Thomson Reuters is sunsetting FileCabinet CS on December 31, 2027. If you’re one of the 10,000+ accounting firms still running it, you’ve already started getting pitched. Every vendor in accounting technology wants to be your next platform.
What none of them will tell you is what migration actually costs.
We will.
This article lays out the real, total first-year cost of every major FileCabinet CS migration path, including platform fees, migration fees, and the hidden costs nobody puts on the landing page. All pricing is sourced from vendor websites as of August 2026 and linked where available.
The Two Costs Nobody Separates
Every FileCabinet CS migration has two distinct costs that many vendors deliberately blur together:
Cost 1: Getting your files out of FileCabinet CS. This is the extraction — pulling documents out of FileCabinet CS’s proprietary OLE Structured Storage format and reconstituting them as usable files. This is the hard part because FileCabinet CS doesn’t store standard PDFs. You can’t drag and drop your way out.
Cost 2: Your new platform’s ongoing subscription. This is the DMS, portal, or practice management tool you’ll use going forward.
Most vendors bundle these together because it hides the migration cost and locks you into their platform before you’ve had a chance to evaluate alternatives. Understanding these as separate line items is the single most important thing you can do before signing anything.
Option 1: Thomson Reuters Onvio (Stay in the Ecosystem)
Migration cost: $0. Thomson Reuters provides a free self-service migration tool. You download the installer, enter your Onvio credentials, select your drawers, and the tool exports directly from FileCabinet CS into Onvio. No professional services fee required. TR will even extend your FileCabinet CS licenses at no cost through their retention team to keep you current during the transition.
Platform cost: Custom quote. Thomson Reuters does not publish Onvio pricing. Based on TR’s enterprise positioning and market intelligence, expect $50–$100+ per user per month.
Year-one total for a 5-person firm: $4,400–$11,000+ (platform + estimated staff labor for self-service migration)
What to know: The $0 price tag requires context. The migration tool is self-service with no TR professional services support, and the process surfaces problems that firms are left to resolve on their own.
The migration tool is free. Your staff’s time is not. Thomson Reuters’ own documentation recommends beginning with small batches and resolving conflicts individually before proceeding. For a firm with 500+ clients and years of document history, the self-service process — downloading the installer, configuring credentials, selecting drawers in batches, monitoring for timeouts, resolving conflicts one by one, and manually renaming files with double extensions — represents 40–100+ hours of staff time. At loaded rates of $35–$50/hour, that’s $1,400–$5,000 in labor that never appears on an invoice. This is the same kind of hidden cost that makes DIY migration deceptive, except with Onvio, you’re also locked into the destination platform before you’ve confirmed it works.
The tool has documented failure modes at scale. Thomson Reuters’ own troubleshooting page states that documents which are too large cause web service timeouts during upload, and that these failures appear only in a Document Exception Report after the batch completes. The same page recommends that firms “begin the migration using a small batch of drawers so that you can experience the migration on a smaller scale and easily identify where potential issues may appear” (source). Client data that does not exactly match between FileCabinet CS and Onvio is flagged as a conflict, and “you can’t begin another migration until all conflicts have been addressed” (source).
Thomson Reuters’ post-migration review page documents additional issues: linked documents lose their linkage and become separate, unconnected copies; recurring folder structures are flattened from a parent-with-year-subfolders layout to a single-level structure; and exported files arrive with double file extensions (.xls.pdf, .doc.pdf) that require manual renaming (source).
Onvio has published reliability concerns as a destination. A SmartVault case study reports that MSB Tax & Accounting found that after onboarding a new book of business on Onvio, client portal access failed, questionnaires stopped functioning, and new accounts could not be created. A separate account in the same article describes a firm owner whose Thomson Reuters licenses were accidentally removed during corporate tax deadline season (source). These are competitor-published accounts and should be weighed accordingly, but they describe specific, named firms and specific failures.
TR reps may not recommend this path. We have heard directly from firms in 2026 that Thomson Reuters account representatives have described Onvio as designed primarily for new firms rather than as a migration destination for established practices. We cannot confirm whether this reflects TR’s official position, but it aligns with the technical limitations TR’s own documentation describes.
If Onvio does not work out, you face a second migration to your actual destination at full cost and timeline. The migration tool is free. The risk is not.
Option 2: SmartVault
Migration cost: Not disclosed. SmartVault does not publish migration pricing. On their website, SmartVault states that Thomson Reuters “quotes ~$18K” for migration and that SmartVault does it for “a fraction of the cost.” That $18K figure refers to Thomson Reuters’ professional services engagement for GoFileRoom migration (an enterprise product for larger firms).
SmartVault also discloses that they use “a trusted extraction supplier” for the actual FileCabinet CS data pull. This suggests they are not performing the extraction themselves but are subcontracting it. The cost of that subcontracted extraction is not published, but based on the complexity of FileCabinet CS extraction and typical professional services pricing in this space, expect migration fees in the thousands of dollars.
You must be a SmartVault subscriber to access their migration services. Migration is not available as a standalone service.
Platform cost (from smartvault.com/pricing, August 2026):
- Business Pro: $55/user/month (annual) or $75/month (monthly). 3-user minimum.
- Accounting Pro: $65/user/month (annual) or $85/month (monthly). 2-user minimum. This is the tier FileCabinet CS firms need — it includes UltraTax CS integration.
- Accounting Unlimited: $85/user/month (annual) or $110/month (monthly). 2-user minimum. Adds unlimited eSignatures and KBA/ID verification.
- SmartRequestAI (document collection add-on): $12.50 per return, sold in bundles of 50 ($625/bundle). Available on Accounting Pro and Unlimited annual plans only.
Year-one total for a 5-person firm (Accounting Pro annual): $3,900 platform + undisclosed migration fee
Estimated total: $5,000–$7,000+ depending on migration scope.
What to know: SmartVault is a strong product with deep UltraTax CS integration. But the lack of transparent migration pricing is a red flag for any firm trying to budget this transition. Ask for the migration quote in writing before you commit to the platform, and confirm whether the extraction is performed by SmartVault or a third party.
Option 3: DIY or Hire Your IT Consultant
Migration cost: $8,000–$15,000 in internal labor — or whatever your IT company quotes. At loaded staff rates of $35–$50/hour, manual extraction from FileCabinet CS is time-intensive and error-prone. FileCabinet CS stores documents as indexed page objects in a proprietary database — not as standard files. Each document must be individually exported and reconstituted. For a firm with 500+ clients and years of document history, plan for 200–400+ hours of staff time.
Platform cost: Varies by destination. SharePoint via existing Microsoft 365 is $0 incremental. Other platforms at their published rates.
Year-one total: $8,000–$15,000+ labor, plus destination platform costs
What to know: Most firms underestimate DIY migration by 3–5x. The risk isn’t just time, it’s data integrity. Incomplete exports, corrupted files, and lost folder structures are common when firms attempt manual extraction without specialized tooling.
But the bigger risk is data custody. Your FileCabinet CS database contains your clients’ Social Security numbers, tax records, bank account details, and financial statements — all governed by the FTC Safeguards Rule and IRS Section 7216. When you hand that database to your IT consultant, you’re entrusting your firm’s entire client history to a third party.
Here’s the problem: industry data shows that only about 9% of managed service providers hold a SOC 2 attestation. Some estimates put the number below 5%. Nearly all MSPs market cybersecurity services, but fewer than 1 in 10 can prove audited controls over the data they handle.
Before handing your FileCabinet CS database to any third party, ask for their SOC 2 Type II report. Ask about background checks on the staff who will handle your data. Ask about encryption in transit and at rest. Ask about data destruction after migration. If they can’t produce documentation on any of these, you have an unaudited party with custody of your clients’ SSNs.
Option 4: Liscio
Migration cost: Published, flat-fee, destination-agnostic.
- Small firms (under 25GB): $2,000
- Mid-size firms (25–100GB): $4,000
- Large firms (100–500GB): $7,500+
- Enterprise: custom quote
No subscription required — your files go wherever you want them: SharePoint, Liscio, SmartVault, Dropbox, NetDocuments, or any other destination.
Handled 100% in-house by US-based Liscio employees. Your firm’s sensitive client data never leaves the hands of full-time Liscio employees. Our migration team operates out of Ohio, Kentucky, North Dakota, and California. No offshore contractors. No subcontracted third parties. No anonymous “trusted extraction supplier.” Every step of your FileCabinet CS extraction is conducted under strict US data privacy standards and SOC 2 controls.
Standard migration: Weekday execution during business hours. Our team handles extraction, validation, and delivery on a scheduled weekday window. Included in all published pricing above. Backed by real-time support from our onshore US migration team, coast to coast.
Express migration: Weekend execution, minimal business-day downtime. We begin extraction Friday evening and work through the weekend to minimize disruption to your staff. Express handling carries a $1,000 premium. Express slots are limited each month and booked first come, first served.
Platform cost: Liscio File Folders with File Intelligence: $19/user/month.
File Intelligence classifies every document in your archive — tax returns, source documents, engagement letters, K-1s, W-2s — with per-document tagging that makes your files searchable and AI-ready. This isn’t a folder dump. It’s an organized, classified document library.
Year-one total for a 5-person firm:
- Migration only (to SharePoint or other destination): $2,000–$4,000. Done.
- Migration + Liscio platform: $2,000–$4,000 migration + $1,140/year platform = $3,140–$5,140
Limited-Time Bundle: 50% Off Migration with Annual Liscio Agreement
For firms that choose Liscio File Folders as their destination, we’re offering migration at half price when paired with a 12-month annual agreement.
- 5-person firm bundle: $1,000–$2,000 migration + $1,140/year platform = $2,140–$3,140 year-one total
That’s the lowest total cost of any option in this article by a significant margin.
What to know: Liscio is the only provider that separates extraction from platform selection. If you want to move to SharePoint because you already pay for Microsoft 365, we’ll put your files there. If you want to move to SmartVault, we’ll put your files there. If you want to move to Liscio, we’ll put your files there and classify every document with File Intelligence.
We publish our pricing because we think you deserve to know what something costs before you get on a sales call.
The Comparison, Side by Side
5-person firm, year-one total cost (platform + migration):
| Path | Migration Cost | Platform Cost (Annual) | Year-One Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onvio (self-service) | $0 tool + $1,400–$5,000 est. labor | $3,000–$6,000+ est. | $4,400–$11,000+ |
| SmartVault (Acct Pro) | Undisclosed (est. $2K–$5K) | $3,900 | $5,900–$8,900 est. |
| DIY → SharePoint | $8,000–$15,000 labor | $0 (M365 included) | $8,000–$15,000 |
| Liscio (standalone migration → SharePoint) | $2,000–$4,000 | $0 (M365 included) | $2,000–$4,000 |
| Liscio (migration + platform, no promo) | $2,000–$4,000 | $1,140 | $3,140–$5,140 |
| Liscio (bundle promo, standard) | $1,000–$2,000 | $1,140 | $2,140–$3,140 |
| Liscio (bundle promo, express) | $2,000–$3,000 | $1,140 | $3,140–$4,140 |
What to Ask Any Vendor Before You Sign
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What does migration cost, specifically? If they won’t give you a number, ask why. If the answer is “it depends,” ask what it depends on and get a written estimate.
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Who performs the extraction — and are they your employees? Some vendors subcontract the FileCabinet CS extraction to unnamed third parties. Your FileCabinet CS database contains SSNs, tax records, and client financials. Know exactly who has custody of that data at every step, whether they’re W-2 employees or contractors, and whether data is handled onshore or offshore. If you can’t get a clear answer, that’s your answer.
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Can I migrate without subscribing to your platform? If the answer is no, the migration is a lock-in mechanism, not a service.
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What’s the timeline — and when does the work happen? Self-service tools can take weeks of processing and conflict resolution. Most managed services run 4–8 weeks during business hours. Liscio offers weekday and weekend options to minimize downtime. For a detailed timeline comparison of every path, see How Long Does FileCabinet CS Migration Take?
The Real Deadline Isn’t December 2027 — It’s Capacity
Your individual migration takes days with Liscio, not months. That part is fast. Here’s what isn’t: there are 10,000+ firms that all need to move off FileCabinet CS, and every migration provider has finite capacity.
Each migration requires dedicated engineering resources for extraction, validation, and delivery. We run a fixed number of concurrent migrations per month. So does every other provider. SmartVault’s 4–6 week timelines will stretch longer as demand spikes. Onvio’s self-service tool doesn’t have a queue problem, but it does lock you into a platform many firms regret choosing.
Migration slots are limited and booked on a first-come, first-scheduled basis.
Firms booking today choose their preferred window. Once our monthly slots fill, the next available opening moves out, and express availability is the first to go.
Lock in your window with a migration assessment. No commitment required to hold your place in line.
Schedule a Migration Assessment →
Pricing data sourced from vendor websites as of August 2026. SmartVault pricing from smartvault.com/pricing. Thomson Reuters Onvio migration tool documented at thomsonreuters.com. All pricing subject to change — confirm current rates directly with each vendor before making a decision. For the full picture of FileCabinet CS’s end-of-life timeline and migration options, see FileCabinet CS Is End-of-Life: Your Migration Guide.
Liscio migrates your files out of FileCabinet CS and lands them wherever you choose. No platform lock-in required. Express weekend slots are limited — book your migration assessment to secure your window.