Moving from Xero

Before you cancel#

Export everything before your Xero subscription ends. Xero has no read-only plan: once it's over, you can't open the organisation without paying for it again.

• Only the organisation's subscriber can cancel (sometimes that's your accountant or bookkeeper): click the organisation name, then Subscription and billing, then Cancel subscription.
• A paid subscription has one month's notice. You're billed for that month, and everyone can still use Xero during it: that's your window to export.
• After the notice period, Xero archives the organisation. To look at it again, you reactivate it (paying again) and can cancel straight away for another month's access. Projects and expenses data then need a plan that includes them.

Export your files#

Xero has no single export of everything: each area exports on its own. Pick your start date first (see Moving to EscBooks); it's the date range for most of these.

1. Contacts. In the Contacts menu, choose Customers. Click the menu icon at the top right and choose Export. You get a CSV. (Do it again for suppliers if you want your vendors too.)
2. Invoices. In the Sales menu, choose Invoices, then the tab you want (all of them, or just those awaiting payment). Click Export. Each export holds at most 500 invoices: with more, click Search, set a Start date and End date, and export a few months at a time.
3. What was paid. In the Reporting menu, choose All reports and open Receivable Invoice Detail. Set the date range, add the Last Payment Date column, click Update, then Export to Excel.
4. Time, if you use Xero Projects. In All reports, open Detailed Time, choose the projects and dates, click Update, then Export to Excel.
5. Bank and card transactions. In All reports, open Account Transactions. Under Accounts, select one bank or card account, set the date range, click Update, then Export to Excel. Do this once per account.
6. Products and services. In the Sales menu, choose Products and services, click Export, then CSV.
7. Bills, if you enter them. In the Purchases menu, choose Bills, click the menu icon beside New Bill, choose Export bills, then Export. The same 500 limit applies.

For your records#

Xero recommends keeping these too. They don't come into EscBooks, but they're your books for the years before:

• The Balance Sheet and Income Statement for each year, and the Trial Balance, from All reports.
• The chart of accounts: Accounting menu, Chart of accounts, Export (a CSV, without year-to-date balances or bank account numbers).
• The general ledger, for your accountant: Accounting menu, Accounting settings, Export accounting data. It takes the administrator role.
• Files: Accounting menu, Documents, then the Inbox or Archive. Download each file you need. A file attached to an invoice or bill is under Files on it: View, then Download.

What Xero can't export#

• Repeating invoice and bill templates. Note them down to set up repeating invoices again in EscBooks.
• The Employees contact group.
• Contact addresses, on an invoice export made with the sales and purchases role. Export as an administrator, or add the addresses on each client in EscBooks.

Bring it into EscBooks#

Attach the files to a chat with the assistant you've connected to EscBooks, and paste this with your start date filled in:

I'm moving my books from Xero to EscBooks, starting [START DATE]. The files I exported from Xero are attached. The customers are in the contacts export; the invoices in the invoice CSV files (one row per line item, so rows with the same invoice number are one invoice), with when each was last paid and what's still owed in the Receivable Invoice Detail report's Last Payment Date and Balance columns; the time in the Detailed Time report, which says which invoice each entry was billed on; and each bank account in its own Account Transactions report. Using the EscBooks connector, bring them in one step at a time, and show me what you're about to add before each step.

1. Look first. Call whoami, import_context and list_clients, so you know what's already in EscBooks and nothing is added twice.
2. Clients. From the customer or client list, add each client I still work with using create_client: name, email, contact name, and hourly rate if the export has one. Show me the list before adding them. Then tell me which clients have an address, phone, payment terms or a currency other than dollars, so I can add those in EscBooks.
3. Projects. Add each project to its client with create_project, with its own rate if it has one.
4. Invoices dated [START DATE] or later, and any older invoice that's still unpaid. For each one billed by the hour, log its time with log_time on the original dates, client and project (one entry per day, 24 hours at most), then draft_invoice from just those entries, with number set to the invoice's old number and issueDate and dueDate set to its old dates. Compare each draft's total with the old invoice, and tell me any that differ (a different rate, a discount, tax, or lines that weren't hours) and any invoice that wasn't billed by the hour, which I'll make in EscBooks myself. Then list the drafts for me to open.
5. Wait while I check each draft and click Mark as Sent. Then, for each invoice that was paid, use request_record_payment with the amount, the date it was paid and how. I'll approve those in EscBooks. Tell me about any invoice in another currency: I'll record its payment in EscBooks myself.
6. Time that isn't on an invoice yet: log it as billable, so it waits on To Invoice. Other past time I want in my reports: log it with billable set to false, so it's never billed.
7. Bank and card transactions since [START DATE]: one import per account with import_expenses, using the account's name as the source and its opening and closing balances if the export shows them. Send every line. Mark transfers between my own accounts and card payments as skip, and anything personal as personal. Tell me which deposits aren't client payments (bank interest, a sale I didn't invoice), so I can mark them as other income when I review. I'll review and approve each import in EscBooks.
8. Income that isn't a payment on an invoice and isn't on those statements (interest on an account I'm not bringing in, a cash sale): ask to record each with request_record_other_income, with its type (interest, sale or other), amount, the day it came in and the account from import_context. I'll approve those in EscBooks.
9. Expenses that aren't on a bank or card statement (cash, or paid personally): add them with add_expense.
10. When you're done, list what you added, what's waiting for my approval, and anything you couldn't bring in.

• It adds your clients and projects, logs the time, and drafts each invoice under its Xero number. You set each draft's Invoice date and click Mark as Sent; then it asks to record the payments, which you approve in Requests.
• Each bank account comes in as an import that waits on the account for your review. In Account Transactions, More can show each account's opening and closing balances; with them, EscBooks checks that the lines add up.
• Services aren't added by the assistant. Add them from the products and services export in Settings → Services.
• Then set Next invoice number in Settings → Invoicing to follow your last Xero invoice, with the same Invoice prefix (Xero's numbers usually start INV-).

Before you start, read Moving to EscBooks: it covers the assistant's permissions, its changes a day, and the services and subcontractors to add first.

What doesn't come across#

• Invoices for products or a fixed price. The assistant builds invoices from time, so it tells you which ones to make yourself with New Invoice and Add Line.
• Payments on their own, credit notes, overpayments and prepayments. A payment comes over on the invoice it paid. A credit note can go on the invoice it reduced as a discount (Add Discount).
• Files. Attach any receipts you need to their expense in EscBooks.
• Your chart of accounts, tracking categories and journals. EscBooks puts each expense in one of its own categories, and builds its General Ledger from your records.
• Bank rules and open bills. Set up Import rules again, and enter open bills on Bills.