Move from QuickBooks or Xero to SimpleERP

Export six things from QuickBooks or Xero: customers, suppliers, products, a trial balance as of the day before you start, unpaid invoices and unpaid bills. On Settings → Import data in SimpleERP, choose Excel or Google Sheets, drop the files, and check each card. Columns with familiar names match by themselves; you pick the rest from a list.

When should you export?

Pick the day your books start in SimpleERP: the first day of a financial year, quarter or month, ideally the start of your financial year. Export everything as of the day before. If you start on 1 January 2027, run every report as at 31 December 2026, after the last entry of that day, and enter nothing new in the old system afterwards.

What do you export from QuickBooks Online?

Each list and report has an export icon beside the Print icon, marked Export to Excel. Menu names differ between regions and between the classic and newer QuickBooks menus; the US edition says Vendors where others say Suppliers.

1. 1

   Customers

   Sales → Customers (Customer Hub → Customers & leads in the newer menu), then Export to Excel beside Print.

2. 2

   Suppliers

   Expenses → Suppliers (Vendors in the US), then Export to Excel.

3. 3

   Products and services

   Sales → Products and services, then Export to Excel.

4. 4

   Trial balance

   Reports → Standard reports → Trial Balance, set the date to the day before you start, then Export to Excel.

5. 5

   Unpaid invoices

   Reports → Open Invoices as of the same date. Customise it so rows are not grouped by customer and the Customer column shows, then Export to Excel.

6. 6

   Unpaid bills

   Reports → Unpaid Bills as of the same date, customised the same way with the Vendor or Supplier column, then Export to Excel.

On QuickBooks Desktop, the Customer Centre and Vendor Centre have an Excel button that exports the list, and the same reports export from the Reports menu.

What do you export from Xero?

Xero changed its menus in September 2025: Sales and Purchases replaced the Business menu, and Reporting moved to the top bar. The steps below use the new menus; older screens show the same pages under Business and Accounting.

1. 1

   Contacts

   Contacts → All contacts → Export. Xero keeps customers and suppliers in one list, so save two copies of the file: one with only customers, one with only suppliers.

2. 2

   Products and services

   Sales → Products and services → Export.

3. 3

   Trial balance

   Reporting → All reports → Trial Balance, set the date to the day before you start, then Export to Excel.

4. 4

   Unpaid invoices

   Sales → Invoices, open the Awaiting payment tab, select the invoices and export them.

5. 5

   Unpaid bills

   Purchases → Bills, open the Awaiting payment tab, select the bills and export them.

How do the columns match?

SimpleERP matches a heading when it equals a field's name, ignoring case, spaces and punctuation, or one of its common synonyms. Headings that need no help: Customer, Vendor, Supplier, Display Name and Contact Name for the party; Email and Email Address; Phone; Tax Number, VAT Number or ABN for the tax number; Account, Debit, Credit, YTD Debit and YTD Credit on the trial balance.

• QuickBooks open invoices and bills: Num becomes the number, Open balance the amount still due and Amount the original amount, so a part-paid invoice comes across at what is left to pay.
• Xero invoices and bills: ContactName becomes the party, InvoiceAmountDue the amount still due and Total the original amount.
• Addresses often arrive split into columns named after the old system, such as Billing Address Line 1 or POAddressLine1. Pick Address line 1, City and Postcode for them on the card.
• Products: Sales Price, Rate and Cost match Sale price and Purchase price by themselves. For tax, the column must hold a rate name from Settings › Taxes, such as VAT 20%, or just the percentage, such as 20; Check lists anything else with an example.
• Anything you do not map is left out, and Check tells you if a required column, such as the party name, is still missing. Always look at the mapping on the open invoices card before you press Check.

What happens to the trial balance?

Balance sheet accounts come across as opening balances. Income and expense rows are skipped with a note, because a new year in SimpleERP starts at zero. A trial balance dated the last day of your year still lists that year's sales and costs, so add the year's profit or loss to the Retained Earnings row before you upload (Xero shows it as Current Year Earnings on the balance sheet), or Opening Balance Equity will not come to zero.

Account types from both products are read: Current Asset, Non-current Liability, Direct Costs and Overhead from Xero; Other Current Assets, Long Term Liabilities and Accounts receivable (A/R) from QuickBooks.

How do you import the files?

1. 1

   Choose Excel or Google Sheets

   On Settings → Import data, choose Excel or Google Sheets and set Books start in SimpleERP on.

2. 2

   Drop the files

   The page lists each file, the card it looks like and the row count. Change the card if the guess is wrong, or set a file to Ignore.

3. 3

   Map and check each card

   Open a card, pick fields for any unmatched column, then press Check. Every problem is listed with its row and what to do.

4. 4

   Import, top to bottom

   Customers, suppliers, products, opening balances from the trial balance, open invoices, open bills. Each card imports in one go: all of its rows or none.

On the opening balances card, accounts with different names in SimpleERP get a Choose an account picker instead of an error. Receivables, payables and stock are skipped there with a note, because the open invoices, open bills and products cards post them.

Worked example: Harbor Supply Co. on Xero

Suppose Harbor Supply Co., the fictional business on this site, kept its books in Xero and starts in SimpleERP on 1 January 2027. On 31 December 2026 it exports five files and saves the contacts twice.

What do you check after the import?

• The trial balance as of the day before your start date equals the old system's trial balance
• Receivables per customer match the old aged receivables report
• Payables per supplier match the old aged payables report
• Stock value equals the Inventory account balance
• Opening Balance Equity is zero; a balance left there means a figure is missing or doubled

If a figure is off, undo that card from Previous imports, fix the file and import it again. Read the opening balances guide for the accounting behind the checks.