Definition
Data migration is the process of moving a business's records, such as customers, suppliers, items and opening balances, from old systems and spreadsheets into a new system.
Data migration meaning in an ERP project
Migration usually runs in steps: decide what to bring across, clean and de-duplicate it, map old columns to new fields, load a test batch, fix errors, then load the final data at the cutover date. Master data such as customers and items comes first; balances follow on the cutover date. Most problems come from messy source data, not from the import tool.
Example: a trader cleans 4,000 customer rows down to 2,600 active companies, imports 9,500 items with names in two languages, then loads opening stock and the trial balance at month-end.
Bringing across every historical transaction is rarely worth the effort; opening balances usually do the job.
- Add data (CSV or Excel).
- Map columns.
- Validate (Every row checked): 1 row needs a fix.
- Result (With an error file).