Moving to EscBooks

How it works#

Export your files from your old app, hand them to the AI assistant you've connected to EscBooks, and review what it prepared. Clients, projects and time go in as it adds them; invoices wait as drafts, and payments and statements wait for you to approve. Nothing is sent to a client.

Coming from a particular app? Each has its own exports: see Moving from QuickBooks, Moving from Xero and Moving from FreshBooks.

Pick a start date#

Choose the day EscBooks takes over: the first of a month at least, and of a quarter or a year if you can. EscBooks keeps everything from that day on; your old app's exports keep the years before.

• The first of the year is simplest for taxes: the year's reports and your accountant's packet all come from EscBooks.
• Starting later in the year? EscBooks' reports for this year count only what's in EscBooks. Either bring this year's invoices and transactions too, or give your accountant your old app's reports for the months before.
• Bring this year's payments to subcontractors either way, so their 1099 totals are complete. Add each one on Subcontractors first, so their payments are matched to them as they come in.

What comes over#

• Clients and projects, from your old app's customer or client list.
• Time: what isn't billed yet waits on To Invoice; older time can come as history, not billable, so it's never billed twice.
• Invoices, rebuilt from their time under their old numbers and dates, with their payments on the days they were paid. Unpaid ones can then be collected from EscBooks.
• Bank and card transactions from your start date, one import per account, with each statement's opening and closing balance.
• Other expenses, such as cash or things paid personally.
• Income that isn't an invoice, such as bank interest or a sale you didn't invoice, as Other income. Its deposits come in with the bank import: when you review it, mark each under Income with no invoice as Interest income, Sale without an invoice or Other income. Anything not on a statement, your assistant asks to record, for you to approve (or record it yourself on Income with Other Income). See Reviewing and approving.

What doesn't#

• Invoices that weren't billed by the hour (a fixed price, products, a line typed in): the assistant can only build invoices from time and expenses. Make these yourself with New Invoice, then Add Line.
• Payment history on its own. A client's payment comes over only on an invoice you bring. On cash basis, income counts when it's paid, so this year's income is the payments on the invoices you bring, plus any other income: deposits you mark on review, and what your assistant asks to record. On accrual basis it's the invoices you bring, by issue date, plus that other income.
• Attachments: receipts and invoice files stay in your exports. Attach the ones you need to an expense in EscBooks.
• Your chart of accounts and journal entries. EscBooks has a set list of expense categories, and the assistant picks the nearest one for each line. Its General Ledger is built from your records, so there are no journal entries to carry over.
• Bank rules, repeating invoices and email templates. Set up Import rules and repeating invoices again as you go.
• Client details beyond the basics. The assistant adds a client's name, email, contact and rate. Add the Billing address, Phone, Payment terms, Tax ID and Invoice currency on the client yourself.

Keep your old app's exports, reports and invoice PDFs as your records of the years before. Each platform guide says how long you can still sign in after you cancel.

Before you start#

1. Connect your assistant (see Connected assistants) and allow it to Log time and use the timer, Add expenses, Draft invoices for you to review and Add clients and projects. Change these any time in Connected Assistants.
2. Each thing the assistant adds is one change, and it can make up to 200 a day unless you change it. A year of time entries is more than that: raise Up to … changes a day under the connection while you move, then lower it again.
3. Add the services you bill for in Settings → Services (Add Service), and your subcontractors on Subcontractors.

The easiest way: your assistant#

Attach the files to a chat with your assistant and paste this. Put your start date where it says [START DATE]. If your old app gave you a ZIP file, unzip it first and attach the files inside.

I'm moving my books from my old accounting app to EscBooks, starting [START DATE]. The files I exported from my old accounting app are attached. 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.

• Open each draft it made on Invoices: it has the old number and dates already. Check the total, and click Mark as Sent. That marks it sent under its old number, without emailing the client. Then tell the assistant you're done, so it can ask to record the payments.
• Old invoices never get automatic payment reminders: one dated before the day you started EscBooks is left out of them, so it won't draw a reminder while its payment waits for approval. Send Reminder on an invoice still sends one by hand.
• Approve the payments in Requests before you review the bank imports, so each deposit finds the payment it was.
• Other income it asks to record (interest, a sale you didn't invoice) waits in Requests too: Record Income puts it on Income. A deposit that's on one of your bank imports isn't asked for: mark it when you review that import.
• Review and approve each bank and card import on its account (see Reviewing a statement).
• Set Next invoice number in Settings → Invoicing, and the Invoice prefix beside it, so new invoices carry on from your old app's numbers. The hint under it shows the next one.

Doing it yourself#

• Clients: Add Client on Clients, one at a time. There's no file import for clients.
• Bank and card transactions: on Accounts, open the account (or add it) and click Import a Statement, then drop in a CSV. Your bank's own CSV download reads best; see Importing statements. A bank you connect brings recent months in by itself (see Connecting a bank).
• Unpaid invoices: with the client's unbilled time on To Invoice, or with New Invoice. Type the old number in Invoice number and the old Invoice date, then Mark as Sent. Dated before you started EscBooks, it gets no automatic reminders; Send Reminder sends one by hand.

Checking it came over#

• Compare EscBooks' Reports with your old app's Profit and Loss for the same months, both on the same basis, cash or accrual: income, and each kind of expense. Set your business's method first; see Cash or accrual.
• Each account's months show whether their statements tie out to the printed balances. The Month-End checklist shows anything still to review.
• Ask your assistant to check a statement against what's recorded: it lists anything missing, without changing a thing.