Firms move when they want public pricing, a workspace the whole team lives in, and a trial instead of a demo. Whatever you run today, the move is the same five exports, two CSV files and one reconciled month-end. This page is the SolicitorOS side of it, start to finish.
This page describes the SolicitorOS side of the move only. Confirm how to export from your current system with its provider.
Five reports. Your bookkeeper has produced every one of them before.
Name, type, email, mobile. Every practice system prints or exports this; ask your provider for a CSV if the screen only prints.
Your reference number, description, practice area and whether the file is open. Closed files can stay behind in the old system as a read-only archive.
The outstanding balance per client on the cutover date. Each becomes an opening fee note in SolicitorOS so statements and reminders continue.
The balance held per client on the cutover date, agreed to the reconciled client account balance. Each becomes an opening client account entry against the matter of that client.
Court dates and deadlines for the next ninety days. Subscribe the SolicitorOS calendar feed and re-enter what is live; history stays behind.
Two CSV files, matched on the header row. Rename headings in a spreadsheet if yours differ; extra columns are ignored.
name,client_type,email,phone,notes
Ashworth Solicitors,Company,accounts@ashworth.co.uk,020 7946 0123,Referred by Reid
Priya Nair,Individual,priya@example.co.uk,07700 900123,matter_number,title,practice_area,status
ASH001,Ashworth v Northern Rail,Dispute Resolution,Open
NAI014,Sale of 5 Monavon Road,Residential Conveyancing,OpenNot a file. Each debtor balance is captured as an opening fee note on the client, and each client balance as an opening client account entry on the matter of that client, dated the cutover date. The trust total must equal the reconciled client account balance before anything else is posted.
Open the trial, set up the firm, users and the trust and business bank accounts in Settings. Pick a cutover date at a month-end.
Import clients and matters by CSV, then any unbilled time. Run the old system as usual. New matters opened this week go into SolicitorOS only.
Reconcile the old system for the last time. Import your open fee notes as the amount still owing on each, and capture the client balances as opening client account entries dated the cutover date. Reconcile SolicitorOS to the same bank balance.
Work in SolicitorOS. Keep the old system read-only for lookups. Bill from SolicitorOS; receipts post here; the trust bank import matches itself.
Nobody has opened the old system in a fortnight. Export a final archive from it, keep the archive for the retention period, and cancel.
Worried about month-end? Show your bookkeeper the bookkeepers page. Worried about the accountant’s report? See how the client ledger and the audit pack work.
No. It takes CSV exports, and the client balances are captured from your trust report. That is deliberate: a reconciled cutover is safer than a database conversion nobody can audit.
No. Closed matters and old fee notes stay in the archive you export from the old system, and the retention rules apply to that archive as before. Open matters, current balances and live diary dates come across.
Clients, matters, unbilled time, your open fee notes and receipts against them, each as its own CSV, plus documents as a zip. Column names are matched on the header row, so headings like Invoice No. or Outstanding are understood without renaming anything. Every run shows what it will do to each row before writing, and can be undone. It is on every plan, including Solo.
On a reconciled month-end. The balance per client becomes an opening client account entry against the matter of that client, dated the cutover date, and the sum must equal the client account balance before you post anything else. Your auditor sees one reconciled cutover, not two half months.
Your bookkeeper or secretary can do the whole thing with the guide above; it is CSV files and opening entries. Firms on Firm / Enterprise get migration support included. Everyone can ask support from inside the workspace.
Your data exports from SolicitorOS as CSV at any time. There is no contract term beyond the month you have paid for.
Then you already have the client and matter lists, and the debtors and client balances are whatever your spreadsheets and bank statements say on the cutover date. Tidy the columns to match the header rows on this page and import; most small firms are done in a weekend.
A firm on SolicitorOS can take a copy of everything it has put in, whenever it likes, from a button in Settings: clients, matters, time, invoices, payments, the client ledger and the documents, as a ZIP of CSV files any spreadsheet opens. No request, no notice period, no call with anyone. That is worth knowing before you move in, not after.
See how buying SolicitorOS differs from buying an established suite, and what the rest of the workspace does.
Free for 7 days, no card, no sales call. If SolicitorOS does not earn the switch, your data exports back out.
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