Getting your data back when leaving management software

A document export, an accounting export and a database exit are not the same thing

Three very different operations travel under the same word. The first takes out finished documents. KLARA thus documents exporting accounting reports and closing documents as PDF, the cash journal, customer data and the article catalogue from the screens concerned. WinBIZ, for its part, recommends printing or archiving the accounts as PDF before leaving. These files can be read, archived and shown to an auditor, and they reload into no other software.

The second operation takes out entries and master data in a format the next machine can read back. Crésus works with configurable templates, in text with tab separator or in csv with semicolon, the import templates being identical to the export ones. SelectLine offers guided assistants to text, XML, dBase, Paradox or OLE DB, with reusable models. smallinvoice publishes direct accounting exports to Banana, Infoniqa ONE 50 and Topal.

The third takes out the database itself, with its structure. Odoo gives access to the PostgreSQL database and the full dump, on-premise as on Odoo.sh. Run my Accounts documents downloading the client file database. Banana pushes the reasoning further, since the .ac2 file has never left the client's machine and stays backward-compatible with all earlier versions. A serious takeover starts by knowing which of these three levels the contract guarantees.

One vendor writes in black and white that access stops with the contract

WinBIZ is the most explicit. The vendor writes that from the end of the contract the client will no longer be able to access his WinBIZ Cloud data, and advises printing or archiving the accounts as PDF before the deadline. The exit to XLS, CSV or XML is done closing document by closing document. A local backup remains triggerable from the Cloud to the client's machine, which assumes knowing it exists and launching it before the cut-off.

The calendar counts as much as the format. The WinBIZ subscription runs over an initial period of twelve calendar months, renews tacitly by years and terminates with three months' written notice before the start of the renewal period. The decision to leave is therefore taken nearly a year before the actual departure. At the other end of the spectrum, smallinvoice announces monthly termination and downgrade without delay, and Crésus a rental terminable at thirty days.

At bexio, the help describes PDF and Excel exports as well as a backup function. No full database export is documented there as of 23 August 2026, which does not establish its non-existence, only that it can be read nowhere. Crésus Cloud, for its part, is a remote virtual desktop giving access to the desktop software, invoiced per simultaneous access. The files remain Crésus files, with the write lock of a single user at a time.

A recovered file is worth nothing if only the old software can open it

Keeping your file at home is reassuring, provided you can still read it in a few years. Banana's .ac2 format is announced backward-compatible with all earlier versions, and the vendor imposes no cloud, the file living on a local disk, an internal server or a third-party service of the client's choice. Crésus, conversely, rules out Dropbox, OneDrive, SharePoint, Google Drive, iCloud, kDrive and ownCloud, flags a risk of data corruption and declines all liability.

An old estate sometimes carries its own migration. Infoniqa has delivered no Actian licence since 1 April 2024, the Btrieve databases have to move to Microsoft SQL, and the ONE 50 versions of 2022 and earlier are no longer supplied. On the payroll side, the historical exchanges of the Lohn module remain ASCII files driven by a definition file, pexport.def, for which any field or format adaptation is referred by the vendor to the reseller or support.

The word to remember is dependence. A file readable only by the product that wrote it forces keeping a licence, a machine and a compatible system for as long as the retention obligation lasts. The question is dealt with with the fiduciary, together with the backup policy, and not on the day of termination.

The programming interface is the best exit tool, when the contract grants it

Exiting cleanly often assumes querying the software through its programming interface, and that is where access terms weigh. WinBIZ's API key is reserved for approved partners under the vendor's general partnership terms. On Odoo Online, data access through the external API exists only on the Custom plan, shown at 37,40 EUR per user per month. SelectLine includes the API from the Premium edition, at CHF 119.- per user per month.

Elsewhere the interface exists but covers only part of the product. smallinvoice's specification counts 102 paths spread over contacts, receivables, catalogue, reports, configuration and authentication, with no creditors, expenses or accounting endpoint, and pagination capped at 200 entries per call. At Run my Accounts, the PUT method covers only the customer resource, and key-in-URL authentication has been disabled since 1 April 2026, which forced a switch on existing integrations.

Installation counts too. Infoniqa's REST-API is not a service hosted by the vendor, it is set up on an IIS server at the client's, with a valid HTTPS binding, a signed processing agreement and a configuration form validated by Infoniqa, the vendor stating moreover that it cannot assist this installation. At KLARA, the documentation specifies that no test environment exists and every call works on production data.

Abacus, for its part, exposes AbaConnect for mass imports and exports, next to a REST API in OAuth 2.0 with a Swagger interface, while AbaNinja documents webhooks from the Basic plan. These eleven products, Banana, SelectLine, Abacus, bexio, smallinvoice, Odoo, Run my Accounts, Infoniqa ONE 50, Crésus, WinBIZ and KLARA, cover the essentials of what a French-speaking Swiss SME installs today, and none treats the exit the same way.

The six documents to obtain in writing before signing

The request is made before signing, while the supplier still has something to gain. A salesperson gladly answers a reversibility question as long as the contract is not signed, much less gladly twelve months later. It holds in six points, and each is checked on evidence rather than on a commercial promise.

A trial is worth more than a clause. Ask for an export of a real data set, even partial, then try to reload it into the target tool before switching. It is the only check that distinguishes an announced function from a usable one, and it runs during the evaluation period, when nothing is committed yet and the outgoing supplier has no reason to drag its feet.

• The list of available output formats, document, accounting entry and database, with a real sample file
• The exact scope of the programming interface and its access terms, edition required, key, quotas
• The fate of attachments and archived documents, and how they stay linked to the entries
• How long access stays open after termination, and what has to be launched before the cut-off
• The notice period and the exact date from which it starts running
• The name of the database format and the tool able to read it back without the original software

The exit question is negotiated on entry, while you still have the choice

The best moment to talk about the exit is when you are still talking about entering. The deadlines impose it, WinBIZ asking for three months' written notice before the start of the annual renewal period. An SME that discovers the clause in spring leaves the following year at best. The same question asked at quote time gets a written, dated answer, enforceable the day it will serve.

We sell no licences. Our work consists in reading what the vendor documents, asking for a real export of your data, trying to reload it into the target tool and recording what worked, with the date of reading. This file stays with you, whether it serves the planned migration or the one nobody had planned.

Where these answers come from

Every fact on this page can be checked at the source. The links open directly the website of the vendor or body concerned.

• WinBIZ, general terms and conditionsInitial period of twelve calendar months, tacit annual renewal, three months' written notice, licence limited to one workstation
• Banana, Free planCash Manager and Time Sheet unlimited, 70 entry lines, saving and copying blocked beyond, watermark on printing
• smallinvoice, API listing conventionsPagination limit and offset capped at 200 entries, filtering by JSON expression, sorting and full-text search
• smallinvoice, integrationsDirect accounting exports to Banana, Infoniqa ONE 50 and Topal, Pingen, PostFinance E-Finance and E-Salaer connectors
• Crésus, Facturation specificationsSupported platforms, single user for writing, multi-client capability, multilingual and multi-currency options
• Crésus and file synchronisation servicesOfficial answer ruling out Dropbox, OneDrive, SharePoint, Google Drive, iCloud, kDrive and ownCloud, risk of data corruption
• Odoo, external API in version 19.0External JSON-2 API, management and rotation of API keys, access rights and database selection
• Odoo, pricingPlans and list prices in EUR, the Custom plan being the only one to include the external API and on-premise
• Infoniqa, scope of the ONE 50 REST-APIResources exposed by the ONE 50 REST interface, accounts, addresses, cost centres, currencies, financial years, payment terms
• Run my Accounts, API authentication migrationpat_ keys in the Authorization Bearer header, definitive disabling of the key in the URL on 1 April 2026
• KLARA, developer documentation97 REST endpoints, no separate test environment, calls working on production data, unpublished rate limit
• bexio, API documentationREST and JSON API, OAuth 2.0 with OpenID Connect, personal access tokens, scopes, pagination up to 500 items

SURVEY OF 23.08.2026

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