Lesson 1 of 2 · 3 min

Moving in from QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho or a spreadsheet

Bring customers, suppliers, items, balances, invoices, bills and statements in from a file, every row checked first.

  1. Import → What are you bringing in?

    Import, in the menu: What are you bringing in? One kind at a time: customers, suppliers, products, services, the chart of accounts, what customers owe you, what you owe suppliers, invoices, supplier bills, expenses or a bank statement. Each has a template to download, and files exported from QuickBooks, Xero and Zoho Books work as they are. Then choose the file: CSV or Excel (.xlsx), up to 5,000 rows.

  2. Check before importing

    Ledger guesses which column is which from their names; check each one. A date like 03/04/2026 could be either way round, so it asks once: 3 April (day first) or 4 March (month first)? Then every row is checked before anything goes in: a missing name, an email that isn't one, a row already in your books. Fix a row where it is (your own file isn't changed); rows with problems are left out, and rows already there are skipped.
  3. Bring customers, suppliers and items first, then what's owed. For the same stretch, import either opening balances (What customers owe you, What you owe suppliers) or the past invoices and bills, not both: doing both counts what's owed twice. Past invoices are issued on their dates, so they're in your sales too.
  4. It's an import, not a copy of your old software: only the records in your file come across, not attachments, audit history or settings, and the page says so before you upload. Running the same file again never makes anything twice. Each import is listed under Earlier imports with what came in; when you're done, check the totals against your old system.

Try it

Opens Ledger. You'll be asked to sign in first; new businesses get a free week, no card needed.

Open Import

Quick check

2 quick questions. Pick an answer and Leo will tell you how you did.

1. Your old app shows Al-Madina Store owing Rs 145,000 across three unpaid invoices. What do you import?
2. An import stops halfway, so you run the same file again. What happens to the rows already in?

Try it in Ledger, free for a week

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