An office move is not measured in cubic metres. It is measured in how many working hours the company loses. An office of twenty people standing still for a day costs more in lost production than the entire move costs to buy in.
Planning is therefore about one thing: everyone should be able to sit down and work on Monday morning. Here is how we set it up.
The timeline from decision to the first working morning
As soon as the decision is made
Check the notice period in the lease. For commercial premises it is often considerably longer than for a home, and it governs the whole timeline. At the same time, appoint an internal project owner — someone allowed to make decisions about money without asking upwards every time.
Three months ahead
Order internet and fibre for the new premises. Lead times are measured in weeks, not days, and this is the most common reason an office move falls apart. Go through the new floor plan: where each department will sit, how many workstations fit, and what needs to be added.
Six weeks ahead
Take inventory. Book the removal company. Decide whether the move happens in the evening or over a weekend. Cancel or transfer contracts: alarm, coffee machine, copier, cleaning, plant service, post.
Three to four weeks ahead
Order boxes and labelling materials, set the zone plan, and inform customers and suppliers of the new address. Register the change with the Companies Registration Office and the Tax Agency, and go through invoice templates, website, Google profile, signage and business cards.
The week before
Everyone packs their own desk. Archives and confidential material are packed and sealed. IT takes a backup and verifies that it can be restored. Final walk-through with the landlord of the old premises about cleaning and reinstatement requirements.
The moving day
Dismantling, transport, setting up, IT testing. In that order, without cutting steps.
The first working morning
One person receives people, shows them where they sit and collects fault reports. The checklist is at the bottom of this guide.
Inventory and labelling
Taking inventory is the step most companies skip and the one that saves the most money. Go room by room and decide for each piece of furniture: comes along, goes into storage, or gets disposed of. Disposing of a cabinet in Sundsvall is cheaper than paying to drive it to the new premises and then putting it in storage.
Labelling should be finished before the first box is packed:
- One colour per department and one number per room in the new premises. Put the floor plan with the colours up by the entrance in both buildings.
- Label boxes on the short side. In a stack, that is the only side you can see.
- Personal boxes with name and room number. Everyone packs their own desk by a set day. Anything not packed by then does not move.
- Photograph the cable tangle behind screens and under desks before anything is unplugged. Five seconds with a phone saves twenty minutes per workstation.
- Collect keys, access cards and alarm codes with one person and hand them over against signature.
IT and servers
IT is the critical path. Almost everything else can be adjusted afterwards, but a broken connection stops the entire office.
- New premises first. Network, wifi, printers, card readers and alarm should be installed and tested before anything is moved in.
- Servers and racks are dismantled last in the old premises and set up first in the new. Take a backup and check that it can be restored before anything is unscrewed. Label every port and every cable.
- Telephony and switchboard are moved in advance or diverted during the moving day, so customers who call get an answer.
- Build a day-one zone. A handful of workstations, one meeting room and one printer that are guaranteed to work first. The rest can land during the week.
If you use an external IT supplier, they should be booked to be on site during setup, not merely reachable by phone.
Archives and confidential material
Binders, personnel files, contracts and accounting records are the part of an office move that can become a real problem rather than just an annoyance.
- Do not sort through it in a moving box. Accounting records and personal data have their own requirements for how long they must be kept and how they must be protected. Take that decision with your accountants or whoever is responsible internally, not at seven o'clock on a Friday evening.
- Seal and sign for it. Confidential boxes are labelled, sealed and counted at loading and again at unloading. One named person is responsible for them.
- No interim storage in open spaces. Archive material goes directly from premises to premises, not into a stairwell or onto a loading dock overnight.
- What is to be discarded should be destroyed, not thrown in the skip. Book secure document destruction in good time.
Evening, weekend or weekday
Most office moves we do start on a Friday afternoon. Dismantling once the last person has left, transport and setting up on Saturday, IT testing on Sunday, and staff arriving at finished desks on Monday morning.
A few local factors affect the timeline in Sundsvall:
- Date parking applies in the built-up area between 00.00 and 16.00. After 16.00 the van may stand on either side if the street is wide enough. Evening loading is therefore often easier than loading in the middle of the day.
- Storgatan between Strandgatan and Nybrogatan is pedestrianised all year, but transport of goods to an address on the pedestrian street is exempt. We are allowed to drive there, at walking pace.
- If the van needs to stand for more than half a day on the street, a police permit is required. An exemption from the local traffic regulations costs 970 kr and must be applied for at least five working days in advance.
- A lift is not a given in Stenstan. The building regulations only impose a lift on new construction above two storeys, and the blocks in central Sundsvall were built long before that. Check lift, stairwell and door dimensions in both premises before the timeline is set, not during the move.
- In winter the loading route needs clearing and gritting and the floors need protecting. We bring mats, but someone has to have ordered the snow clearing.
Who at your company needs to be involved
An office move needs fewer people than you might think, but the right ones:
- The project owner, with a mandate to decide on costs.
- The IT lead, internal or external, involved from day one.
- The office or facilities manager, keeping contact with both landlords.
- One contact per department, responsible for their colour in the zone plan and for making sure everyone in the department has packed.
- Someone who communicates — staff, customers, suppliers, address changes and signage.
No more than that. Extra people involved in an office move mostly make the timeline vaguer.
Checklist for the first working morning
- Internet, wifi and network tested with real computers, not just lights that are on
- Telephony and switchboard answering on the right numbers
- Printers and copiers installed on everyone's computers
- Access cards, alarm codes and keys handed out and tested
- Coffee, break room and consumables in place
- Signage at the entrance and post handling sorted
- Meeting rooms set up and bookable
- One designated person to receive people, show them around and collect fault reports
- Old premises cleaned, inspected and the keys handed back
Do not forget the old premises
The lease almost always requires the premises to be left cleaned, and often reinstated when it comes to walls, cabling and signage. We do move-out cleaning and office cleaning with the same crew that does the move, which means nobody on your side has to coordinate two suppliers within the same twenty-four hours. Anything not coming along can go into storage or be taken away.
Planning an office move?
We give a fixed price before the job starts, are insured with Länsförsäkringar and approved for F-tax, and answer enquiries within a day. The RUT deduction applies to private individuals and not to companies, so a quote for an office move looks different — talk to your accountants about how the cost is handled in your case. Call 070-778 14 03 and we will go through the premises, the timeline and which twenty-four hours suit your operation best.
