Importing historical data into AccBooks AI

Overview

Switching to AccBooks mid-year or bringing in prior periods doesn’t have to be painful. AccBooks supports imports from the most popular accounting platforms, as well as a universal CSV format for everything else.

What you can import

• Full transaction history — every bank transaction, invoice and journal from your previous system.
• Opening trial balance — a snapshot of all nominal account balances at a point in time.
• Chart of accounts — your existing nominal codes and account structure.
• Contacts — customers and suppliers with balances.
• Fixed assets — existing asset register with cost, accumulated depreciation and dates.

Importing from Xero

1. In Xero, go to Accounting → Export and download the full general ledger export (CSV or Excel).
2. In AccBooks, go to Settings → Import → Xero.
3. Upload the exported file. AccBooks maps Xero’s account codes to its own chart automatically, flagging any codes that need manual matching.
4. Preview the import — AccBooks shows a count of transactions, any duplicates and a reconciliation summary.
5. Confirm the import.

Typical import time for a year of Xero data: 2–5 minutes.

Importing from QuickBooks Online

The QuickBooks import flow is similar. You’ll need to export your Trial Balance, Transaction List by Account and Customer/Vendor Contact List from QuickBooks Reports. AccBooks guides you through which reports to export during the import wizard.

Importing from Sage

Sage exports come in several formats. AccBooks accepts the Sage Ledger CSV format. Go to Reports → Financial → Ledger Reports in Sage and export as CSV.

Importing from FreeAgent

Export your bank transactions as CSV from FreeAgent’s Banking → Export screen. AccBooks maps FreeAgent’s categories to the standard nominal codes automatically.

Importing opening balances manually

If you prefer to start fresh rather than import transaction history:

1. Go to Journals → Opening balances.
2. Enter the balance for each nominal account as of your start date.
3. AccBooks creates the opening-balance journal automatically.

The sum of debits and credits must equal zero. AccBooks flags any imbalance before allowing you to post.

CSV format for bank transactions

AccBooks accepts a four-column CSV for bank transactions:

Column	Format	Example
Date	DD/MM/YYYY	15/03/2026
Description	Text	AMAZON.CO.UK
Amount	Decimal (negative = debit)	-49.99
Balance	Decimal (optional)	1,234.56

Remove any header row before uploading, or AccBooks will ask you to confirm which row to skip.

Duplicate detection

AccBooks checks incoming transactions against existing data using date, amount and a description similarity score. Likely duplicates are shown in a review screen before posting — you can accept, reject or merge each one.

After importing

Once your import is complete:

• Run a trial balance to verify opening balances match your previous system.
• Reconcile the import period against your bank statements.
• Set your period lock date to prevent historical entries being modified.