Moving a limited company to Briefcase Ledger from QuickBooks, Sage, Xero, FreeAgent or a spreadsheet? Import its trial balance. Briefcase Ledger posts one opening journal dated the day before your conversion date and keeps the books from then on. Open invoices and bills are re-uploaded afterwards through the inbox, so payments can be matched to them.
Before you start
Pick a conversion date. This is the first day Briefcase Ledger keeps the books. The first of a month keeps each month in one system.
Export from the previous system, as at the day before the conversion date: the trial balance on the accrual basis (.csv or .xlsx), the aged receivables and aged payables reports, and each bank account's statement balance.
VAT: Briefcase Ledger supports accrual-based VAT accounting only. A company on the cash accounting scheme or the Flat Rate Scheme can't be imported yet.
Permissions: you need the Financial Close → Create permission.
Import the trial balance when you add the company. A company set up with Create new can't import its past books later.
1. Start the import
On the dashboard, click Add client, choose Limited companies, then Import from another system. Setting up your own business? Choose Import from CSV when Briefcase asks how you want to start.
The wizard saves your progress in this browser, so you can leave and come back. Start over clears it.
2. Company
Enter the company details, the previous system and the conversion date. For a VAT-registered company, also enter its VAT number, when the last VAT period handled by the previous system ends (usually the day before the conversion date), how often it files VAT returns and its VAT accounting scheme.
If the conversion date starts a new financial year, say whether the trial balance is pre-close (it still shows last year's sales and expenses) or post-close.
If the last VAT period ends before the day before the conversion date, a VAT step asks for the previous system's VAT figures for the days in between, so your first Briefcase Ledger return covers them. Upload the VAT report (recommended) or type the boxes, or move the conversion date to the start of the VAT period instead.
3. Trial balance
Upload the trial balance. Briefcase finds the header row and the code, name, debit and credit columns, and leaves out titles, headings and totals (click Show … rows left out to see them). Check that the line above the rows says Balanced, tick This trial balance was run as at … on accrual basis and click Next.
If a column was read wrongly, change it under How the sheet was read. Columns headed YTD, opening or closing start as Ignore.
Each account goes on one row, up to 500 accounts.
If your export isn't read cleanly, download the trial balance template, copy your balances into it and upload that instead. It has four columns: Code (optional), Account, Debit and Credit.
4. Accounts
Briefcase suggests a Briefcase Ledger account for every row and says why. It takes a few seconds to check its suggestions while Checking suggestions… shows. Review each one, especially those with medium or low confidence. Rows highlighted in yellow still need an account.
Several rows can share an account. If nothing matches, choose Create a new account.
Map debtors to Accounts Receivable and creditors to Accounts Payable. Their balances aren't posted: you re-upload the open invoices and bills after the import.
For each bank account, tick Bank account and enter its statement balance at the day before the conversion date, its sort code and its account number. Bank accounts are GBP only: untick Bank account for a foreign currency account, and it's imported as an ordinary asset to be revalued by hand.
5. Preview and import
The preview shows the opening journal, dated the day before the conversion date. Fix these before importing lists anything that blocks the import, and Worth checking lists warnings. Nothing is created until you click Import.
Debtors and creditors aren't posted, and bank accounts go in at their statement balance, so the journal balances against Opening Balances. In this example customers owe £64,380.00, suppliers are owed £31,275.00 and the bank statement is £490.00 higher than the books, so Opening Balances starts at £64,380.00 − £31,275.00 − £490.00 = £32,615.00. It comes down to nil as you bring in the open invoices, bills and uncleared bank items.
After the import
The company's home page shows a checklist for going live:
Connect each bank account and fetch transactions from the conversion date. If that's more than 90 days ago, upload bank statements for the earlier weeks.
Upload each invoice and bill that was unpaid at the day before the conversion date through the inbox, with its original date and only the amount still outstanding, coded to Opening Balances with VAT None. Their VAT is already in the trial balance.
As items from before the conversion date clear the bank, code those bank lines to Opening Balances.
File any VAT return still outstanding from the previous system, then connect HMRC so VAT returns file from Briefcase Ledger.
Set up schedules for the fixed assets, prepayments, accruals and deferred income. You can bulk upload prepayments, accrued expenses and deferred income from a CSV.
If the company also has a QuickBooks connection in Briefcase, turn off its autopilot and publishing, tell its users the new forwarding address, and archive it once its last VAT return is filed.
Once the open items are in, lock the ledger up to the day before the conversion date.