Be clear about what you actually use
Before switching, look honestly at which parts of your current system are opened in a normal month. For the majority of shops the answer is billing, stock and a party ledger. Journals, cost centres and the accounting reports are set up once and never touched, because the CA works from their own copy. If that describes your shop, you are maintaining machinery you do not run — and paying for it in licence, maintenance and the complexity your counter staff face.
What changes for your accountant
They stop receiving a carton of bills and start receiving summaries: month-wise sales and purchases, party and supplier ledgers, GST data grouped for GSTR-1 and 3B with HSN detail, and a closing stock figure at landed cost rather than an estimate. Many CAs prefer this and charge less for it. Ask yours before you move — most will tell you straight, and their answer is worth more than anything on this page.
What you genuinely give up
Double-entry journals, depreciation schedules, cost centres, statutory payroll and the detailed financial reporting that comes with a full accounting package. If anyone in your business actually produces books, do not switch — you would be removing their tool. This is for shops where the accounting happens somewhere else and the shop itself is what needs recording.
Moving off installed accounting software
The export you need is smaller than you expect: masters for items and parties, and the current outstanding balance per party. You do not bring across vouchers, journals or years of transactions — those stay in the old installation, which you keep on the machine for reference and for anything your CA needs from previous years. Talk to your accountant before the switch rather than after, because they may want the closing balances at a specific date and it is easier to take them once. Item masters usually need unit work afterwards: accounting software tends to hold a single unit per item, and a material shop needs the conversion between how you buy and how you sell. Setup is a thirty-minute call and you bill in it. Stop the old system for new entries the same day; running both is what makes people drift back.