Blog
Ideas, analyses and problem-solving notes
Writing on systems, data, architecture, AI and the process of figuring things out.
Blog
Accounting Data Migration: Moving Financial Data Safely
How to migrate accounting and financial data between systems: what to move, opening balances vs full history, reconciliation, cutover timing, and the traps that break the books.
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Architecture Review: What It Covers and When You Need One
What a software architecture review looks at, when it is worth doing, what you should get at the end, and how to prepare so it answers the questions you actually have.
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Big Bang vs Phased Migration: How to Choose
Big bang or phased migration? How each approach works, the risks and costs of each, the questions that decide it, and how to make a phased migration not drag on forever.
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Codat vs Direct Accounting APIs: How to Choose
Unified accounting API (Codat, Rutter and similar) or direct Xero and QuickBooks integrations? The trade-offs in cost, control, data model and risk, and how to decide.
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Credit Decisioning: Build or Buy a Decision Engine?
Should a lender build its own credit decisioning engine or buy one? What each option costs, where the real complexity sits, and the questions that decide it.
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Data Migration Testing: How to Prove the Data Is Right
How to test a data migration: reconciliation counts and totals, field-level sampling, business-rule checks, rehearsals against production copies, and sign-off criteria.
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Fractional Solution Architect: When It Makes Sense
What a fractional solution architect does, when part-time architecture beats a full-time hire or a one-off review, how the arrangement usually works, and what to expect.
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Technical Due Diligence Checklist: What to Look At
A technical due diligence checklist for investors and acquirers: architecture, code and delivery, data, security, infrastructure costs, third-party dependencies, and the team.
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Xero API Integration: What to Plan Before You Build
Planning a Xero API integration: OAuth 2.0 and token refresh, multiple organisations, rate limits, webhooks, incremental sync, data mapping, and marketplace listing.
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Credit Decisioning: Designing for Data You Do Not Control
A credit decisioning system is mostly an exercise in handling unreliable external data and rules that keep changing. The scoring model is the easy part.
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System Integration: Decide the Shape Before You Connect
System integration is a data ownership problem before a connectivity one. How to choose between point-to-point, a hub, and events, and what each costs later.
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API Integration Checklist: What to Decide Before You Connect
API integration checklist: data contracts, authentication, failure handling, data boundaries, versioning, and monitoring to settle before connecting systems.
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Build vs Buy: How to Make the Decision (and Not Regret It)
How to decide whether to build, buy, or integrate software: the questions that matter, the hidden costs on both sides, and when each option wins.
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Data Migration Checklist: What to Plan Before You Move
A practical data migration checklist: the questions to answer about source data, mapping, cutover, rollback, and validation before you move a single record.
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How to Become a Solution Architect
How to become a solution architect: the skills that matter, common paths from engineering or analysis, and how to start doing the work before the title.
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Solution Architect vs Enterprise Architect: The Difference
Solution architect vs enterprise architect: how scope, time horizon, deliverables, and day-to-day work differ, and how the two roles work together.
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Solution Architecture Document: What to Include (+ Template)
What to include in a solution architecture document: problem, requirements, options, design, integrations, data, risks, and decisions. Template included.
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Leaving a Third-Party System? Plan the Data Migration First
What happens when you move off a third-party system to own your data: the assumptions that break, and why the plan matters more than the migration itself.
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