An Office Relocation Checklist for Melbourne Businesses

A household move costs you a weekend. An office move costs you trading hours, and that's the number that actually matters. Almost every decision in a commercial relocation is really a decision about protecting uptime.

This is a practical sequence for a small to mid-sized Melbourne office move. Scale the timings to the size of the business.

Eight weeks out: decide the shape of it

• Confirm both lease dates. The overlap between the new lease starting and the old one ending is your entire margin for error. If there's no overlap, everything has to happen in one window.
• Appoint one internal owner. Someone with authority to make decisions on the day. Moves that are run by committee stall at exactly the wrong moment.
• Audit what you actually have. Desks, chairs, storage, screens, servers, kitchen equipment. Note what's leased rather than owned — that goes back, not to the new site.
• Decide what isn't coming. Office moves are the best opportunity a business gets to dispose of furniture nobody has used since before the last fit-out.

Six weeks out: the technical dependencies

IT and telecommunications are the long lead items, and they're the ones that will embarrass you if left late.

• Order the internet connection at the new site. New business connections can take weeks. Start here, before anything else.
• Plan the phone system. Number porting has its own timeline.
• Book your IT provider for the disconnect and reconnect. Servers and network hardware usually shouldn't move on a general removal truck.
• Check the new site's power and data. Are there enough outlets where the desks are going? Cabling changes are far cheaper before the furniture arrives.

Four weeks out: access and logistics

• Book loading docks and service lifts at both buildings. Commercial buildings are stricter than residential ones — expect defined hours, a booking form, and possibly a requirement for a certificate of currency from your removalist.
• Check dock height restrictions. This determines what size vehicle can be used, which determines how many trips.
• Confirm out-of-hours access. Most office moves run after close or over a weekend. Verify the building allows it and that security is arranged.
• Get a floor plan of the new site and mark where each desk, cabinet and printer goes. This is the single highest-value hour in the whole project.

Three weeks out: tell people

• Staff: the date, what they're responsible for packing, and what happens to their working day.
• Customers and suppliers: the new address, and any period where response times may be slower.
• Update the address everywhere: website, Google Business Profile, email signatures, invoices, letterhead, directories, insurance.
• Mail redirection from the old address.

Two weeks out: labelling system

Number every room and desk position on the new floor plan, then label every item with its destination number. It sounds fussy. It's the difference between a crew asking you where each of ninety items goes, and them simply putting things where the label says.

• Colour-code by department if the site is large.
• Give each staff member a crate and a deadline for their own desk contents.
• Label monitors, docks and cables per desk. Photograph each setup before disassembly.
• Keep a register of anything of high value.

The final week

• Confirm the removalist, the dock bookings and the IT attendance — all three, individually.
• Back up everything, and verify the backup actually restores.
• Have staff clear desks by close of business on the last day.
• Arrange the return of leased equipment and any keys or access cards.
• Book the end-of-lease clean and any make-good works your lease requires.

Move day

1. Your internal owner is on site at both ends, or there's one at each.
2. Walk the crew through the floor plan before loading starts.
3. IT goes in first at the new site, so the network is up before people arrive.
4. Set up a small number of working desks immediately — enough that the business can answer a phone the next morning even if nothing else is unpacked.
5. Check for damage while the crew is still on site.

The week after

• Confirm the old site is fully vacated and made good.
• Test everything: phones, printing, network drives, alarms, door access.
• Check every address listing you updated actually shows the new one.
• Ask staff what isn't working. There will be something.

Sequencing it to protect trading

For most small businesses, the lowest-disruption pattern is: move after close on a Friday, IT reconnection Saturday, staff settle in Monday morning. Larger sites often move in stages — one department at a time — so the business is never entirely offline.

Whichever pattern suits, agree it with your removalist in advance so the crew size and vehicle are matched to the window rather than to the volume.

We handle office relocations and commercial transport across Melbourne, and interstate to Sydney. Our business transport page covers what we take on, or send through your requirements and we'll work through the sequencing with you.