Moving off Best Practice VIP.net before 30 June 2027
If your practice runs on VIP.net, you have until 30 June 2027 to move to a supported system. This guide shows what changes, what happens to your data and when to act.
The readiness check then turns it into a dated plan.
Where are you with choosing your next practice management system?
What's happening to Best Practice VIP.net
Best Practice Software is sunsetting VIP.net, with two dates to plan around.
Integrations that may stop working from 1 July 2027
Plan a replacement for each before you switch.
You can keep a view-only copy on your own server, but it needs a valid SQL Server licence and Best Practice won't support it. Best Practice warns that unsupported software brings more downtime and greater exposure to data breaches. Source: Best Practice Software, Bp VIP.net Sunset 2027 FAQ
What a VIP.net migration involves
VIP.net holds years of appointments, clinical notes, letters, templates and billing history. The readiness check scores your practice on each of these.
Bp Comms SMS credits can't be used outside VIP.net. Have a reminder service ready before you switch.
Your database
Best Practice doesn't transfer the data for you. Your IT provider exports a .bak backup, and your new vendor converts it.
Images and exported letters
These sit outside the database backup, so they need to be copied separately.
What may not come across
Ask your new vendor to confirm in writing what transfers: demographics, appointments, clinical notes, letters, billing history and custom fields.
Templates and custom set-up
Letter templates, custom fields and appointment types don't map across. List the ones your team uses every week so they're rebuilt first.
Connected tools
SMS reminders, claiming, payment terminals, accounting and pathology results each need a replacement working before you switch.
Who to involve
A migration touches every role in the practice. Give each one a clear job.
A migration lead
Usually the practice manager, with time set aside for vendor calls, data checks and testing.
The practice owner
Signs off the new system and the cost of moving.
Your IT provider
Exports the database and copies images and letters.
Billing
Checks claiming, payments and accounting after the switch.
Reception and clinicians
Each need training before go-live.
Choosing your next practice management software
Best Practice has named two recommended options from Magentus for specialist practices.
Installed on your own server.
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Runs in the cloud. Works with Coviu.
Ask every vendor the same seven questions
Same questions, so the answers are easy to compare.
- What comes across from VIP.net, and what doesn't?
- How long does conversion take, and how much of the work falls on our team?
- What happens to our letter templates and custom fields?
- What training is included, and for which roles?
- How do SMS reminders, claiming, payments and accounting connect?
- Is it installed on our server or in the cloud, and where is our data hosted?
- What does it cost to move, and is there an offer for VIP.net practices?
A timeline that works back from 30 June 2027
Going live early leaves room to fix anything that doesn't come across first time.
- Name a migration lead
- List everything connected to VIP.net
- Choose your next system
- Ask your IT provider how you'll get the database backup
- Confirm in writing what transfers
- Run the conversion
- Copy images and letters
- Rebuild the templates you rely on
- Train the team
- Move reminders and integrations
- Go live with time to spare
Assignment of benefit has the same deadline
The updated assignment of benefit requirements started on 1 July 2026. Verbal assignment for bulk billed services is accepted until 30 June 2027, according to the Department of Health, the same day VIP.net support ends.
If you're changing systems anyway, decide how agreements will be captured and stored in the new set-up. Compliance stays with your practice.
Read our assignment of benefit guide →Your patient paperwork through the move
New patient forms, consent, referrals and reminders all get rebuilt when you change systems. It's a good time to stop retyping what patients have already told you. Whichever system you choose, check how completed forms reach the patient's record, and who chases the ones that don't come back.
Coviu sits beside your practice management software. It sends each patient the forms their appointment type needs, reminds anyone who hasn't finished and writes the answers into their record. It works with Gentu, Halaxy, MediRecords, Cliniko and Nookal.
How ready is your practice to move off VIP.net?
VIP.net migration FAQs
On 30 June 2027. VIP.net moves to maintenance mode on 31 December 2026, with critical fixes and fee updates only, and Best Practice technical support ends on 30 June 2027.
Only for reference. You can keep a copy on your own server in view-only mode, but it needs a valid SQL Server licence and Best Practice won't support it. There are no further updates, security patches or fee updates, hosted environments are decommissioned and integrations may stop working.
No. Your IT provider exports a .bak backup of the VIP.net database, and your new vendor converts it. Best Practice says it is working closely with Magentus on conversion to Genie and Gentu.
Not always. Best Practice notes that in some cases most information will populate across, and some can't. Ask your new vendor to confirm in writing what comes across: demographics, appointments, clinical notes, letters, billing history and custom fields.
Images stored outside the VIP.net database, and letters you have exported, aren't in the database backup. Back them up separately and give them to your new vendor.
Best Practice has named Genie and Gentu by Magentus as its recommended options for specialist practices. Genie is installed on your server, and Gentu runs in the cloud.
From 1 July 2027, Best Practice says integrations may no longer function, including Bp SMS, PRODA, ACC (NZ) and Xero. Plan a replacement for each one before you switch.
Bp Comms SMS credits can't be used outside VIP.net. If your practice bought excess credits before the announcement, Best Practice suggests contacting its account management team. Credits bought after the announcement don't qualify.
Yes. Best Practice refunds the remaining months on your subscription when you confirm your departure date with its sales team.
It depends on your data, your set-up and your vendor, so ask each vendor for their conversion timeline. A go-live date a few months ahead of 30 June 2027 leaves time to fix anything that doesn't come across first time.
The timing overlaps. Verbal assignment for bulk billed services is accepted until 30 June 2027, according to the Department of Health, the same day VIP.net support ends. After that you need a completed agreement for each assignment, kept for two years. Compliance stays with your practice.
Five areas: your timeline, data and records, connected tools, patient paperwork and your team. You get a score, a dated plan and a copy by email. Every question is multiple choice, and none of them ask about patients.
Yes. Coviu works with Gentu, Halaxy, MediRecords, Cliniko and Nookal. It sends each patient the forms their appointment type needs, reminds anyone who hasn't finished and writes the answers into their record.
Planning your move off VIP.net?
Talk to Magentus about moving to Gentu, or see how Coviu gets every appointment ready in your new system, from booking to your PMS.