Move a limited company from QuickBooks Online by uploading reports you export from QuickBooks. Briefcase Ledger takes over on your start date, with the balances, last year's history, unpaid invoices and bills, and customers brought across.
Before you start
Choose the start date. For a VAT-registered company, it's the day after the last VAT period QuickBooks files. If QuickBooks files the quarter to 30 June, Briefcase Ledger starts on 1 July. Run every report as at the day before the start date.
VAT: Briefcase Ledger supports standard (accrual) VAT accounting. A company on the cash accounting scheme or the Flat Rate Scheme can't be imported yet.
Permission: you need Financial Close → Create.
What to export from QuickBooks
Report | Where to find it | How to run it |
|---|---|---|
Trial Balance (required) | Reports → Trial Balance | As of the day before the start date, on the accrual basis. Export to Excel. |
Journal | Reports → Journal | From the first day of last financial year to the day before the start date. Export to Excel. |
Customer Contact List | Reports → Customer Contact List | Export to Excel. Use this report rather than the export on the Customers page. |
A/R Ageing Detail and A/P Ageing Detail | Reports | Report date: the day before the start date. Export each to Excel. |
Only the trial balance is required. The Journal brings in last year's history, so monthly reports and comparatives work from day one. The ageing reports bring in every invoice and bill still unpaid. Each step of the wizard shows the exact dates to use.
1. Start the import
On the dashboard, click Add client, choose Limited companies, then Import from another system. The wizard saves your progress in this browser, so you can leave and come back.
2. Company
Enter the company name, its Companies House number if you have it, and its financial year end, and choose QuickBooks Online.
3. Start date
If the company is VAT registered, enter its VAT number, how often it files, its accounting scheme and when the last VAT period QuickBooks files ends. Briefcase Ledger starts the next day, so no VAT period is split between QuickBooks and Briefcase. If it isn't VAT registered, pick any start date: the first of a month keeps each month in one system.
If the start date begins a new financial year, say whether the trial balance is from Before the close (it still shows last year's sales and expenses) or After the close (its profit and loss rows are nil).
4. Trial balance
Upload the Trial Balance. Check that it says balanced and click Continue.
5. History (optional)
Upload the Journal. Briefcase reads every transaction and checks them against the trial balance before anything is imported. History doesn't affect VAT returns.
6. Accounts
Each of QuickBooks' accounts comes across with its own name, and its account number if you use account numbers in QuickBooks. Debtors, creditors, VAT, retained earnings, prepayments, accruals, deferred income and depreciation go into the accounts Briefcase runs on, still with its QuickBooks name and number unless several of your accounts merge into one.
Anything Briefcase isn't sure about is listed first, under Check these accounts first, with the reason: a row it couldn't place, a type QuickBooks disagrees with, or an unsure match to one of the accounts Briefcase runs on. Change what's wrong, then click Confirm on each one. You can continue once they're all confirmed.
Bank accounts have their own section. Check each statement balance against the bank statement for the day before the start date: if it differs from QuickBooks, Briefcase shows the uncleared amount. The sort code and account number are optional, but with them uploaded statements match the account automatically.
Every other account is grouped by where it lands: revenue, cost of sales, expenses, assets, liabilities and equity. On any row you can pick one of Briefcase's accounts instead of Own account, and set its type. To make an account a bank account, set its type to Bank account.
7. Customers (optional)
Upload the Customer Contact List so you can invoice your customers from Briefcase straight away. You don't need suppliers: Briefcase picks them up from your bills.
8. Open invoices and bills (optional)
Upload the A/R Ageing Detail and the A/P Ageing Detail. Each should show Matches Accounts Receivable or Matches Accounts Payable.
9. Review and import
Check the summary and click Import. Nothing is created until then, and you can undo the import until the company goes live. With history, posting takes a minute or two.
After the import
The company's home page shows what to do next.
Connect your bank feeds lists each bank account you imported, with its balance on the day before the start date. Click Connect feed to link the account to its bank, so transactions from the start date arrive every day. Prefer not to link it? Upload its bank statements instead.
Going live ticks each step off as you finish it: connecting the bank feeds, clearing Opening Balances (already ticked if you brought in the aged reports), connecting HMRC and locking the ledger up to the day before the start date. Under Good to know it lists reminders for your import, such as when the last VAT return from QuickBooks is due.
Imported something wrong? Click Undo the import at the bottom of the checklist. It removes the company with everything the import created, so you can import it again. You can undo until the company goes live.
Clearing the unpaid invoices and bills
The invoices and bills from the ageing reports come in with QuickBooks’ dates, numbers and amounts still owed, so they show on Aged Debtors and Aged Creditors.
When the payment comes through the bank feed, Briefcase suggests the matching invoice or bill. Reconcile it and the item drops off the aged report, as with any other invoice or bill.
These invoices and bills are coded to Opening Balances on purpose: their sale or cost and VAT were already recorded in QuickBooks, and they're in the trial balance and history you imported. Don't recode them to an income or expense account, or they'll be counted twice.