Migration guides
Move your equity records with a plan your team can review
A migration has three outputs: preserved source records, an accepted destination dataset, and a clear change of operating responsibility. Choose a guide, assign owners, and keep a record of what was checked.
The universal migration procedure
These instructions describe a recommended process. They do not claim to reproduce current vendor menu labels. Obtain account-specific export and import instructions from the providers before acting.
Step 1 — Assign responsibility
Name one company migration owner, one receiving-provider contact, and the finance and legal reviewers. Record escalation contacts and agree who can accept the final dataset. Inventory entities, securities, currencies, employee locations, reporting frameworks, and upcoming events.
Exit condition: Owner and reviewers are named, with a scoped inventory.
Step 2 — Preserve source records
Export the available detailed data and documents. Record the export date, effective date, permissions used, entity, and any known exclusions. Keep untouched originals and work only from copies. Ask support about anything you cannot export yourself, including attachments and event history.
Exit condition: The archive manifest identifies every expected record set and explicitly lists gaps.
Step 3 — Select and contract with the destination
Give each candidate the same inventory. Request supported import formats, handling of historical events, document transfer scope, exceptions, service fees, milestones, and acceptance responsibilities. Confirm how secure transfer will work. Do not upload company records into this comparison website.
Exit condition: Receiving provider and company agree the scope and responsibilities.
Step 4 — Map and clean a working copy
Map source identifiers to destination identifiers. Normalize dates, country labels, currencies, and statuses without changing the underlying meaning. Flag duplicate stakeholder records for review. Do not merge records solely because names match, and do not replace an original document with a spreadsheet assumption.
Exit condition: Mapping and exception log are ready for a trial import.
Step 5 — Trial import
Import a representative sample through the receiving provider's agreed process. Include ordinary records and difficult cases: modified awards, terminated holders, unusual vesting, transfers, or non-standard instruments. Keep employee notifications disabled until the team is ready, if the provider supports that option.
Exit condition: Reviewers understand how every material source field is represented.
Step 6 — Reconcile
Compare source and destination at the same effective date and using the same definitions. Match ownership units by class and holder, awards by identifier, event history, and documents. Check vesting at selected dates. Separately reconcile accounting outputs with the finance reviewer.
Exit condition: No unexplained differences remain in critical ownership or award records; other exceptions have an owner and documented disposition.
Step 7 — Capture changes and approve cutover
Record every event that occurred after the first export and apply those changes once to the destination. Agree a short, controlled switch window; if a freeze is impossible, use an event register and explicit processing ownership. Confirm outstanding signatures, exercises, approvals, and payments individually.
Exit condition: Final data review is signed off, the working-system start time is documented, and open items have owners.
Step 8 — Activate and communicate
Check administrator, finance, adviser, and employee permissions before invitations. Send instructions explaining the new login route, where to ask questions, and what users should verify. Do not promise that every historical workflow behaves identically.
Exit condition: Access checks pass and support ownership is clear.
Step 9 — Archive and close
Preserve source exports, mapping, reconciliation reports, approval records, and unresolved-item dispositions. Cancel or amend old subscriptions only after reviewing the contract and completing required preservation. If source access is no longer available, recovery depends on retained records and provider assistance.
Exit condition: Company reviewers accept the handover and archive.
Progress is measured by accepted tasks and open blockers. A completed checklist is a record of what your reviewers accepted, not a statement that the migration is safe or approved.