Migration to Zoho Books from your existing system

If you are migrating data from your existing accounting system to Zoho Books, this page will guide you on the steps to migrate into our accounting system.

• Configure Organization Profile
• Update Opening Balances
• Create Taxes
• Export Data from Previous System
• Import Data into Zoho Books
  • Import Chart of Accounts
  • Import Modules
• Add bank or credit card accounts
  • Update Opening Balance for Bank Account
  • Import Bank Feeds

Configure Organization Profile

Before you actually start using Zoho Books, you must configure your Organization Profile. To configure:

• Click the Gear icon in the top-right corner of the window.
• Select Organization Profile.
• Enter and select the relevant details pertaining to your organization.
• Click Save.

Update the Opening Balances

While switching from your old accounting software, you will have to ensure that you’ve brought in all your previous accounts to Zoho Books. This means you will have to import all your previous inventory levels, sales and purchase details, customers and vendors, income and expense statements, miscellaneous journal entries and a lot more.

You will have to generate a Trial Balance to identify all the debit and credit balances of your accounts and enter them in Zoho Books. To enter your opening balances:

• Go to Settings > Opening Balances.
• Enter the Opening Balance Date. This date is usually the date you’ve started using Zoho Books (this applies to both new and existing businesses).
• Enter balances of all your Receivables or Payables and Other Accounts to continue.

Read our detailed guide on Opening Balances to ensure that you do not miss out any details.

Create Taxes

During the initial setup of Zoho Books, you would have added the taxes and the tax authorities as it was in the old system. If you’ve not added them, you must manually create the taxes. Also, you must create tax authorities and associate taxes to it.

To create taxes:

• Click the Gear icon in the top-right corner of the window.
• Select Taxes.
• Click the + New Tax button.
• Enter a Tax Name and Rate (%) .
• Select a Tax Authority from the dropdown menu or type the tax authority name to add it.
• Click Save.

Repeat the process to create the other required taxes.

Note:

• If you import transactions with taxes associated to it and if those taxes are not present in Zoho Books, then the system will create new taxes with the available details.
• If you import a transaction with multiple taxes applied to it and if those taxes are not present in Zoho Books, then the system will create a new tax group with the available details.

Export Data from Previous System

Now, you can export the data from the previous accounting system to import them into Zoho Books. To export:

• Go to the modules that you want to import in Zoho Books and use the export option.
• Save the files in the appropriate format on your device.

Note: Zoho Books supports only CSV, TSV and XLS file formats and you must ensure that the data is exported in any one of the supported formats.

Import Data into Zoho Books

In Zoho Books you have the option to import data from your computer to speed up the data collation process inside every module.

Import Chart of Accounts

Import the Chart of Accounts of your previous accounting system to set up all the accounts in Zoho Books. To import:

• Go to the Accountants module from the left pane in Zoho Books.
• Click the Gear dropdown in the top-right corner.
• Select Import Chart of Accounts.

• Click Choose File. (Note: You can download a sample file to compare it with the exported file.)
• Choose the appropriate Character Encoding from the dropdown menu to match the exported file format.
• Choose the File Delimiter from the dropdown menu according to the exported file.
• Click Next.

• Map the fields of the imported file to the fields in Zoho Books.
• Check Save these selections for use during future imports. to use the same mapping in future imports.
• Click Next.

• A list of the ready-to-be-imported, skipped and unmapped fields is displayed for final verification.
• Click Import.

Import Modules

Now, import the data of each module, such as Contacts, Items, Estimates, Invoices, etc. into Zoho Books either in CSV, TSV or XLS.

• For modules such as Items and Price Lists, you can find the import and export option under the Settings icon dropdown.
  

• For the Contacts module and other modules under Sales & Purchases, you can find the import and export option under Menu icon in the list view.
  

To import:

• Navigate to the module you would like to import data.
• Click the Import option from the dropdown menu.
  

• You will be directed to another page where the data you wish to be imported needs to be uploaded.
• Data can be uploaded either as a CSV (Comma-Separated Values), TSV (Tab-Separated Values) or XLS (eXceL Spreadsheet) file from your hard drive. Also select the character encoding based on your import file and click Next.

Note:

You have the option to download a sample file to compare it to the file you are importing to ensure that the import is quick and efficient. Click on sample file to download it to your computer.

• Map the fields of the imported file to the fields in Zoho Books.
• Check Save these selections for use during future imports. to use the same mapping in future imports.
• Click Next.

• A list of the ready-to-be-imported, skipped and unmapped fields is displayed for final verification.
• Click Import.

Add Bank or Credit Card Accounts

After you’ve imported the transactions of various modules into Zoho Books, you might want to add your bank accounts and credit card accounts in the Banking module and have the imported transactions matched or categorized for your bank reconciliation.

To add a new bank account or credit card account:

• Go to the Banking module.
• Click the Add Bank or Credit Card button at the top-right corner of the window.
• Search for your bank and select the bank you wish to add.
• Enter the credentials and select the appropriate account to configure the bank account in Zoho Books.
• Or, click Enter your account manually and add the bank or credit card account manually.

Update Opening Balance for Bank Account

Next, you must enter the Opening Balance for this account. To enter:

• Click the Gear icon in the top-right corner of the window.
• Select Opening Balances.
• Find the bank account or credit card account from the list.
• Enter the Credit and Debit amount in its field.
• Click Continue.
• Click OK.
• Click Confirm after reviewing.

Import Bank Feeds

Now, navigate to the bank account in your Banking module. If you’ve linked your Zoho Books bank account to your bank’s website, the bank feeds which are upto 90 days old will be fetched into the account.

If you want to fetch the feeds which are beyond 90 days old, you can import them manually. To import:

• Click the Import Statement button on the top-right corner of the window.
• Or, click the Gear dropdown and select Import Statement.

• Click Choose File to select the statement to be imported. (Note: You can download a sample file to compare it with the exported file.)
• Select the Amount Column.
• Choose the Character Encoding from the dropdown menu as UTF - 8 (Unicode).
• Choose the File Delimiter from the dropdown menu according to the exported file.
• Click Next.

• Map the fields of the imported file to the fields in Zoho Books.
• Check Save these selections for use during future imports. to use the same mapping in future imports.
• Click Next.

• A list of the ready-to-be-imported, skipped and unmapped fields is displayed for final verification.
• Click Import.

Next, you can match or categorize the feeds with the transactions that you’ve imported for the other modules. Learn more about matching and categorizing transactions.

Points to remember during migration

• We don’t directly support importing your journals, deposits, fund transfers etc., from your existing accounting system. But, you must enter or update the entries in Zoho Books accordingly so that all your accounts match.
• Please ensure that you map the fields properly and get rid of unnecessary commas, blank columns etc., and special characters like apostrophes, asterisks etc.
• If you have imported all your invoices or bills, ensure that appropriate statuses are maintained even after the migration.
• Please note while you import your files into Zoho Books, the value in the field should match with the data type supported by Zoho Books. There will be unmapped fields in your import file that would not have been mapped to any Zoho Books field. Hence, if you want these fields to be imported, the column header(s) should be mapped properly.
• You’ll not be able to import the data backup files of a Zoho Books organization into a new Zoho Books organization.
• If you need further support regarding entering any of your business transactions in Zoho Books, please contact us anytime, our support folks will touch base with you soon.

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