To convert QuickBooks to Sage 50, you run the QuickBooks conversion wizard that comes with Sage 50 against a QuickBooks Desktop company file. It brings over the chart of accounts with balances, customers, vendors, items and most transactions. Then you compare reports in both programs and rebuild any bank history the conversion did not carry.
Why convert QuickBooks to Sage 50 instead of moving online?
Sage 50 is installed desktop accounting software, so it suits a business that wants to keep its books on its own computers rather than in a browser. People usually look at it when their QuickBooks Desktop version is ending and they do not want a subscription to QuickBooks Online or Xero.
The pressure from QuickBooks Desktop
Intuit retires Desktop versions on a schedule. Its QuickBooks Desktop service discontinuation policy says QuickBooks Desktop 2023 is discontinued after May 31, 2026. After that date a discontinued version loses live technical support and security updates. Online banking stops too: no transaction downloads, no online payments and no transfers. Payroll tax calculations and payment processing end as well.
A business on an old version therefore has three paths: upgrade within Desktop, move to a cloud program, or move to another installed program such as Sage 50.
Weighing the destinations
The choice turns on where you want the books to live and who else works in them. If your bookkeeper or accountant already uses a cloud program, the comparison of switching from QuickBooks to Xero is worth reading before you commit to installed software. If you want to stay on your own machines with a familiar ledger and register layout, Sage 50 is the closer match to QuickBooks Desktop.
The Sage 50 conversion wizard for QuickBooks company files
The conversion is done by a wizard inside Sage 50 that reads a QuickBooks Desktop company file and writes a new Sage 50 company. You answer a few questions as it runs, and those answers decide which lists and transactions come across.
Before you start the wizard
Sage's own help covers the steps and the QuickBooks versions each Sage 50 release can read, and that list changes with every release. Check it for your version before anything else. Then prepare the QuickBooks side:
- Make a backup of the QuickBooks company file and keep it apart from the working copy.
- Run Verify Data in QuickBooks and fix what it finds.
- Reconcile every bank and card account through the latest statement.
- Print or save the reports you will compare against later: trial balance, balance sheet, profit and loss, and the receivables and payables aging totals.
- Close QuickBooks and make sure no one else has the file open.
Pick a clean cut-off
Run the conversion at the end of a month, after the bank statement for that month has been reconciled. A month end gives you a statement balance to test against. A mid-month conversion leaves you with a partial statement and nothing printed to match.
QuickBooks lists and balances that convert to Sage 50
Sage's help page on what QuickBooks data gets converted to Sage 50 says the wizard converts most lists and transactions, depending on your choices during the conversion. The lists include company details, the chart of accounts with current balances, customers and vendors with open balances, inventory items and jobs.
The lists, one by one
- Company information: the business name and details from QuickBooks.
- Chart of accounts: each account with its current balance.
- Vendors: records with their current open balances.
- Customers: records with current open balances and customer sales taxes.
- Inventory items: the item list.
- Jobs: job records.
What the page leaves unsaid
The Sage page says "most," and it does not name the items that are left out. Employee and payroll setup appear under separate overview pages, so treat payroll as a separate job to confirm. Also look at custom fields, memorized transactions and attachments in the new company. If a list you rely on is missing, it is quicker to add it in Sage 50 now than to discover it during the first busy week.
QuickBooks transactions the Sage 50 conversion brings over
The Sage page lists the transaction types the wizard converts. The list covers the sales side, from estimates through invoices and receipts. It covers the purchase side, from purchase orders through vendor payments. It also includes deposits, credit memos, general journal entries and inventory adjustments, so day-to-day history arrives along with the lists.
Sales side
- Estimates or quotes, and sales orders.
- Sales invoices and receipts.
- Deposits and customer credit memos.
Purchase side
- Purchase orders and received inventory.
- Vendor credit memos and item receipts.
- Vendor payments.
General ledger
- General journal entries.
- Inventory adjustments.
Open invoices matter most
Of everything that converts, the open invoices and bills affect cash soonest. A customer invoice that comes across with the wrong open balance means a wrong statement in the post. Check the receivables and payables aging totals before anything else in the new company.
Bank history after a QuickBooks to Sage 50 conversion
Sage's page on converted data does not mention bank registers or past reconciliations. Plan on testing the bank side yourself. Open each converted bank account, compare its balance with the last reconciled QuickBooks statement, and decide how much past bank detail you need in Sage 50 rather than in saved QuickBooks reports.
Three ways to handle the bank side
- Trust the converted entries. If deposits and payments came over as transactions, the register should already hold the history. Reconcile the first month in Sage 50 to confirm it.
- Start reconciling from the conversion date. Treat the converted balance as the opening point. Keep a saved QuickBooks reconciliation report for the last month before the switch.
- Rebuild from statements. If entries are missing, add the missing months from your bank statements, oldest first, and check each closing balance as you go.
Keep the statements themselves
Whatever route you take, keep the original statements. The PDFs are the record a lender, auditor or tax agency will ask for, not the copy in either program. Keeping PDF bank statements after importing them explains how to store and name them so they stay easy to find.
If you end up retyping statement months, a converter saves the slog. SimpleBankConvert is being built to turn a PDF statement into a clean CSV; whether your edition of Sage 50 takes that file is a question for Sage's help, and you can ask for access on the get started page.
Testing the Sage 50 company against QuickBooks reports
The test compares the reports you saved from QuickBooks with the same reports in Sage 50, at the same date and on the same accounting basis. Matching totals mean the conversion carried the numbers correctly. A difference tells you which account or customer to open first.
A worked comparison
The figures below are examples, made up for illustration. They show a conversion at March 31.
| Report at March 31 | QuickBooks (example) | Sage 50 (example) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checking account balance | 18,402.66 | 18,402.66 | 0.00 |
| Savings account balance | 40,000.00 | 40,000.00 | 0.00 |
| Accounts receivable total | 9,815.00 | 9,815.00 | 0.00 |
| Accounts payable total | 4,120.35 | 4,384.35 | 264.00 |
| Inventory value | 7,730.10 | 7,730.10 | 0.00 |
| Net income, year to date | 22,950.42 | 22,686.42 | -264.00 |
Reading the example
The payables total is 264.00 higher in Sage 50, and net income is 264.00 lower. One vendor bill has most likely been counted twice, or a vendor payment did not come across, which leaves a bill looking open. Run the payables aging by vendor in both programs and find the vendor whose balance differs. Then compare that vendor's transactions for the period.
What counts as done
The conversion is finished when the trial balance agrees, every bank account matches its last statement, and the aging reports agree by customer and by vendor. Save those reports as PDFs with the conversion date in the file name.
Which QuickBooks setups the Sage 50 wizard does not suit?
The Sage 50 wizard reads a QuickBooks Desktop company file, so it does not fit every case. A QuickBooks Online company has no Desktop file to read. A badly damaged file converts badly. A business heading to the cloud is better served by a different route than an installed program.
Coming from QuickBooks Online
If your books are in QuickBooks Online, there is no Desktop company file for the wizard to open. Getting one means converting Online to Desktop first, which adds a step and its own losses. Many businesses in that spot weigh Xero instead. The reverse trip is covered in switching from Xero to QuickBooks Online, and its checklist of what to export works in either direction.
A file that will not verify
If Verify Data keeps reporting errors after a rebuild, the converted company will carry them. In that case it can be simpler to start the Sage 50 company fresh: enter balances as of a month end, add open invoices and bills, and bring in bank activity from statements after that date.
More than one company file
The wizard converts one company at a time. A business with several QuickBooks files runs it once for each, and tests each result on its own.
Order matters when the companies trade with each other. Convert the one with the most activity first, test it fully, and only then move to the next. Inter-company balances, such as a loan from one business to another, should agree between the two Sage 50 companies at the conversion date, just as they did in QuickBooks.