The Biggest HRIS Migration Pain: Nobody Wants Your Legacy Data — Until Now
December , 2025
By Chris Harvey
Switching HRIS or payroll vendors should feel like progress. A better system, smoother workflows, new features. But there’s one part of every HR/payroll transition that never feels like progress:
Figuring out what to do with your legacy HR and payroll data.
We’re legally required to retain years of historical employee information—typically seven or more. That data is essential when responding to employee questions, government audits, internal investigations, and yes, lawsuits.
But here’s the problem: Nobody wants to own that historical data.
Your old vendor doesn’t want to keep it. You’re leaving, so you’re no longer profitable—and long-term data storage is a low-value service for them.
Your new vendor doesn’t want it either. They can’t validate its accuracy, and accepting it creates compliance and liability risk they’d rather avoid.
So companies get stuck with the worst possible option - A digital storage box full of critical data that you can’t easily search, can’t easily report on, and definitely can’t analyze.
Something you keep only because you have to—and hope you never need.
And to make matters worse, all the valuable trend analysis, workforce insights, and historical metrics you could extract from that data are essentially locked away and unusable.
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Enter Paystoric: A New Kind of HR/Payroll Data Partner
I recently spoke with co-founder Liesel Pollvogt, who has built Paystoric around a simple insight:
Organizations have always needed a solution for legacy HR/payroll data…they just didn’t know one was possible.
Organizations have always needed a solution for legacy HR/payroll data…they just didn’t know one was possible.
Here’s how Paystoric solves the problem:
- Easy Access, Search, and Analysis - No more read-only portals. No more homegrown databases. You can actually use your historical data again.
- On-Demand Reports for Audits, Litigation, and Compliance - Produce required reports instantly instead of manually cobbling them together from archived files.
- Role-Based Access Controls - Keep sensitive information secure and visible only to those who should have it.
- Immutable, Certified Storage - Records are preserved in a way that proves they haven’t been altered—critical for legal defensibility.
- Unified View Across Multiple Legacy Vendors - If you’ve switched systems over the years, or acquired companies, Paystoric consolidates everything. No more hunting across disparate archives or pulling data manually from multiple sources.
What Data Can Paystoric Maintain?
- Employee Identity & Eligibility Records
- Hiring & Onboarding Documentation
- Job, Position & Status History
- Compensation & Pay Rate History
- Time & Attendance Records
- Payroll & Wage Payment Records
- Tax & Withholding Documentation
- Benefits & Dependent Records
- Leave of Absence (FMLA/ADA/State Leave) Records
- Performance & Conduct Records
- Safety & Workers' Compensation Records
- EEO & Diversity Compliance Records
- Termination & Post-Employment Records
Anyone who has ever experienced a wage & hour audit, ACA inquiry, or overtime lawsuit understands how invaluable this can be. Fast, organized, defensible access to historical data can shut down compliance issues before they become costly.
Planning a Vendor Switch in 2026?
If you’re already wrestling with how to handle legacy data—or want a clean break when you leave your current HRIS—Paystoric is one of the most innovative and genuinely useful solutions I’ve seen enter the HR tech space in years.
It fixes an age-old problem the industry has ignored, and it does so in a way that reduces risk and restores the value hidden in your historical data.
Your CFO will love you for finding this solution!
My recommendation: Take a look at Paystoric as part of your next HRIS transition.
Paystoric is offering special discount pricing through January 31 as part of their Advisory Customer program.
Visit Paystoric's website to learn more. www.paystoric.com.
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