Legal Accounting Data Migration and Reconciliation Checklist

Overview

A legal accounting migration is successful only when the target system can reproduce the firm's financial position and support normal billing, trust, close, and reporting workflows. Moving records is not enough. Finance must reconcile what moved.

MATTEROOM's migration raw materials define a controlled process covering discovery, mapping and design, trial conversion, user acceptance, cutover, and stabilization. They also identify WIP, A/R, unapplied cash, write-offs, collections, trust, GL, opening balances, documents, permissions, and reports as reconciliation areas.

1. Define the Financial Cutover

Before data is extracted, document:

The cutover position determines which system owns each transaction.

2. Build the Data Inventory

Create an inventory of every financial domain.

Do not assume that every spreadsheet or reporting database is represented in the core practice system.

3. Approve Field Mapping

For each source field, define:

• Target design: target field, transformation rule, and default value if required

• Source treatment: data-cleaning rule and archive decision

• Acceptance: validation method and business owner

The mapping workbook should be approved before the final migration.

4. Clean the Source Data

Common issues include duplicate clients, duplicate matters, inactive users, invalid codes, and missing currencies.

Check financial and matter-data quality for old rates, unbalanced trust records, incomplete addresses, orphan transactions, and inconsistent matter status.

Fixing data before conversion is usually easier than explaining differences after go-live.

5. Reconcile Time and Expenses

MATTEROOM's source materials recommend reconciling time and expense totals by period, matter, and timekeeper.

Compare total hours, billable hours, nonbillable hours, fee value, and expense value.

Validate the detail for time by period, time by matter, time by timekeeper, expense by matter, and exceptions.

Any difference should have a documented reason.

6. Reconcile WIP

Check WIP at multiple levels: firm total, Office, entity, and currency.

Then inspect client, matter, and timekeeper.

Keep separate checks for fee WIP, cost WIP, and aging.

The target system should allow finance to drill from the total into the underlying transactions.

7. Reconcile A/R and Cash

MATTEROOM source materials specifically list A/R, unapplied cash, write-offs, and collections.

Validate total A/R, A/R by client, A/R by matter, A/R by invoice, and aging.

Reconcile cash through cash receipts, applied cash, and unapplied cash.

Include credits, write-offs, collection history, and currency.

8. Reconcile Trust

Trust requires its own sign-off.

Compare balances by bank, client, matter, and currency.

Inspect transaction and control detail for receipt, transfer, disbursement, outstanding item, reconciliation status, and control account.

The firm's jurisdictional requirements should determine the final acceptance criteria.

9. Reconcile the General Ledger

MATTEROOM's migration controls identify the GL trial balance and opening balances by entity, office, and currency.

Validate chart of accounts, trial balance, opening balances, and control accounts.

Check the agreed reporting scope across entity, Office, currency, ledger, dimensions, and journal history where required.

Operational balances and accounting balances must agree under the target design.

10. Rebuild Required Reports

Do not wait until after go-live to discover that leadership cannot reproduce a critical report.

Identify and test trial balance, revenue, WIP, A/R aging, trust, and cash flow.

Also test realization, utilization, invoice detail, matter profitability, missing time, and audit reports.

Compare source and target outputs with the same period and filters.

11. Run Trial Conversion

A trial conversion should use enough representative data to expose mapping, volume, reporting, and workflow issues.

Record loaded records, rejected records, transformation errors, reconciliation differences, and reporting differences.

Track operational findings covering integration issues, performance, security issues, user issues, and required corrections.

Repeat the process until the migration approach is stable.

12. Complete Role-Based UAT

Finance testing should include:

• Billing: time to prebill, prebill to invoice, and invoice adjustment

• Cash and receivables: cash receipt and A/R allocation

• Trust: trust receipt, trust transfer, trust disbursement, and reconciliation

• Accounting and close: journal, month-end close, and reporting

Lawyers, billing staff, administrators, and IT should also validate their own workflows.

13. Sign Off Reconciliation

The final reconciliation pack should contain:

Reconcile from firm total down to client, matter, and transaction detail where required.

14. Stabilize After Go-Live

Monitor first time entries, first expense cycle, first prebill, and first invoices.

Monitor financial operations through cash receipts, trust activity, bank reconciliation, GL posting, month-end close, and management reports.

Migration is complete when the firm can operate and reconcile normally in the new environment.