

In this lesson, we've covered:

  1. The Journey to QuickBooks Online
  2. Aligning your teams and business
  3. Supporting your team members

Learn More

To delve deeper into these topics, consider exploring:

Next Activity

Start building and managing your migration project team to ensure a smooth transition to QuickBooks Online.