5. Sage 50 Accounts to Sage Business Cloud Accounting migration

CAUTION: If you are importing your Sage 50 Accounts chart of accounts into Accounting you must do this first.

If for any reason the import fails, a message appears advising you what the error is. You should correct the error then import your data again.

Import customer and supplier records

Go to Contacts then on the New Customer drop down, click Import Customers.
Click Choose File to locate your customer records file then click Open.
On the CSV Format list, select Sage Instant Accounts.

CAUTION: Click this option if you’re importing from Sage 50 Accounts.
Click Upload.
Go to Contacts then on the New Supplier drop down, click Import Suppliers.
Repeat steps 2 to 3.

For more information on importing your contacts you can view this guide.

Import products and services

Go to Products & Services then on the New Item drop down, click Import Items.
Click the relevant option depending on what item types you exported from Sage Accounts, for example, Stock.
Click Upload your CSV file then browse to the relevant file you exported earlier, then click Open.

CAUTION: Click this option if you’re importing from Sage 50 Accounts.
Repeat steps 1 to 3 for any other product or service types you have.

For more information on importing your products & services you can view this guide.

Import your customer and supplier opening balances

There are a couple of things you need to be aware of before importing your opening balances Read More >

When you import your opening balances, the reference for the transaction is compulsory. If you don’t already have a reference for each transaction in the customer and supplier opening balance CSV files, browse to where you saved the files. Enter a reference in column D, for example O/bal and check the date is in dd/mm/yyyy format.
If you use the VAT Cash Accounting or Flat Rate Cash Based scheme, and you have any VAT registered EU customers or suppliers or contacts outside the EU, the VAT rate defaults to No VAT and the gross value appears in the Net and Total columns. This is because VAT on these transactions is accounted for when you create the invoice not when you receive or make the payment. If you haven’t yet accounted for the VAT in your previous system, you need to manually adjust your next VAT Return to include the necessary values.

Accounting automatically matches your tax codes from Sage Instant Accounts to the appropriate VAT rate. If you’ve amended the tax codes in Sage Accounts, you can change the VAT rate for the relevant transaction.

If you amend any of the values when importing opening balances, this affects the value in the Trade Debtors control account, which results in a difference in the Trial Balance you produced from Sage Accounts. When entering your nominal opening balances, you must decide where to post the difference. For example, you may want to post it to Corrections.

CAUTION: In your Opening Balance CSV file if you do not have a value in column D the import will not work. To have a succesful import you'll need to enter a value e.g. Outstanding.

Click Settings then in the Opening Balances section, click Customer.
Check the date in the Accounts Start Date field is correct. If not, change it.
On the New Opening Balance drop down, click Import Opening Balances.
Click Choose File then browse to the customer opening balances file you exported.
Click Open. then on the CSV Format list, click Sage Instant Accounts.

CAUTION: Click this option if you’re also importing from Sage 50 Accounts.
Click Upload.
Check the details are correct and the click Save.
Click Settings and the click Supplier in the Opening Balances section.
Click New Opening Balance and then Import Opening Balances.
Repeat steps 3 to 7.

For more information on importing your opening balances you can view this guide.

Enter your other Opening Balances

Bank Opening Balances

Go to Settings, then to Opening Balances.
Click Bank.
Select the relevant bank account and enter your details.

NOTE: If you haven't already you'll need to create additional bank accounts before you can select them. Read more >

Nominal Ledger Opening Balances

Go to Settings, then to Opening Balances.
Click Nominal Ledger.
Click New Opening Balance, then enter the relevant information.

For more information about how to do this, please see our Opening balances guide.

Since you have now imported your data, you should now check your data.

Next step >

Back to the Migration hub >

You can find common import errors by viewing this guide.