Moving Business Email to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace

Your email move starts before you change anything

It’s Friday afternoon. You’re waiting for a customer to approve a quote, a staff member can’t open the bookings inbox, and your phone has asked for the email password again.

Moving to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace sounds like a tidy fix. But the address on your business card is only one part of the job. There are old messages, shared inboxes, website enquiries and staff devices to bring across too.

We’d rather sort those details before the switch than leave you hunting for a missing quote on Sunday night.

A safer email move is a planned handover, not just a change of provider. Here’s what to check so the move supports your working week instead of interrupting it.

Why the details matter

Email holds more than conversations. It often contains job approvals, supplier invoices, attachments and records of what you promised a customer.

If someone spends the morning searching an old mailbox, that’s time they can’t spend booking work or getting invoices out. If an enquiry lands in an inbox nobody checks, you may miss the chance to respond.

There’s no honest, one-size-fits-all dollar figure for that disruption. Start with your own business: who relies on email, what work stops without it, and which messages would be hardest to replace?

Those answers help you decide what needs the most care.

1. List every address and what it does

Before choosing a migration method, make a plain list of your current email setup.

Include:

Each person’s mailbox, including yours.
Shared addresses such as info@, accounts@ and bookings@.
Aliases: extra addresses that deliver into another mailbox.
Forwarding rules and group addresses.
Former staff mailboxes that still hold business records.
Tools that send email, such as your website, scanner or booking system.

For each address, note who reads it, who replies from it and whether it needs its own stored messages.

An alias is not a separate inbox. A group that distributes messages is not automatically a shared mailbox either. Getting this wrong can leave several people receiving an enquiry without anyone knowing who has replied.

Ask staff what they actually use. The office computer may have a mailbox or forwarding rule you’ve forgotten about.

2. Check business ownership and account access

You need more than a working email password to move safely.

Check that the business can access:

The domain registration account.
The service that manages your domain’s DNS records.
The current email administration account.
The new Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace administration account.
Recovery methods and multi-factor authentication for those accounts.

DNS records tell other systems where to deliver your email. Your domain registrar, DNS host and email provider may be different companies.

Make sure access doesn’t depend entirely on a former employee, an old supplier or a phone nobody can use. Set up recovery options that remain available if your normal email is unavailable.

The business should retain control of its domain and main accounts. Give a migration helper appropriate access rather than sharing one owner password with everyone.

3. Decide how shared inboxes should work

Both platforms can support business email, but their shared-working options differ.

Microsoft 365 offers shared mailboxes with permissions for staff to read and send messages. Licensing and storage conditions still need checking.

Google Workspace offers options such as delegated mailboxes and Google Groups with collaborative features. These don’t all behave like a Microsoft shared mailbox, so test the workflow before deciding.

Use everyday questions:

Can two people handle enquiries without sharing a password?
Can staff reply as bookings@ rather than from their personal address?
Can everyone see relevant replies and sent messages?
What happens when someone leaves or takes holidays?

Neither platform fixes unclear responsibility by itself. Agree on who checks each shared address and how they mark an enquiry as handled.

4. Find old messages before you move them

Seeing years of email in Outlook doesn’t prove it all lives on your current mail server.

Some messages may be stored only on a computer, especially with older POP setups or local archives. Others may sit in separate archive files, online archives or former staff accounts.

Check:

Inbox, sent mail and custom folders.
Local archives and messages stored only on devices.
Large attachments and mailbox storage limits.
Contacts, calendars and shared calendars.
Rules, signatures and automatic replies.

An email migration doesn’t necessarily bring across all these items. For example, an IMAP migration generally moves email, not calendars or contacts.

Keep a recoverable copy of important records where appropriate, and confirm how you would restore or access it. Don’t delete old accounts just because the newest messages have appeared in the new system.

If retention requirements apply to your business, check them before removing old records.

5. Plan the switch and the catch-up

The usual aim is to copy existing mail first, then redirect new deliveries when the destination is ready. The exact process depends on your old provider and the migration tools available.

A sensible plan includes:

Create the new accounts, addresses and permissions.
Test a mailbox and shared-inbox workflow.
Copy existing messages using a suitable migration method.
Schedule the delivery change for a quieter period.
Change the relevant DNS records, including MX records for incoming mail.
Check both systems and copy across any late-arriving messages.

Mail can still reach the old provider while other systems pick up the DNS change. Keep the old service available through the transition and validation period.

Also review SPF, DKIM and DMARC settings. These help receiving systems check whether messages genuinely come from authorised senders for your domain. Include any services that send on your behalf.

Ask whoever handles the move what happens if a check fails. A recovery plan should account for messages already delivered to either system, not simply change DNS back.

6. Test real work before calling it finished

A successful login is only the first test.

Send messages to and from an external email account. Reply, include an attachment and check the sender address. Then repeat the tests for important shared addresses.

Test the less obvious paths too:

Submit your website enquiry form and confirm it arrives.
Check email-related workflows in Xero, ServiceM8 or other tools you use.
Try scanners or apps that send through the old email service.
Confirm shared calendars and mobile access work.
Compare old folders and sample messages against the new mailbox.

Give staff short instructions covering sign-in, multi-factor authentication, shared inbox access and who to contact if something looks wrong. Be clear about when to stop using the old setup.

Only retire the old service once migration checks, late-message checks and record-keeping needs are satisfied.

What to do next

Start with your address list and account-access check. Those two jobs often reveal the biggest risks before any settings change.

If you’d like help planning the handover, book a free 30-minute chat. We can help identify what needs moving, what needs testing and who needs access.

Our technology partner support helps join up those decisions, while ongoing support helps keep staff working after the switch. Pricing is fixed and set on a first call, with no lock-in or surprise invoices.