Move to stub from Sage

Moving from Sage takes nine steps, in order. Accounts come first so balances have somewhere to land, and contacts come before what they owe. You can stop after any step and pick it up later.

Step 1: Pick your switch date

Choose a clean cutoff before you export anything. Everything before it stays in Sage; everything after it lives in stub. The best dates are the start of your financial year, a quarter or a month. A mid-month cutoff makes VAT returns and bank reconciliation harder than they need to be.

For example: switch date 1 Oct 2026, so your cutoff (balances as at) is 30 Sep 2026.

Then, in Sage:

• Reconcile every bank account in Sage to the cent.
• File any outstanding VAT return so your tax periods don't overlap.
• Run every report as at your cutoff date, the day before your switch date.

Tip: Switching at the start of your financial year means you only bring across closing balances, not this year's income and expenses.

Step 2: Export from Sage

Each row is one file. The last column says which step it goes in.

Tip: Where Sage has both an excl. and an incl. VAT selling price, stub uses the excl. VAT price.

Note: Sage's Trial Balance keeps stock at its value at the start of your financial year and shows this year's purchases in full. Its Profit and Loss report, with Cost of Sales based on set to Sales, shows cost of sales after the change in stock instead. This guide brings Sage's Trial Balance across as it is. If you want stub to carry your stock at its value on the cutoff date, agree the adjustment with your accountant first.

Step 3: Set up your business

1. Go to Settings → Business and confirm your name, registration number and tax numbers.
2. Go to Settings → Finance and set your Operating currency and Financial year start.
3. If you're VAT registered, click VAT under Features on the same page and enter your VAT number, before you bring in any balances.

Note: VAT returns are included in the Growing Business plan.

Full guide: Set up your business details

Step 4: Import your chart of accounts

1. Go to Settings → Finance → Chart of Accounts, then click Import below the list.
2. Choose your chart of accounts file.

stub files each account under Income, Expenses, Assets, Liabilities or Equity and keeps your account codes. If a code is already in use, that account gets a new one, and the import summary lists it.

Full guide: Customise your Chart of Accounts

Step 5: Import customers, suppliers and products

1. Go to Customers → ··· → Import (or press I) and choose your customers file.
2. Go to Suppliers → ··· → Import (or press I) and choose your suppliers file.
3. Go to Products & Services → ··· → Import (or press I) and choose your items file.

Item codes become SKUs, and cost prices and quantities on hand come across. Importing the same file again updates each item rather than adding a second one.

Your stock should come in once: through your items' quantities, or through the Inventory line in step 6, not both. Sage's Trial Balance holds your stock value, so open each item and set its opening stock to 0, and bring stock in through step 6.

Full guide: Import your product catalogue

Step 6: Bring in your opening balances

1. Open the Trial Balance you ran in Sage, so you can work from it.
2. In stub, go to Settings → Finance, then Edit next to Opening balances, then click Set manually.
3. Set the Date to your cutoff date, the day before your switch date.
4. For each line on your Trial Balance, pick the Category and enter the amount as a Debit or a Credit. Click Add for each new line.
5. Enter Inventory Opening Balance on Inventory, and Opening Balance and VAT Adjustments on Opening Balance Equity.
6. Leave out Trade Receivables and Trade Payables. Step 7 brings those amounts in customer by customer and supplier by supplier.
7. Put the amount still shown as unallocated on Opening Balance Equity: add a line, or change the one you have, until the Debit and Credit totals match.
8. Click Save.

Tip: If your cutoff falls part-way through your financial year, your Trial Balance also lists this year's income and expenses. Bring those lines across too, so your reports for the year are complete.

Full guide: Set your opening balances

Step 7: Add what customers and suppliers owe

Record what each customer owed you, and what you owed each supplier, on your cutoff date. Work from your aged summaries.

1. Open the customer or supplier.
2. Click ··· → Opening balance.
3. Set the date to your cutoff date and enter the amount.
4. Click Save.

If your Sage file had a Balance column, the amount is already filled in. Check it and the date, then click Save.

To chase or settle old invoices one by one, enter them in Sales (and bills in Expenses) instead, dated before your switch date. Either way, check the contact's Statement: it shows the opening balance line.

Full guide: Customer and supplier opening balances

Step 8: Connect your bank

Go to Settings → Bank Accounts, click Bank account and choose Connect to link a South African bank. For any other bank, choose Add manually, set the account's currency, and import statements from the account's own screen.

If your bank accounts came across with your chart of accounts, open each one to connect it or import statements, rather than adding it again.

Your opening balances cover everything up to your switch date, so you only need transactions from then on.

Full guide: Connect your bank account

Step 9: Check your numbers

Go to Reports in the sidebar and tick these off against what you exported.

• Trial Balance in stub matches your old one, line for line, once step 7 is done
• Bank balances match your bank statements on your switch date
• Each customer's Statement matches what they owed you
• Each supplier's Statement matches what you owed them
• Customer, supplier and product counts match your exports
• VAT balance matches your last VAT return