Who to trust with a migration off spreadsheets onto Xero, Sage or QuickBooks

Moving from spreadsheets to accounting software feels like it should be straightforward—download, upload data, done. It rarely is. The migration itself is only half the problem; the other half is that whoever guides you through it will shape how your business records work for years. Unlike hiring someone to set up software on a blank slate, migration work involves unpicking years of custom spreadsheet logic, handling messy historical data, and deciding what carries forward and what doesn't. That's where real skill gaps emerge.

The first instinct is often to hire whoever offers the lowest quote or whoever set up a friend's books. Neither signals readiness for migration work. A general bookkeeper who can run your monthly close inside Xero may struggle to design a migration strategy from scratch. Someone certified by Xero or QuickBooks might excel at configuration but lack the forensic patience to understand why your spreadsheet workflow works the way it does before dismantling it. Migration isn't setup. It's translation.

Start by asking bluntly: have they migrated *from spreadsheets before, at scale*? Not just "yes, once," but how many times, for businesses like yours, and how many rows of historical data. Someone who's moved three tiny businesses off Excel isn't the same as someone who's migrated twenty small manufacturers or professional practices with five years of transaction history. The scale and complexity of your spreadsheet—number of sheets, lookup formulas, custom calculations, multi-year histories—matters enormously. If they've only worked with tidy, simple sheets, they'll underestimate your work and you'll pay for it later in missed edge cases.

Second, probe how they'd handle your actual data. Ask them to spend an hour reviewing your spreadsheet (not their time at your expense—a scheduled, focused review) and come back with a summary of what they see: problem areas, dependencies, data that won't port cleanly, decisions you'll need to make. A serious candidate will give you a written summary. They'll flag where your spreadsheet logic conflicts with how the software works. They'll ask clarifying questions about your processes. A candidate who says "sure, send it over, we'll sort it out on the day" is either overconfident or underprepared.

Experience with your specific software

If you're moving to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, confirmation of experience matters but not the way most people think about it. You don't need someone who's logged a thousand hours in the software—you need someone who's migrated *into* it repeatedly and understands its migration quirks and limits. Xero's data import has different constraints than QuickBooks. Sage has its own logic for chart of accounts and bank feeds. A Xero-certified advisor will know where Xero's import tools will choke and where you need workarounds. That knowledge is what you're paying for.

Ask them to name two or three recent migrations they've led into the software you've chosen. Request contact details for those clients. Then actually contact them and ask one specific question: "Did anything break after they handed the books back to you, or did you discover issues weeks later?" Bad migrations hide for a while. You want evidence of clean handovers, not just completed projects.

The migration plan

Before you commit, ask for a written migration plan: how they'll handle historical data, what happens to your spreadsheet after switchover, what testing they'll do, how they'll train you, and what "done" looks like. Not a template—a plan for *your* books. If they can't outline this clearly before you hire them, they're not ready. A trustworthy candidate will also name what you need to provide: clean reconciliations, payroll data, previous years' records, tax adjustments—so there's no ambiguity on the day.

The final signal is how they talk about risk. Will your data be backed up? Will there be a test run first? What happens if something goes wrong mid-migration? How long will you keep your old spreadsheet for reference? Candidates who acknowledge that migrations carry risk and have systems to contain it are rarer than those who breeze past it.

On Strove, you can find bookkeepers and accountants who specialise in software setup and migration. Filter by specialists who mention spreadsheet migration or data import experience, check their reviews for migration projects specifically, and use the messaging to ask the hard questions above before any commitment.