The Data You Don’t Miss Until You Need It: How Just-MIGRATE Protects Your Financial History in a Business Central Migration

Nobody misses their historic data on go-live day. The trial balance agrees, the suppliers are set up and the new system opens without a hitch. The gaps appear later: when a producer wants to compare the costs of this series with the last, when a supplier queries a payment from three years ago, or when a funder asks for reporting that depends on how costs were split two productions back.

That is the moment Just-MIGRATE is built for. It is our data migration app for moving the financial data of production companies from Sage 50 to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Its job is simple: make sure the financial history you will need later is still there, still structured and still makes sense once you have moved.

Built by people who know Sage data from the inside

Just-MIGRATE was not adapted from a generic migration package. We were Sage partners ourselves before specialising in Business Central for TV and film, and we built Just-MIGRATE from years of migrating Sage systems to Dynamics.

That background shapes what the tool looks for. Production companies rarely use Sage 50 exactly as it comes. Over time, they set up nominal codes, departments and job references to track spend by production, episode or cost category. Just-MIGRATE is designed around how those finance structures are used in practice, so it knows what they need to become on the other side.

What Just-MIGRATE protects

Just-MIGRATE focuses on your financial data. A migration can move every number accurately and still lose the meaning behind them, and Just-MIGRATE is built to keep both.

Cost centre structures
In production accounting, the cost centre is where the useful information lives. Just-MIGRATE maps your existing cost centres and job costing structures into Business Central’s dimension and project framework. Historic transactions still sit against the right production, department or cost category, so your past financial reporting holds together after go-live.

Financial data across multiple productions
When several productions have run through one set of books, their financial data needs to come across separately and reconcile individually. Just-MIGRATE separates and reconciles the financials for each production, so each title keeps its own cost history.

Supplier and customer records
Supplier and customer records come across with their full contact and payment histories. Accounts payable and receivable do not start from a blank page, and you can still see what was paid, when and to whom.

Historical transactions and open balances
Just-MIGRATE brings across years of postings to the general ledger, not just a snapshot of where things stand today. Unpaid and part-paid invoices carry across accurately, so nothing is double-counted or missed.

Your audit trail
For productions claiming tax credits or reporting to funders, broadcasters and co-production partners, how a figure was arrived at matters as much as the figure itself. Keeping your financial history and its structure intact gives you a defensible record. Once you are live, Business Central’s change log can record who changed data, when, and what the old and new values were for the tables and fields you choose to track.

You decide what moves

Protecting your data does not mean dragging every old record across. You have total control over what is migrated: we provide the data migration tools, and you bring in just the data you want.

Switching systems is also the ideal time to clear out old data and refresh your accounts to suit how the business works now. Just-MIGRATE is not a substitute for a data cleanse, and we are upfront about that. What it does is make sure the financial data you choose to keep arrives with its cost structure intact.

Coming from a system other than Sage 50? Our wider implementation services include data migration from your existing system, with the same control over what moves.

How Just-MIGRATE fits into your implementation

Just-MIGRATE is not a one-off transfer bolted onto the end of a project. It sits inside our structured implementation process, which runs from discovery through deployment, data migration, customisation, training, UAT and go-live, with support continuing afterwards.

1. Discovery. We draw on our knowledge of TV and film to set up well-known processes and data structures, then work with you to understand how your business differs. Any changes to the standard approach are documented and shared before the project starts. This is where your cost centres and job references are properly understood.
2. Migration alongside deployment. Your financial data is migrated as the new system is deployed, so the two are tested together rather than in isolation.
3. A defined cut-over point. If you are mid-production, open balances and current costs move at a cut-over point agreed with your finance team in advance, so there is no window where numbers are incomplete or duplicated.
4. User Acceptance Testing. Every element is tested before it reaches your UAT system. Your team then checks migrated costs, balances and reports against your own records, with our support to resolve any issues.
5. Go-live and beyond. Go-live is supported by the team who built the migration, on site or remotely, and support continues after that.

Before and after: an indie producer with five years of history

The example below is a simplified scenario to show the difference in approach. It is not based on a specific client.

An independent production company has run its accounts on Sage 50 for five years, across two feature documentaries and a drama series. It is moving to Business Central with Just-TV and needs all five years of historic cost data intact. Its financier compares the costs of new productions against past ones, and its accountant wants the full financial history in one place.

Before: a generic migration
The migration brings across the chart of accounts, supplier and customer lists, open invoices and a closing trial balance. Five years of postings become a single opening balance, and the old Sage files are archived just in case.

Six months later, the financier asks how the drama’s post-production spend compares with the previous series. The answer is in the archive, in a different structure, so the finance manager spends days exporting and remapping. When a supplier queries a three-year-old payment, nobody can see the history in the new system. The numbers were never wrong. They just stopped being usable.

After: a Just-MIGRATE migration
Discovery maps how the company used its nominal codes, departments and job references across all three productions. Just-MIGRATE translates those into Business Central dimensions, separates and reconciles each production’s financial data, and brings suppliers across with their payment histories. The finance team decides what to keep, then checks the migrated figures against their own records in UAT before go-live.

Six months later, the financier’s question is answered from one report, because every production’s costs sit on the same structure. The supplier query is answered from the ledger. With all the financials on one dataset, our reporting suite, including Power BI, Cosmos and JET Apps, can report across old and new periods without opening an archive.

Why production companies trust us with their data

Moving your data is a big decision, and the team behind it matters. We are a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Dynamics 365, with over 35 years focused on TV, film and media, more than 500 software implementations and a 97% customer satisfaction rate. We work with broadcasters, studios, production companies and distributors of every size, and our platform is modular, so independents can start with just the apps they need.

Ask CTM about a Just-MIGRATE assessment

The data you don’t miss until you need it is exactly the data a generic migration leaves behind. Just-MIGRATE is built to make sure your financial history comes with you.

If you are planning a move from Sage 50 to Business Central, ask us about a Just-MIGRATE assessment. We will look at what you hold, what you need to keep and how to bring your financial data across with its cost structure intact. Just-MIGRATE is priced separately from your implementation proposal, so you can see exactly what the migration involves.

Get in touch with Creative Total Media to book your Just-MIGRATE assessment.