Office Move IT Checklist: What to Do and When

By Jalen May, network and systems engineer · Updated September 28, 2026

The short answer: order the internet circuit for the new address the week you sign the lease, get cabling run while the walls and ceilings are still open, start phone number porting at least a month out, install and test the network before move weekend, and cut over outside business hours. Everything else on an office move IT checklist fits around those five steps.

As soon as the lease is signed (60–90+ days out)

• ☐ Confirm which internet carriers can serve the new address, and order service. Get the install date in writing.
• ☐ Ask whether the carrier needs construction to reach the building. If so, plan a temporary backup connection.
• ☐ Walk the new space. Mark every desk, printer, TV, conference room and wireless access point location.
• ☐ Pick the network closet: ventilated, lockable, with its own power circuit.
• ☐ Get the landlord’s rules on cabling, ceiling access and work hours.
• ☐ Inventory what you’re moving: computers, servers, firewall, switches, phones, printers.
• ☐ Check which equipment is past end-of-support. Moving is the cheapest time to replace it.

While construction is underway (30–60 days out)

• ☐ Run data cabling before ceilings close and before furniture arrives.
• ☐ Label every drop at the wall jack and the patch panel, and test every one.
• ☐ Confirm the final furniture layout matches the drop locations.
• ☐ Start phone number porting. Porting can take weeks, and a rejected request restarts the clock.
• ☐ Update your address with your internet, phone and software vendors, and your domain registrar.

Two to three weeks out

• ☐ Confirm the circuit is installed and working at the new site.
• ☐ Install and power the rack, firewall and switches in the new closet.
• ☐ Mount and test wireless access points: walk every room with a phone.
• ☐ Test the internet connection, and failover if you have it.
• ☐ Back up every server and critical computer before anything is unplugged.
• ☐ Tell staff what to pack themselves and what IT will handle.

Move weekend

• ☐ Shut down and label equipment at the old office.
• ☐ Move servers and network gear yourself or with IT, not in the general moving truck.
• ☐ Reconnect and test every workstation, printer and phone.
• ☐ Confirm phones ring at the new office and voicemail works.
• ☐ Log in as a normal user and test email, files and your main business software.

First week at the new office

• ☐ Be on site or on call Monday morning for the small problems.
• ☐ Cancel the old circuit and phone lines, but only after the new ones are confirmed.
• ☐ Return leased equipment from the old site.
• ☐ File the updated network diagram, drop map and passwords somewhere you control.

The three items that cause most move-day failures

1. The circuit was ordered late. It is the longest lead item and can’t be rushed.
2. Porting wasn’t started. The phones ring at an empty office.
3. Cabling didn’t match the final layout. Desks end up far from the drops.

Moving an office in Central Ohio? We plan and run the IT side of the move from the circuit order through cutover. See office IT relocation services, or read about a network infrastructure upgrade if you’re replacing equipment at the same time.