Moving a limited company from Sage 50, FreeAgent, a spreadsheet or any system other than Xero, QuickBooks Online and Sage Accounting? Bring it across with its trial balance. After the import, you upload the invoices and bills that were still unpaid through the inbox.
Moving from Sage Accounting, the online version? Follow Moving to Briefcase Ledger from Sage Accounting instead: it brings in last year's history and the unpaid invoices and bills too.
Before you start
Choose the start date. For a VAT-registered company, it's the day after the last VAT period the previous system files. If the previous system 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 you need
Trial balance as at the day before the start date, on the accrual basis, as .xlsx or .csv. If yours isn't read cleanly, download the template, copy your balances into it and upload that instead.
Bank statement balance of each bank account on the day before the start date.
Customer list (optional): a spreadsheet whose first row names the columns, with a name column plus email, address, town, postcode and country if you have them.
Aged debtors and aged creditors reports as at the day before the start date. You use them after the import.
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 Sage 50, FreeAgent or Spreadsheet or another system.
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 the previous system files ends. Briefcase Ledger starts the next day. 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. If a column was read wrongly, click Change how the sheet was read.
5. Accounts
Each account comes across with its own code and name. Debtors, creditors, VAT, retained earnings, prepayments, accruals, deferred income and depreciation go into the accounts Briefcase runs on, still with your code and name 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 the trial balance 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 the trial balance, 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.
6. Customers (optional)
Upload your customer list so you can invoice them from Briefcase straight away.
7. 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.
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, bringing in the unpaid invoices and bills that are still on Opening Balances, 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 the previous system 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.
Bringing in the unpaid invoices and bills
Using the aged debtors and aged creditors reports, upload each invoice and bill that was unpaid on the day before the start date through the inbox. Give each one its original date and only the amount still owed, and code it to Opening Balances with VAT None: its sale or cost and VAT are already in the trial balance.
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 items from before the start date clear the bank, code those bank lines to Opening Balances too.