What is xero migration?
Moving to Xero with balances that tie to the period you left behind.
An Australian Xero migration carries a layer the US version doesn't: GST. Every ledger balance that moves across has GST sitting behind it — on outstanding invoices, unpaid bills, the BAS period that was mid-cycle at cutover — and none of that exposure is visible in a trial balance total on its own. Getting the dollar figures to match is necessary but not sufficient; the GST tax codes attached to every open transaction have to carry across correctly too, or the next BAS your registered agent prepares will be wrong even though the balances look fine.
Timing the cutover usually comes down to two options: mid-financial-year, or at 1 July. A 1 July cutover is the cleaner mechanical choice — the old system closes out a complete financial year, Xero opens fresh, and there's no need to split a BAS period or a year's comparatives across two systems. It's also, not coincidentally, when most Australian businesses actually decide to switch, since it lines up with their registered agent's own year-end workflow. A mid-financial-year cutover is workable and sometimes necessary — a system failing outright, a bookkeeper change forcing the issue — but it means a BAS period, and possibly the financial year itself, straddles two ledgers, which we document explicitly rather than leave for the agent to untangle.
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | Xero migration, the reconciliations and reporting behind it, and the questions list that keeps it honest. |
| Your registered BAS or tax agent | Everything that carries a licence in Australia — rendered exactly as written: work out what goes on your bas, or advise you on it — under tasa 2009 that requires registration we do not hold. |
| You | One conversation with one named person, and the decisions that are genuinely yours. |
Xero migration in Australia
1 July cutover avoids splitting a BAS period across two ledgers
Cutting over at the start of a new financial year means the old system closes a complete year and Xero opens clean, with no BAS period spanning two general ledgers. It's the timing most Australian businesses choose specifically because it matches their registered BAS or tax agent's own annual workflow — comparatives for the prior year stay entirely in one system, and the current year starts entirely in the other.
A mid-year cutover means the BAS period itself has to be reconstructed across systems
If cutover happens partway through a quarterly (or monthly) BAS period, the transactions that make up that period's GST figure exist partly in the old system and partly in Xero. We build a combined GST summary for that transition period — output tax and input tax credits from both systems added together — and hand it to the registered agent as one figure, rather than leaving them to reconstruct it from two exports themselves.
GST tax codes have to carry across on every open transaction, separately from the dollar total
An unpaid invoice or unreconciled bill sitting at cutover has a GST tax code attached — GST on income, GST-free, input-taxed, and so on — and that code has to map correctly into Xero's tax rate structure. A dollar-for-dollar trial balance match can look perfect while GST codes are silently wrong underneath, which only surfaces when the next BAS is prepared and the GST-collected figure doesn't match expectations. We check open-transaction tax codes as a distinct step from the balance tie-out.
STP continuity across a mid-year payroll switch
Single Touch Payroll reports each pay run to the ATO as it happens, so year-to-date employee figures — gross wages, PAYG withheld, superannuation — need to carry across as opening balances if payroll moves mid-financial-year, otherwise STP finalisation at year end won't reconcile against what was actually reported through both systems. STP finalisation and lodgment with the ATO stay with the registered agent; the YTD data feeding that finalisation is our responsibility to get right.
What your registered BAS or tax agent receives from us
- A side-by-side trial balance at the cutover date: old system and Xero, account by account, zero variance signed off
- A GST tax-code audit of every open (unreconciled) invoice, bill, and transaction at cutover, confirming correct mapping into Xero's tax rates
- A combined GST summary for any BAS period that straddles cutover, output tax and input tax credits from both systems totalled together
- Chart of accounts mapping between the old system and Xero, including any accounts merged, renamed, or newly created
- STP year-to-date opening balances per employee (gross, PAYG withheld, super) if payroll is moving mid-financial-year
- A written scope document agreed with the client and their registered agent covering what moved at transaction detail versus summary-only
