I am about to close an asset purchase of a company that uses Sage 50/Peachtree and the seller is recommending that I create a new file to export all the relevant information (e.g. balance sheet, customers, vendors, etc.) from the existing company and import it into the newco start clean. Up until now, I had assumed I would simply take over the existing Sage 50 system and just transfer the subscription into the newco's name.

The seller recommends the clean start approach for two main reasons: 1) he's made some quirky journal entries over the years to make the balance sheet balance and he claims that if I inherit this ugly GL, it will only confuse me/my CPAs; 2) He says the many years of historical data shouldn't be relevant for the newco's operations beyond what I've already gleaned from the QoE and what would be transferred in cleaned-up files.

I've done a QoE so I'm not concerned about the veracity of the numbers. I am really trying to understand the virtues of starting clean in an ERP system versus just taking over the whole system and file, as is

Any recommendations for this process?