Import data from Excel into Sage Instant Accounts

[TBLZ]

Hi there,

Complete newbie here, I have a very frustrating question about Sage Instant Accounts.

We have just purchased Sage Instant Accounts after researching it and Quickbooks. We decided to go for Sage on the basis of this bit of their website:
«
Import from Microsoft Excel

To save time on data input, you can now import data that has been saved in a Microsoft® Excel file (.xls and .xlsx). You can also import .csv files, giving you extra flexibility and saving you time when transferring your existing data into Instant Accounts.
»


However, it seems that you can only import minimal information from Excel into Sage, such as Nominal Accounts, Product Records and other small things that will not save much time, really. What I would have wanted to import would be our sales ledger, purchase ledger and bank records. At the moment, it looks like I cannot even PASTE data from Excel into Sage, rendering the purchase completely pointless! To top it all, Sage will not recognise our bank (the Coop) and therefore won't use the electronic statements we get from the bank.



I have two questions:


1. Am I missing something, and is it possible to import sales, purchase and bank data from Excel into Sage?


2. Would Quickbooks do what we need?


Thanks in advance for your advice.


EJR

[johndon68]

The import option lists all the types of data that can be imported such as:

Customer Records (Sales Ledger)
Supplier Records (Purchase Ledger)
Nominal Accounts (Bank)

John

[TBLZ]

Shame the marketing doesn't list the options!

[johndon68]

Perhaps not as, if it listed every part of every feature you'd have hundreds of pages... If you press F1 to load the help and search for Import, you'll get all the information you'll ever need...

John

[TBLZ]

Yes, I have noticed. My point is that by the stage I can press File > Import, I have already purchased, installed and registered the wrong software, and I can't get my money back.

I take it from your posts that the answer to my first question is that no, it's not possible to import sales, purchase and bank data from Excel into Sage. Thank you for your input, John.

So, anyone want to answer my second question?

[johndon68]

Originally Posted by TBLZ

I take it from your posts that the answer to my first question is that no, it's not possible to import sales, purchase and bank data from Excel into Sage. Thank you for your input, John.

Not sure why you would think that from my post, you can import sales accounts (customers) purchase accounts (suppliers) and bank accounts (nominal), you can also import data (Audit Trail Transactions) into any of those accounts.

So, basically, yes, you CAN import everything you mention...

John

[TBLZ]

Thank you John.

So I'm missing something. Could you please explain how I would go about importing, for instance, my sales ledger, which I now have in Excel and contains several thousands of lines of this type:

<Inv nº> <Invoice date> CLIENTX 407.84 479.21 71.37

Thanks in advance.

[johndon68]

Before you can import transactions, you need the customer, supplier and bank accounts to be there so they would need to be imported first.

So, you go through the import wizard, select the type of records you want to import, select the Excel file you want to import and, then, at the next stage, you tell Sage which column in your Excel file contains a particular data field so, basically, you 'map' Sage to the contents of your file (this applies regardless of the type of data being imported).

John

[TBLZ]

Sorry John,

Is that File > Import > Audit trail transactions?

What should I use for these mandatory Sage fields please:
++ Type
++ Account reference

Thanks.

[johndon68]

Yes it is.

Type is whatever the transaction is so SI if it is a sales invoice, SC if it is a sales credit note.

Account Reference is the reference of the customer account that the transaction is to be posted to which is why the customer account must exist first.

John