An old invoice reappears after the accounting system migration
Validate old receivable discovered after system migration rather than assuming imported balance is unpaid.
Corporate Recovery Partners
01 / 06
The new system reveals an old amount
A hypothetical business migrates its accounts and discovers a year-old invoice marked unpaid. The owner wants a demand sent immediately. First establish whether the balance survived the migration accurately. An imported opening balance may not show all earlier receipts, credits or adjustments, and collection should start from a reconciled account rather than a surprising entry on a new dashboard.
Obtain the old ledger, migration reconciliation and original invoice. Identify whether transaction-level information was imported or only a balance. Ask the accountant about any known conversion adjustments. Do not overwrite the migrated figure simply because the customer objects, but do not treat the software's status label as independent evidence that nothing was paid.
Business.gov.au recommends checking the contract and payment terms when pursuing unpaid money. For an old invoice, also give the adviser the relevant dates and history so any legal timing issue can be assessed. Do not assume a new system entry or a reissued statement restarts a legal period. This article does not calculate a limitation deadline.
In the hypothetical example, a payment may sit in an old suspense account or a credit may have been entered under another reference. Match available bank records and correspondence carefully. If the evidence is incomplete, label the gap and request the specific missing information. Avoid counting the same payment twice while trying to reconcile two systems.
Once the records have been checked, explain the amount you believe remains outstanding and ask for any contrary payment evidence. Use an accurate statement rather than presenting the migration as the customer's fault. If a genuine discrepancy remains, resolve it with appropriate advice before escalating a claim based on uncertain numbers.
Keep the original exports, corrections and explanation together so another person can follow the result. CRP can help assess suitable recovery steps for a verified old balance. The objective is to identify a real unpaid debt, not to turn a data-conversion question into an unnecessary dispute.
