Migrate From Sage in Ireland: A Clean Switch | HelloBooks Moving from Sage Accounting or Sage 50 to HelloBooks in Ireland: what to export, how to import balances, handling Sage payroll, and the first VAT3.
Whether you are on Sage Accounting in the cloud or Sage 50 on the desktop, moving to HelloBooks follows the same pattern: switch at the start of a VAT period, export balances and open items from Sage, import them through CSV templates and run the next period in HelloBooks. The extra question with Sage is payroll, because many Irish Sage users run payroll in the same family of products.
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List what the business uses Sage for today: invoicing, bills, bank, VAT, stock, projects, payroll. HelloBooks covers invoicing, bills, bank reconciliation, the VAT3 figures and reporting. If stock or projects are central, or you need payroll in the same system, weigh that before moving.
From Sage 50, also export the nominal ledger for each prior year you may need, since the desktop file will not be maintained after the switch.
Use the templates in order, because contacts must exist before their unpaid invoices can be imported.
Bring in the chart of accounts so familiar nominal codes carry over, then contacts, then opening balances and open items. Agree the opening trial balance in HelloBooks to the Sage figures before posting anything new.
For a business with a few staff this is one short entry per pay run.
HelloBooks does not run Irish payroll. Businesses using Sage payroll can keep it, or move to another Irish payroll product, and post the totals for wages, PAYE, USC and PRSI to the ledger after each pay run. A direct payroll journal import is coming soon.
Upload bank statements from the switch date, confirm the AI coding, and compare the first HelloBooks VAT3 with the last Sage return before entering it in ROS. Once one period agrees, the routine settles quickly.
Give the client a short written routine: upload statements weekly, photograph receipts the day they arrive, raise invoices from HelloBooks. Review the first two months closely, then move to exception review. Most migration problems show up in the first VAT3, so that is where the attention should go.
Segment the client list by complexity and move the simplest clients first. The Sage 50 migration playbook on the HelloBooks Ireland blog covers timing a programme of moves around VAT periods and training clients on the new routine.
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