Office Move IT Checklist — Gold Coast

Quick answer

What should be on an office move IT checklist?

Order the new premises’ internet six to eight weeks early (carrier lead time is the one thing you cannot compress), certify or install data cabling while the office is empty, lodge phone number porting in advance, verify backups with a test restore before anything is powered down, label every device against a desk map, and test each desk before go-live. The full week-by-week checklist is below.

The Week-by-Week Checklist

Built from fifteen-plus years of Gold Coast office moves — and the rescues of moves that skipped steps. Print this page or save it to your move folder.

6–8 weeks out

☐ Order the internet connection for the new premises — confirm what the tenancy (not just the building) can get
☐ Book a site survey of both premises with your IT provider
☐ Confirm what moves, what gets replaced, and what retires
☐ Check the new floor plan against power and data point locations

4–5 weeks out

☐ Install or certify data cabling at the new site while it’s empty
☐ Fit out the comms rack, patch panels and switches
☐ Coordinate with the fit-out builder and electrician on desk positions
☐ Test every existing cable run — inherited cabling often fails

2–3 weeks out

☐ Survey and install business WiFi for the new floor plan — not the old one
☐ Lodge phone number porting or redirection with the carrier
☐ Decide the phone plan: cloud VoIP moves itself; on-premise PBX needs scheduling
☐ Order any replacement hardware so it arrives before move day

1 week out

☐ Verify backups — and test a restore, don’t just check the tick-box
☐ Label every device and cable against a desk map
☐ Confirm the movers know which equipment travels separately
☐ Stage a 4G/5G failover if the internet activation date is at risk

Move weekend

☐ Decommission in order: workstations, then network, then phones
☐ Transport servers and network hardware protected — never loose in the truck
☐ Recommission in reverse: network first, phones, then desk by desk
☐ Test each desk: login, network share, printer, phone

First Monday

☐ Have a technician on-site for go-live morning
☐ Keep a snag list — and clear it same-day
☐ Confirm number porting completed before cancelling old services
☐ Only cancel the old premises’ internet once everything is verified

Who Does What

Your business: the move date, the floor plan, budget sign-off, and telling staff what changes. Your IT provider: the survey, cabling, WiFi design, internet order, phone system and porting, the cutover itself, and desk-by-desk testing. The movers: furniture and boxes — never your servers or network hardware unprotected.

If you’d rather hand the whole technical side to one accountable party, that’s exactly what our office IT relocation service does — survey to go-live, quoted fixed-scope before work begins.

Frequently Asked Questions

How far ahead should IT be involved in an office move?

Six to eight weeks before move day. The immovable constraint is carrier lead time — business NBN connections routinely take two to four weeks to activate, longer in new developments — and number porting has its own queue. Everything else compresses; the internet order does not.

Who should own the IT checklist — us or our IT provider?

Share it. Your business owns the decisions (move date, floor plan, budget); your IT provider owns the execution (cabling, connections, porting, cutover). The failure mode is assuming the other party has it covered — walk the checklist together at the six-week mark.

Can we run an office move without an IT provider?

Small moves with cloud-only setups sometimes succeed DIY. But the expensive failures — dead internet, lost phone numbers, cabling that turns out to be fiction — are all discovered too late without a site survey. At minimum, have a professional survey both premises before you commit to dates.