Moving your loan book from Excel to loan software
Switching systems is mostly about checking balances. Here is what to prepare so it takes an afternoon, not a month.
The FinanceMe.lk team. . 6 minute read.
The biggest reason lenders stay on Excel is not the cost of software. It is the fear of moving years of loans across and getting the balances wrong. With a little preparation, it is a calm afternoon’s work.
What to prepare
You need one row per active loan. Closed loans can stay in the old file. For each loan, collect:
| Column | Example | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Borrower name | W. A. Kumari | To create the customer |
| NIC | 198756701234 | To avoid duplicate customers |
| Mobile number | 0771234567 | For SMS receipts and reminders |
| Loan amount | 50000 | The principal given |
| Start date | 2026-08-04 | To rebuild the schedule |
| Number of instalments | 20 | To rebuild the schedule |
| Instalment amount or rate | 2900 | To match your product |
| Total paid so far | 14500 | To work out the balance |
| Officer and centre | Sunil, Matara | For collection sheets |
Dates should all be in one format. NIC numbers should be stored as text so Excel does not turn them into scientific notation.
Clean up first
- Remove duplicate borrowers, or decide which spelling to keep.
- Check that every mobile number has ten digits starting with 07.
- Make sure each loan matches one of your loan products. If you have one-off loans with unusual terms, note them; you can enter those by hand.
Check the balances
Before saving anything, compare the outstanding balance for each loan in your sheet with the balance the new system calculates. Differences usually come from:
- penalties added by hand in Excel,
- instalments that were rounded differently,
- payments recorded in the book but not the sheet.
Fix the source, not the result. If your old penalties were informal, decide whether to carry them across or start fresh.
Run both for one cycle
For one full collection cycle, a week for weekly lenders or a month for monthly ones, record payments in the new system and keep the old book as a backup. At the end, compare the totals. Then stop updating the old book.
How FinanceMe.lk handles it
Upload your sheet and FinanceMe.lk suggests which column is which. It creates customers, rebuilds each schedule from the product rules, applies the amount already paid and shows every balance next to the one in your sheet before anything is saved. Rows with problems are listed with the reason, so you can fix them in Excel and upload again. Help with the import is included on every plan.