Attaché to MYOB Advanced Migration for an Engineering Consultancy
Eleven years of financial data migrated from Attaché to MYOB Advanced Business. Integration with existing project tracking rebuilt. Four management dashboards live at go-live. Zero data loss.
Structural and civil engineering consultancy: 45 staff, project-based billing
A Melbourne-based structural and civil engineering consultancy with 45 staff. The business operated on a project billing model, with revenue tracked across 60 to 80 active projects at any time. They had been running Attaché v7 for eleven years.
Their finance function was lean: a CFO, two accountants, and an accounts administrator. The CFO had flagged Attaché as a migration risk for two years but kept deferring the project. A previous ERP migration attempt before HELLO PEOPLE had gone badly and left the team wary.
What needed to change
Attaché support had become unreliable. Calls took three to five business days to get a response, and many issues were closed without resolution. When a payroll tax table update failed to import correctly, the team spent two weeks resolving it manually because vendor support could not reproduce the problem.
The business relied on a custom .NET application for project tracking: job budgets, time entries, milestones, and billing schedules. This system connected to Attaché via an ODBC link that broke every time Attaché was patched. The link had been rebuilt three times in four years by a contractor who had since moved overseas.
Monthly management reporting consumed three hours of the CFO's time each month. Attaché's reports exported to CSV, which were then combined and formatted in Excel. P&L by division, WIP summary, and debtor aging were all manual consolidations. The business was 45 people but the reporting felt like a 15-person operation.
The most senior Attaché user retired in late 2024. She had been with the business for nine years and knew every quirk of the system. Her replacement was competent but had never used Attaché before. Training resources were almost nonexistent.
What we built
Migrated to MYOB Advanced Business, preserving eleven years of financial history. Rebuilt the project tracking integration using the MYOB Advanced API. Delivered four live management dashboards at go-live. Cutover aligned to 30 June end of financial year.
Data Extraction & Migration
Full extraction of eleven years of financial data from Attaché v7 via ODBC. ETL pipeline built in Python to transform and load into MYOB Advanced. Chart of accounts, customer and supplier records, transaction history, open AP/AR, payroll records, and job records all migrated.
Project Tracking Integration
MYOB Advanced API integration rebuilt for the existing .NET project tracking system. Job codes, billing milestones, and time entry approvals now sync bidirectionally. No more ODBC dependency. Integration monitored with automated alerting on failures.
Management Dashboards
Four dashboards built in React and connected to MYOB Advanced via API: P&L by division, WIP and project profitability, debtor aging with payment trend, and a 13-week cash flow forecast. The three hours of monthly Excel work is now replaced by a real-time browser tab.
Parallel Running & Cutover
Both systems ran in parallel for six weeks. Finance team validated balances, spot-checked transaction history, and ran the June payroll in the new system before cutover. Cutover completed on 30 June, aligned to end of financial year to simplify opening balances.
How it works
Attaché environment audit
We connected to the Attaché database via ODBC and catalogued every entity: chart of accounts, customer and supplier records, transaction volumes by year, payroll records, and job data. We also reviewed the .NET project tracking application to understand the existing integration architecture and what needed rebuilding.
Platform selection and data mapping
MYOB Advanced Business was selected over NetSuite and Xero based on the business size, job costing requirements, and the need for Australian payroll compliance. We mapped every Attaché entity to the MYOB Advanced data model and documented transformation rules before writing any migration code.
ETL build and test migration
Python ETL scripts extracted data from Attaché, ran data cleaning (deduplication of supplier records, normalising address formats, resolving orphaned transactions), and loaded into a staging PostgreSQL database before importing to MYOB Advanced sandbox. Test migration ran in week 6.
Finance team validation
CFO and senior accountant validated the test environment over two weeks. Opening balances reconciled to Attaché closing figures. Random sample of 200 transactions verified. Payroll records checked against ATO payment summaries. Three data quality issues identified and resolved.
Integration rebuild
The new MYOB Advanced API integration for the project tracking system was built alongside the migration. Bidirectional sync for job codes and billing. Tested against live project data from the existing .NET system before cutover.
Dashboard build and cutover
Dashboards built and validated against MYOB Advanced sandbox data in the final four weeks. Cutover on 30 June. Attaché kept in read-only mode for 90 days post-migration for historical reference.
Measurable outcomes
We had been on Attaché for eleven years and the last migration attempt was a disaster, so I was nervous. HELLO PEOPLE's process was methodical. Every number was validated before we went live. The dashboards alone saved us three hours a week from day one. We went live on 30 June without a single issue.
How we delivered it
Discovery & Audit
2 weeksConnected to Attaché via ODBC. Catalogued all data entities, volumes, and the existing .NET integration. Documented what needed migrating, what could be archived, and what needed rebuilding.
Mapping & ETL Build
4 weeksData model mapping from Attaché to MYOB Advanced. Python ETL pipeline built for extraction, transformation, and load. Data cleaning rules defined and applied.
Test Migration & Validation
4 weeksFull test migration to MYOB Advanced sandbox. Finance team validation over two weeks. Issues identified, corrected, and re-tested. Integration built in parallel.
Parallel Running
6 weeksLive migration to MYOB Advanced production. Both systems running simultaneously. Finance team processing transactions in both, validating results each week.
Dashboard Build & Cutover
2 weeksReact dashboards connected to MYOB Advanced API. Final data validation. Cutover on 30 June. Post-cutover support through first BAS lodgement.
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