The complete IT checklist for setting up a new office

Office moves fail in a predictable order: internet ordered too late, cabling done after the furniture arrives, and day one spent watching a modem's blinking light. Here's the sequence we use for client moves, with the lead times that matter in Metro Vancouver.

8+ weeks out — the long-lead items

• Order internet first. Business fibre installs in Vancouver commonly take 4–8 weeks, longer if the building needs a new drop. Order the circuit the day you sign the lease. Add a backup connection (cable or 5G) — for a professional firm, redundancy costs less than one lost afternoon.
• Check the building's riser and telecom room. Older Gastown and heritage buildings can surprise you. Ask the property manager who the riser management company is.
• Book structured cabling to happen after walls are painted but before furniture. Two drops per desk, plus ceiling drops for Wi-Fi access points, boardroom TV, and printers.

4–6 weeks out — design and order

• Network design: firewall, switching, and Wi-Fi coverage plan (real access points, not a consumer router in a cupboard).
• Order hardware — workstations, monitors, docks, printers — with delivery to the new address, staged and configured before move day.
• Phone/VoIP: port existing numbers (porting takes 2–4 weeks; do not cancel the old service before the port completes).
• Plan the server question: a move is the natural moment to migrate remaining on-premise systems to the cloud instead of physically trucking a server.

2 weeks out — access and security

• Door access, alarm, and camera systems on their own network segment.
• Update business address everywhere logins depend on it: Microsoft 365 billing, software licences, bank tokens, CRA correspondence.
• Confirm insurance covers equipment in transit and at the new premises.

Move weekend

• Internet live and tested before anything else moves.
• Network core installed and verified Friday night; workstations placed and tested over the weekend.
• Every desk gets a login test and a print test before Monday 8am.

Week one — the wrap-up everyone skips

• Update Google Business Profile and website address (your local SEO depends on address consistency).
• Decommission old-office services deliberately — circuits, alarm contracts, cleaning out the old comms room.
• Document everything: circuit IDs, support numbers, network diagram, Wi-Fi credentials — in a place that isn't one person's memory.

Planning a move or opening a new office? This is a fixed-fee project for us — tell us your dates and we'll tell you if your timeline is realistic. The answer is honest even when it's unwelcome.