The key to successful data transitions is preparation, and you are, therefore, expected to perform some ‘housekeeping’. The Housekeeping Document serves as a checklist of steps for you to complete before you provide data to LEAP for transition purposes. Preparing for the data transition is crucial, and it is an important time to tidy up the data in the old software as much as possible before starting. Our data transition at a transaction level will transfer all data, including records that, e.g., do not balance. The adage of garbage in garbage out applies.

Your firm must take several steps before the collection of the data. The housekeeping process ensures that the transition process runs as smoothly as possible and that the best possible outcome is achieved in terms of the data produced. The housekeeping process differs slightly for each legacy practice management product; however, all steps must be followed regardless of transition type (i.e., Standard, Opening Balances, Transactions).

Depending on how clean your existing data is, the housekeeping process can be lengthy. We, therefore, recommend starting as soon as possible to complete the process. Additionally, we suggest that any system or data checking program is re-run in the week before the nominated data collection date.

Your firm will need to mark off each completed step and provide a signed copy of the Housekeeping Document to LEAP together with the data for the transition.

Some of the tasks outlined in the housekeeping document may not seem relevant; however, LEAP recommends that all clients perform all tasks to ensure a smooth transition to LEAP. Please also remember that all transitions require a level of housekeeping once LEAP is installed. The more you do before a transition, the less there is to do after.

Potential issues to look out for:
Our data transitions are done electronically, i.e., the data is transferred in bulk and not scrutinised line by line. Even where a full transaction transition has been agreed, there may be some detail lost during the transfer. For example, one software system could store details of partially paid and billed disbursements, but in another, it is possible that this type of detail may not be available or may not be obtainable for other reasons. Under these circumstances, that data cannot be transferred as it isn’t possible.

There are some common issues faced in data transitions:

1. General Bank/General Account Balances: The general rule of thumb is Unpaid bills/Accounts Receivable + unbilled disbursements/costs = General Bank. The difference in features and functions of other software may cause variances in these balances.
   1. Variances in Unpaid bills/Accounts Receivable are usually caused by neglecting to allocate monies received to the unpaid bills, causing unallocated general bank credits. 
   2. Disbursements can be particularly tricky to transfer exactly. Software systems vary vastly, and it very much depends on how disbursements are recorded, e.g. one may reflect disbursement statuses such as unpaid unbilled or paid unbilled whereas another may not reflect these at all. In cases like these we may need to make certain deductions based on previous experience e.g. if there is a bill present, it’s likely to be a billed disbursement, but if no bill is present, it is likely an unbilled disbursement.
   3. Unallocated or incorrectly allocated receipts: Several software systems enable you to allocate funds received in the General Bank against specific bills/invoices or even disbursements. If the allocation is not done accurately, or when the system automatically assigns funds on an ‘oldest entry first’ basis, we may not transfer the balances you expect. LEAP will always migrate the balances as per the database. It is therefore recommended that you analyse your Accounts Receivable balances before the data transition.

2. Bespoke or custom data:  Clients details such as Title, Name and Surname are included in the transition; however, you may have additional fields, e.g. visa reference number on immigration files which is not a standard field. This will not form part of the data transition; however, you will be able to add it in LEAP.
3. Variances between reports caused by balances on closed matters: This is particularly visible in Accounts Receivable and WIP. Some reports will only reflect balances on live matters where other reports reflect all balances regardless of the matter status. A good exercise would be to clear the discrepancies before the data transition. If you have selected a Transaction Transition, we will import all balances, regardless of whether a file is archived or closed.
4. Draft Invoices/Bills: These are often memos or notational. The time, fee and disbursements entries assigned to draft bills are seldomly flagged correctly in databases e.g. the time and fees may be flagged as billed, but the disbursements as unbilled. Considering this, we do not import any draft invoices/bills as part of the transition, and recommend that you clear, delete, or bill all draft invoices/bills prior to the transition.
5. Billed Time not allocated to invoices: When bills are done either outside of the software or posted separately not linking the work in progress to the bill, there is no way for the us to accurately migrate only the “active” time. Some data tidy up once LEAP is installed may be required in this instance.
6. Documents / correspondence (including forms, PDF’s, Word files, emails, pictures and sound recordings) on Matters: This is not automatically included as part of the data transition for various reasons:
   1. Server applications: Data, i.e. information such as client details, matter details and financial transaction details are held in a database. Documents/correspondence are usually held outside of the database and only the document path, i.e. where it is held on your server, is available in the database. 
   2. Cloud applications: Documents/correspondence are held by your cloud provider and would, therefore, need to be a) downloaded by yourself or b) extracted by your provider.
      
      Both these options are resource heavy and can be costly. 

We offer a document extraction and import option from certain case management systems. The LEAP Transitions Department will provide you with information on this. If your documents/correspondence are held outside of your current software in a matter reference-based folder structure on your local PC, you will be able to bulk import your documents into LEAP once it is installed. 

If you have any questions about the Housekeeping requirements, please do not hesitate to contact the LEAP Implementations Team by email implementations@leaplegalsoftware.ca.