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Sage & QuickBooks

Is there an easy way to transfer Sage data into Xero? I have just been to see a client who uses Sage and discovered that their bookkeeping is in a mess. If I could transfer them to Xero I wouldn't have surprises like this! Their big problem is they don't want to lose their historic data.

Tags: Sage, new

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Permalink Reply by David Kime on April 13, 2010 at 20:01

We have had the same enquiry on many occasion. It would be great if Xero could do a data transfer tool but we have done the following:

1. Import suppliers and customers
2. Import sales invoices and credits
3. Import purchase invoices and credits
4. Put all bank transactions into excel and then import statement

It is messy and time consuming, but works.

One thing to remember is that you are not taking Sage away so why not have a cut off date whereby all history pre xx/xx/xx on Sage and after that on Xero.

However if their records are a mess, why do they want it anyway?

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Permalink Reply by Andy Thornton on April 14, 2010 at 13:45

Hi Stuart,

I have been working on this issue for some time now as colleagues have told me that there would be much more migration to Xero if the import facilities were comprehensive, simple and easy to use - but they are not. We have looked with interest at the ODBC route for extaction of data from both Sage and Quickbooks and although much of the historic data can be extracted from the incumbent package, Xero doesn't make it easy to access the new database to place the data. I had hoped the new API, released last week, would have helped here but it offers precious little more than the user level import facilities.

There is another issue in that terminology has to be translated. For example, Quickbooks uses a code letter and a description field to describe the VAT bands - Xero must have the specific descriptions in a precise format to work properly. As such there has to be some user intervention to make the translation work properly, therefore the solution is not simply the supply of a bit of smart code to fix the problem - it takes someone who knows their way around a database. Don't even begin to mention import of an items & pricing lists!

As for historic data, I agree with David Klime in that if your clients existing system is in such a mess, then why would you want to import it. Retaining the original package "on ice" as it were does allow the customer to cross reference any historic data or failing that just output the data to any easily accessible format such as Excel, Access or even readable PDF files should offer the security of being able to look back at history.

History is the past.... let's move this forward.

As we are delivering a data transfer service to new users of Xero, please get in touch if I can be of help.

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Permalink Reply by Ella Muers on August 12, 2010 at 16:58

Is there anyway round this lengthy process?

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Permalink Reply by Will Menzies on November 9, 2011 at 18:30

Oh dear, I wish I had seen this forum before trying to import from SAGE, it is tiresome and the guide misses out key steps. You cannot import credit notes or payments on account and certain fields cannot hold duplicate data for different invoices.

There really should be a comprehensive guide!

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Permalink Reply by Adrian Pearson on November 11, 2011 at 13:00

Hi Will, my company has recently launched a new Cloud service for accountants called Ledgerscope (www.ledgerscope.com). The relevance here is that Ledgerscope collects data from Sage and QuickBooks files via the web as the first stage of the service it provides.

Once collected, the data is processed in various ways. We can therefore pretty easily add an extra stage where we export data directly into Xero. Effectively providing an end-to-end solution for moving transaction and customer / supplier data from Sage and QuickBooks to Xero.

We are working on providing this extra service now and hope to have it available shortly. I will keep you posted!