What Happens to the Data We've Already Collected When We Switch to a New Platform?

Last month, a marketing director at a 22-attorney PI firm asked us the same question we hear in nearly every sales conversation: “We've spent three years building our spreadsheet system. What happens to that data when we switch?” She wasn't being resistant — she was being smart. Historical vendor spend, signed case counts, intake conversion rates: that's real operational knowledge. Losing it would sting.

Here's what we told her — and what every PI firm needs to hear before starting a migration: not all historical data is worth the same effort to move. Some of it is gold. Some of it was never reliable to begin with. And a small slice you think you need you almost certainly don't.

Below is an honest breakdown of what comes with you, what starts fresh, and why a clean start on certain metrics is an advantage — not a loss.

The Three Categories of Historical Data

Every PI firm's data falls into one of three buckets. Knowing which bucket each piece belongs in prevents a migration from feeling bigger than it is.

Category 1: Data That Should Be Imported

This is the data with lasting strategic value — the kind that gives you real baselines from day one.

• Historical vendor spend. What you paid each vendor by month for the past 12 to 24 months. Most revenue intelligence platforms import this via CSV. If your spreadsheet tracks spend consistently by vendor and month, this import takes an afternoon.
• Signed case counts by source. Even imperfect tracking has value here — it establishes baselines. If Vendor A averaged 16 signed cases per month last year at $3,100 per case, you now have a benchmark to measure against going forward.
• Settlement data.If you have records linking settlements back to original lead source, import it. This is the data most firms don't have — and having it gives you a head start that takes competitors 12 to 18 months to catch up to.

One honest check: is the data clean enough to trust? Consistent monthly spend by vendor imports cleanly. Fourteen tabs with merged cells and inconsistent vendor names may cost more to clean than it's worth to import.

Category 2: Data That Should Start Fresh

Some data is better rebuilt accurately than carried over incorrectly.

• Lead-level attribution.Over 80% of PI firms using spreadsheets have inconsistent source tagging in their lead records. Importing that data doesn't give you history — it gives you structured noise. A platform with native integrations captures attribution correctly from day one, and that clean data is worth more than years of unreliable entries.
• Intake conversion metrics. Rejection rates, time-to-contact, conversion by intake team member — measure these from a defined start date. Importing inconsistent historical intake data creates confusion rather than baselines.
• Alert thresholds. These should reflect your current vendor mix and staffing, not averages from periods where conditions were different.

Category 3: Data You Think You Need but Don't

This is the category that stalls migrations. Three years of weekly reports. Monthly PowerPoint decks. Spreadsheets with 40+ tabs tracking metrics no one has opened in six months.

When was the last time anyone pulled up the January 2024 marketing summary and used it to make a decision? If the answer is never, that data's value is sentimental, not strategic. Archive it. Keep it accessible. Don't let it hold up your transition.

The Sunk Cost Reality

The most dangerous reason to stay with your current system is “We've already invested so much time building it.” That investment is real — but it's already spent. The only question that matters now is: what system gives you better data at lower ongoing cost?

Run the math. A marketing director spending 15 hours per week on manual reporting — at a loaded labor cost of $55 per hour — burns $42,900 per year in time. And still can't track cost per case through settlement. Still can't get a real-time alert when a vendor goes sideways. Still can't produce a partner-ready report in under an hour.

A revenue intelligence platform at $3,000 per month ($36,000 per year) saves more in labor than it costs — before you count a single vendor optimization decision. The sunk cost argument for staying in spreadsheets is actually the financial argument for leaving them.

What a Good Migration Process Looks Like

A well-managed data migration for a PI firm takes 2 to 4 weeks. Here's what that looks like in practice:

1. Data audit (Week 1).Your implementation team reviews existing sources — spreadsheets, case management exports, vendor invoices — and maps what's importable, what needs cleanup, and what starts clean. You receive a written migration plan before any data moves.
2. Historical spend import (Week 1–2). Vendor spend history by month and by source is loaded into the platform. This is typically the cleanest data firms have and the fastest to import.
3. Case management integration (Week 2–3). The platform connects to LeadDocket, Filevine, Clio, or your current system. Existing open cases and their pipeline status are pulled in — giving you an immediate starting snapshot.
4. Historical case data (Week 2–3). If your case management system has reliable source attribution on past cases, those baselines can be established now. Quality depends on how consistently intake tagged lead sources.
5. Validation and go-live (Week 3–4). You review imported data side by side with your existing records. Numbers should match. Gaps get surfaced and fixed. This step builds confidence before the spreadsheets stop.

What About the Data in Our Case Management System?

Your case management system — LeadDocket, Filevine, Clio, MyCase — is likely your richest and most reliable data source. It holds case status, signed dates, settlement amounts, attorney assignments, and case type. A revenue intelligence platform with a native integration reads this data automatically. Nothing moves. Nothing gets replaced.

The revenue intelligence layer sits on top of your case management system, connecting case data to your marketing spend data to produce cost-per-case attribution that neither system generates on its own. You're not migrating data from one system to another. You're making the data you already have do something it never could before.

The Spreadsheet Archive Strategy

Don't delete your spreadsheets. Archive them. Here's the approach that works for most PI firms:

• Archive everything on day one. Move historical spreadsheets to a clearly labeled folder with a date stamp. Keep them accessible — just out of your daily workflow.
• Run parallel for 60 days. Keep the spreadsheet process running alongside the new platform for your first two months. Compare the numbers each week. This builds trust in the new system and catches integration issues before they become gaps.
• Shut down the spreadsheet at day 60.Once the platform is producing consistent, accurate data, stop maintaining the spreadsheets. Your marketing director recovers 15 hours per week. That's when the ROI starts compounding.

What You Gain by Making the Switch

The migration conversation focuses on what you might lose. Here's what you actually gain:

• Attribution you've never had.Your spreadsheets probably track leads and maybe signed cases by source. They almost certainly don't track settlements by source. That 6- to 18-month attribution gap is where the real cost-per-case data lives — and spreadsheets were never going to close it.
• Real-time vendor visibility.Instead of a monthly report that's two weeks stale by the time you present it, you see vendor performance daily. A vendor that goes sideways in week one gets caught in week one — not after you've spent another $35,000 on them at month end.
• Continuous vendor grading. The platform calculates cost per lead, cost per signed case, and cost per settlement continuously — across every vendor, every month — without a spreadsheet formula in sight.
• 15 hours per week back.Fifteen hours of data gathering, formatting, and report building replaced by 15 minutes of reviewing intelligence and making calls. That's not a small thing. For most marketing directors, it's career-changing.

The Honest Answer

Some of your historical data will come with you. Some won't. The data that matters most — vendor spend and signed case counts — is usually importable. The data that's hardest to migrate — lead-level attribution from inconsistent spreadsheet tagging — is also the data that was least reliable to begin with.

The real question isn't whether you can bring all your old data into a new system. It's whether your old data is accurate enough to base $300K-per-month decisions on. For most PI firms, the honest answer is no. That's not a reason to feel bad about three years of effort. It's the reason the switch is worth making.

Start measuring correctly now. In 90 days you'll have more reliable data than your spreadsheets produced in three years. In 12 months, you'll have settlement-level attribution that spreadsheets never could have delivered. The data you've already collected got you to this decision. The data you collect going forward is what finally proves your marketing ROI.