How to Convert from Sage 50 to QuickBooks Desktop?

Do you feel the need to move your accounting data from Sage 50 over to QuickBooks Desktop? You can convert your QuickBooks company data to the Sage 50 format. Sage 50 will convert most QuickBooks lists such as accounts, vendors, customers, items, employees, jobs, transactions, and current balances. Converting Sage to QuickBooks is not the most straightforward do-it-yourself work for companies to handle. Guidance for Sage 50 to QuickBooks Conversion.

An implementation from one software to another will never be an overnight task since there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration: Customer List, Inventory List, Vendor List, Costs, Average costs, Chart of Accounts, Accounts Receivable, etc. All versions of Sage 50 can be converted to QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online. The conversion service audits the results to ensure all financial reports such as the Profit, Loss, Trial Balance, and Balance sheets in QuickBooks will match the original Sage 50 data.

Convert from Sage 50 to QuickBooks Desktop – Steps to Follow

Step 1: Review the Conversion Requirements

Before you start, check the system requirements for the conversion tool.

If you haven’t already, make sure your computer meets the QuickBooks Desktop system requirements.

Items that can be converted using Conversion Tool

• Account, Employee, Item, Customer, and Vendor lists.
• Account balances.
• Employee profile and contact info.
• Customer and vendor transactions.
• Paychecks (convert as journal entries)
• Payroll General Ledger account balance info.

Things that cannot be converted include:

• Payroll items are used to calculate paychecks (hourly and salary payroll items, deductions, medical insurance, etc.)
• Payroll transactions and year-to-date employee info (paychecks, year-to-date adjustments).
• Individual employee wage or deduction information.
• Work tickets.
• Fixed Assets.
• Closed or partly closed Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, and Estimates.

In some instances, fields are not compatible and are not transferred over. You will have to enter such fields after the Conversion manually.

Examples of such are vendor default account numbers, multiple shipping addresses for customers, preferred vendors for inventory, and default Customer Sales Tax settings.

Also, Please keep in mind that you can only convert versions of Sage 50 and QuickBooks desktop from the same region. If you have a US version of Sage 50, then you will need to convert it to a US version of QuickBooks desktop.

The following limitations of service can happen when you move from Sage 50 to QuickBooks Desktop with the QB Conversion Tool:

The following limitations may occur when you are transferring data from Sage 50 to QuickBooks Online:

• Positions for Chart of Accounts Numbers: QuickBooks does not support a chart of account numbers that exceed the length of seven numerals. The migration will fail if any accounts in your Chart of Accounts are seven numerals or longer.
• Future Transactions: Transactions will be posted to QuickBooks Desktop in the future if the journals have a future date.
• Multi-currency limitations: A home currency is used for all foreign currency data transfers.
• Reversed Journals: Reversed journals will not be posted.
• Some Debtor or Creditor Transactions may not be Posted as Expected: QuickBooks Conversion Tool might need to use a “dummy” customer or supplier to align your AR and AP history.
• Historical Migrations of Accounts: Sage 50 enables you to transfer balances to new accounts at the close of the year, which QuickBooks does not support, as it does not support fiscal years.
• Historical Migrations of Accounts: Sage 50 enables you to transfer balances to new accounts at the close of the year, which QuickBooks does not support, as it does not support fiscal years.
• Renaming of Sage 50 System Accounts: It can support renaming of normal balance sheet accounts, but renaming the system accounts (for example, Retained Earnings, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, etc.) can cause issues after the Conversion. Revert any renaming of system accounts back to the original settings before attempting to migrate.
• Data Integrity Check Issues: If your file fails the Data Integrity check (Maintenance -> Data Integrity Check), then you may experience several issues during the Conversion.

Step 2: Prepare for the Conversion

To avoid conversion tool errors, make sure that you save your file locally.

• If you haven’t already, install QuickBooks Desktop on the same system as Sage 50.
• Make sure your Sage 50 and your QuickBooks Desktop data are saved on your local hard drive. If it is not, move it to your local hard drive before you start. The conversion tool will encounter an error if you are hosting a file over a network or on a server.

• Now create a backup of your Sage 50 data before you start.

Step 3: Setup Sage 50

Important: You must have admin user access to perform the following steps:

• First of all, open Sage 50 and the file you want to convert.
• Then from the main menu, select Maintain.
• Then select Users and then Setup Security.
• Next, Select the Data Access/Crystal Reports tab.
• Then select With the following login information option. (Note: You can’t change the ID field.)
• Now choose Change and set a password for the transfer.
• Note: The new password has an 8-character limit, and exceeding the limit will cause the conversion tool not to work.
• After you set your new password, click on OK, then close Sage 50.

Step 4: Download the Conversion Tool

• You need to download the QuickBooks Conversion Tool.
• Find and open the folder you saved the downloaded file to.
• Then right-click on the QuickBooks Conversion Tool icon, then select Properties.
• Under Compatibility mode, select the checkbox for Run this program in compatibility for: and choose Windows 8 (even if you have Windows 10) from the dropdown and then click on OK.
• Now right-click QuickBooksConverstionToolSetup.exe and select Run as Administrator.

Step 5: Convert Your Data

• In the conversion tool, click on Browse.
• Locate and select the Sage 50 company file you need to convert.
• In the Pervasive 32-bit ODBC engine DSN Setup window, select your Sage 50 company file from the Database Name dropdown menu.
• If you have multiple files, you may need to scroll to find your company name and then click on OK.
• Then enter the Sage 50 password you just created. Then select Next.
• Select the QuickBooks Desktop version and edition you’re moving your Sage data into.

•  Select Browse and choose the folder to save your converted data to, and then select Next. If you don’t pick a folder, the default is your My Documents folder. We highly recommend you import into a file that is no more than 2 folders deep.
• Now review what you entered. If everything looks good, select Convert File to start the Conversion. This will launch QuickBooks and the QuickBooks – Application Certificate window requesting access to the company file.
• QuickBooks will launch automatically. A certificate will pop-up. Select Yes, Prompt Each time and then Continue.

Note: This may prompt twice.

The conversion tool runs automatically. It might take some time to convert your data. The tool will let you know if the Conversion is successful or not.

Once the Conversion finishes, you’ll see a prompt to Open in QuickBooks. It will take a few minutes to open your file.

Step 6: Review the Conversion

When the Conversion is completed, select Open in QuickBooks. Review your data in QuickBooks and make sure everything is there. Then review the transfer log:

• First of all, open the Windows Start menu.
• Then, search for and open File Explorer.
• Go to C:\USERS\[Your Windows User Name]\My Documents\Intuit\QuickBooks.
• Now review the failed transaction log file in the folder. This tells you if any data didn’t transfer over.

After you review the log, you are good to go.

Possible Errors During Conversion

If you notice an error that says, “It looks like something went wrong,” then:

• Your file might not be saved locally. You will get this error if you are hosting a file over a network or on a server. Install Sage 50 on a different computer that’s not on the network or server. Create a back up in Sage 50 and Restore Local to your computer. This is usually your C Drive.
• Your file name has a special character in the saved name. Remove any special characters in the name before you save the file.

If you notice an error that says, “We just need a little more info,” then:

It looks like you need to run the Conversion tool in Compatibility mode.

• First of all, right-click on the QuickBooks Conversion Tool icon, then select Properties.
• Under Compatibility mode, select the checkbox for Run this program in compatibility: choose from the dropdown your Windows operating system and then select OK.
• Now right-click QuickBooksConverstionToolSetup.exe and select Run as Administrator.

What Can You Expect After the Conversion?

• They will send you a complete post-conversion checklist to get you up and to run in your QuickBooks.
• They will send you a QuickBooks backup file that could restore into a new QuickBooks file on your system.
•  They will send you a transaction report that failed to import (in most of the conversions, 100% of the transactions are converted).
• If you are using Assembly Items or Advanced inventory, you might have to manually add inventory adjustments to your converted data file to match quantities in your QuickBooks with Sage 50. This occurs due to the variations in the way inventory is managed in QuickBooks v/s Sage 50.
• Seldom, the source data file will contain transactions that are supported in Sage 50 but not in QuickBooks. They use standard workarounds to import transactions into QuickBooks Online and will send you notes on what you have to do post-conversion to handle such transactions.

Accounting Professionals, CPA, Enterprises, Owners

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