Movemybooks is an online data conversion service: specifically, we help business owners move to Xero from other accounting software by allowing them to quickly, easily and accurately bring their accounting records with them. Mostly, we find that accountants and bookkeepers use Movemybooks to onboard their clients to Xero, but thousands of small businesses have successfully made the jump themselves using our service.

We’ve been providing our conversion service for 6 years now. In that time we’ve helped around 30,000 businesses switch to Xero - and it looks like we’ve only just got started, because we’re busier now than we’ve ever been.

Although Movemybooks is driven by an online software process, we compliment this with prompt and friendly support. We’ve designed our software to be very easy to use but, if you do feel you need our help, we’re just an email away. Great support is one of the reasons we have a five-star, Excellent Trustpilot rating.

So, how does it work? I hear you ask

The first time you use our service you’ll need to register with us. This is free, no card details are asked for and only takes a few minutes. Once you have a Movemybooks login you can get started.

First you provide a little information about the business that you want to convert to Xero. This is pretty straightforward stuff, such as the business name, its year-end month and what software was previously used.

Then our online software takes you step by step through the data conversion process and, typically, all you need to do is click on the green “Next” button from time to time. For those of us who like to see a demonstration first, there is a short video you can watch which walks you through everything.

If you are converting from an old-school, desktop source, say Sage 50 for instance, you’ll upload the accounting data directly from there to Movemybooks. (If you only have the Sage backup file and not a working copy of Sage on your computer, you can ask us to perform the data upload for you). If you are converting from a cloud source, say QuickBooks Online, you simply authorise a connection to Movemybooks and we’ll grab the accounting data for you.

Typically, it will take only ten minutes for you to get the conversion process started. Our software will then take over and you can go do something else while Movemybooks gets to work. Within an hour or two you can expect an email, notifying you that the conversion has completed and your new Xero organisation is up to date and ready for you.

What’s included in the conversion

Our standard, free conversion service gives you up to two years of detailed, transactional data. We bring over transactions for the current accounting year to date plus all of the previous accounting year, so the actual period covered by the conversion does depend on the business’s year-end date.

We can’t convert every single tiny detail of the original accounting information (this is never going to be possible when two different software systems are involved) but we do include all of the important stuff. When you start using Xero your old transactions will be there, your accounts, customer and supplier information will be there, and all of the accounts, customer and supplier balances will be correct. You can pick up where you left off, with no fuss, and be productive in Xero straight away.

Supported source software

Our aim is to allow business owners move to Xero seamlessly from most of the other UK accounting systems.

• Movemybooks can already convert accounting data from UK versions of:

• Sage 50 (desktop), Sage Instant Accounting (desktop)

• QuickBooks Standard, Pro and Premier (desktop)

• Sage Business Cloud Accounting (cloud)

• QuickBooks Online (cloud)

We’re working on conversion from other sources too.

Why bring your data with you?

Of course, it’s perfectly possible to start afresh in Xero with a “clean slate” - by just entering opening balances and leaving your old transactions history behind. (Although the manual keying or import of just this bare minimum information is often a surprisingly time-consuming and laborious exercise). But why would you do this when you can have much richer and fuller financial information on-hand, at no cost and no effort?

There are significant benefits to be had when you bring your accounting history into your new Xero organisation. You can enjoy ‘this year v last year’ monthly reporting, you can analyse trends and you can access historical details with just a few clicks. Xero has fantastic reports that can provide deep insight into your business financials. This insight will help you manage your business better, make good decisions and plan accurately for the future. The more data the Xero reports have to work with, the more useful they will be to you. Who wants less important information?

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Xero pay your conversion fee! FREE! Convert 24 service*

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* You’ll be pleased to know that Xero will pay for your conversion. You will get our most popular Convert 24 service (normal price £180) which gives you all transactions for the current year to date, plus all of the previous accounting period. If you would like additional years of transaction history, these cost £60 per year. You can also opt to include Sage department information for an extra £60. All prices are plus VAT.

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