Laravel 5 Upgrade And Enhancements

I bought a Laravel 5 PHP 7.2 script on CodeCanyon a while ago and now I need it running on the latest stable Laravel release. The goal is a complete, clean upgrade—framework, Composer dependencies, and anything else that may be version-locked—while preserving everything that already works.

Alongside the upgrade I also want several new features added, so the codebase should come out not only up-to-date but noticeably better. Because there are custom touches in the current project, please pay close attention to backward-compatibility and keep any existing logic intact.

Deliverables
• Fully upgraded project booting on the newest Laravel version and PHP 8+
• Updated composer.json and package-lock files with all packages passing artisan tests
• All existing functionality working exactly as before, plus the agreed-upon new features
• Clear upgrade notes and a concise change-log so future maintenance is easy
• Final code pushed to my Git repository, ready for staging

Acceptance criteria
The upgraded application must install with composer install, run php artisan migrate:fresh --seed without errors, and pass browser smoke tests I will provide. If anything breaks, you fix it as part of the job.

If you have deep Laravel migration experience and can roll in new features efficiently, I’d love to hear your plan and timeline.