Most major accounting firms relied on the Wealth Write.Up platform, but the technology supporting it was outdated and unsupportable.
For more than 25 years, Wealth Write.Up has been a leading investment portfolio accounting system for family offices, accounting firms, and investment companies. It manages multi-entity investment accounting, tracks transactions across various custodians and currencies, calculates adjusted cost base, and handles general ledger work built for investment reporting. More than 250 organizations, and over 1,800 professionals, use it.
However, the platform’s foundation was built on Lotus Notes Domino by a “citizen coder”—a well-meaning entrepreneur whose application ballooned over the years. That person had looked to retire, and relying on his legacy solution became too risky for a system entrusted with billions in assets.
Wealth Write.Up needed to move to modern technology without losing complex accounting rules—and without causing problems for client organizations running $100 billion worth of transactions.
The Challenge: Enterprise-Scale Investment Accounting
“Our clients include some of the most capable family offices and accounting firms in Canada,” says Brian McGlynn, CEO of Wealth Write.Up. “We couldn’t afford mistakes.”
Clients depended on the system to process sensitive transactions reliably. Even short outages could affect reporting for thousands of investors.
The company evaluated traditional rewrite options, but proposed timelines stretched over years, and costs were high. Worse, an attempt to complete a rebuild quickly went from a one-year endeavour to a projected 5-year task—at 5X the original estimate.
Why Typical Migration Approaches Fell Short
The original approach was a slow and costly rebuild. But a proprietary platform meant an extensive requirements phase. The rebuild option was expensive and slow. And recreating a mature accounting engine accounting logic, ACB calculations, and specialized reports from scratch meant documenting decades of knowledge with no guarantee that key details would carry over.
Wealth Write.Up needed a partner who understood both the Domino environment and modern application design—especially for sensitive financial calculations.
The Rivit Advantage
Wealth Write.Up chose Rivit Technology Partners because of our deep experience with both the source system and modern architectures.
“What sets Rivit apart is our knowledge of both the Domino world and modern frameworks like React and Java,” says Rob Salerno, a Founding Partner at Rivit. “We can work in both worlds without slowing down.”
That experience was crucial. Rivit’s team quickly came to understand how the original logic worked—and knew how to migrate it to a modern environment without altering outcomes.
Business rules tied to Canadian accounting guidance were moved to new code with the same behaviour. Workflows that large firms relied on were preserved. Clients continued operating normally throughout the transition.
A Working Partnership
Both teams stayed closely connected through weekly reviews and shared problem-solving sessions.
“Our developers worked well with their testers,” Salerno says. “Communication stayed steady, and everyone cared about getting it right.”
Rivit designed a phased plan based on business risk, system behaviour, and practical rollout steps. When issues surfaced, both teams resolved them directly.
“We weren’t handed code and told to figure it out,” McGlynn says. “Rivit stayed involved, helped test thoroughly, and supported us the entire way.”
Technical Migration: Keeping the Logic, Updating the Stack
The platform transitioned from a desktop Domino application to a full-featured SaaS solution.
The legacy desktop application, built over decades, was moved to the cloud. Transaction processing across custodians and currencies was re-implemented with validation checks. And the reporting engine was meticulously rebuilt with the identical formatting and computations.
Rivit’s AI-based Revive platform automated repetitive conversion work, and experienced developers handled the sensitive accounting and tax logic.
“We had to maintain strict compliance throughout,” McGlynn says. “Rivit built the new system with that in mind so our SOC 2 certification would run smoothly later.”
The Outcome
Almost all 250 client organizations now run on the updated platform—with the last one scheduled according to its own timing, rather than being held up by any obstacle to upgrading.
There were no service outages during the transition. Firms continued handling transactions and generating reports without interruption.
Best of all, Wealth Write.Up now has a system that their team can maintain and improve without the risk of losing long-standing accounting rules.
Developers prefer working with the new technology. New features can be added faster. Integrating with banks and custodians is more straightforward. And hiring is easier, since Wealth Write.Up doesn’t have to search for specialized Domino talent.
“We now have a platform that will remain usable for decades to come,” McGlynn says. “The technology is current, and we preserved the accounting logic our clients depend on.”
What Made This Successful?
- A clear understanding of what was at stake. Everyone recognized the scale and treated it accordingly.
- Expertise across both platforms. Rivit understood Domino and modern frameworks well enough to translate the system precisely and without error.
- Strong collaboration. Both teams communicated openly and solved issues together.
- Proven methods. Rivit’s experience in similar projects proved invaluable in guiding the work.
Business-first decisions. The rollout followed priorities that made sense for Wealth Write.Up and its clients.
The Takeaway
Enterprise modernization doesn’t require discarding long-standing knowledge or causing service issues. Organizations handling sensitive financial systems should consider approaches that preserve critical behaviour while updating the underlying technology, because systems built on older platforms can be reliably moved to modern technology while keeping the logic that matters.
For Wealth Write.Up, the risk of staying on an aging platform—or rebuilding everything at once—was too high to remain complacent. Fortunately, we were there to help.
“Choosing Rivit was absolutely the right call,” McGlynn says. “We modernized without disruption and kept the trust of our clients.”
