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Hero ACMA CGMA · CIMA chartered since 2013

Sage 50 and Sage Business Cloud to Xero · UK · Fixed price

Sage to Xero migration,nominal by nominal, to the penny

In short

A Sage to Xero migration for UK small businesses, from Sage 50 or Sage Business Cloud Accounting: nominal codes and VAT T codes mapped, departments turned into tracking categories, customers, suppliers, open invoices and bills, bank balances and history carried across, and Sage's closing trial balance agreed to Xero's opening balance to the penny. From £995 fixed, one to five days, cut over at a VAT quarter end, arranged by form and email.

Sage 50 has usually been in place for years, so the chart of accounts carries history: nominals nobody uses, departments set up for a project that ended, and T codes applied inconsistently. Moving that as it stands puts the same problems into Xero. I clean the extract first, then load, then reconcile.
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Stuart Wilson, ACMA CGMA
Stuart Wilson, ACMA CGMA Chartered Management Accountant · CIMA since 2013

Sage to Xero: what maps to what

Sage 50 Accounts and Sage Business Cloud Accounting, UK editions. Checked 19 October 2026.
In SageIn XeroWhat I do
Four-digit nominal codes in Sage's rangesAccount codes you defineKeep your Sage numbering or map to Xero's defaults; retire unused nominals; agree the list before loading
Tax codes T0, T1, T2, T9, reverse charge and EU codesTax ratesMap each code; check open items so the first Xero VAT return is right
Departments and projectsTracking categories (two allowed) or Xero ProjectsDecide which dimensions still matter and map them; archive the rest
Customer and supplier records with account referencesContactsMerge duplicates; keep account references as contact account numbers, terms and VAT numbers
Open sales and purchase ledger itemsOpen invoices and billsLoad item by item and agree to the control accounts
Bank accounts (Sage 1200 series)Bank accounts with feedsLoad the cut-over balance, list unpresented items, connect the feeds
Stock recordsInventory itemsLoad items and quantities; agree stock value to the balance sheet
Fixed asset register and depreciationFixed assetsCarry the register and accumulated depreciation; set the depreciation methods
Recurring entries, report layouts, memorised reportsRepeating transactions, report layoutsRebuilt in Xero
Sage 50 PayrollXero Payroll or a separate payrollCarry year-to-date figures if moving mid tax year, or leave payroll in Sage

The order of work

  1. Scope. Sage version, companies, departments, stock, payroll, and the VAT quarter end to cut over at. Fixed price in writing within one working day.
  2. Extract and clean. Nominal, customer, supplier, bank, stock and transaction exports taken from Sage at the cut-over date and cleaned before anything is loaded.
  3. Build Xero. Chart of accounts, tax rates, tracking categories, contacts, items and bank accounts, then opening balances and open items.
  4. History and reconciliation. The agreed period loaded; trial balance, bank, debtors, creditors and VAT reconciled; the reconciliation pack written.
  5. Go live. Feeds connected, Xero authorised with HMRC for Making Tax Digital, recorded walkthrough, Sage backed up and kept for the retention period.

The general migration page covers QuickBooks, FreeAgent, spreadsheets and ERP finance data. For a dashboard on the Xero figures afterwards, see Xero to Power BI.

Questions people ask

How much does a Sage to Xero migration cost?

From £995 fixed, excluding VAT, for one company in one currency with up to two years of history, from Sage 50 or Sage Business Cloud Accounting. Departments, projects, stock and several companies are quoted on top, in writing, before starting.

Does Sage 50's nominal structure move to Xero?

Sage 50 uses four-digit nominal codes in fixed ranges (sales in the 4000s, purchases in the 5000s, overheads in the 7000s and so on). Xero lets you choose your own codes, so I either keep your Sage numbering, which people who know the old reports usually prefer, or map to Xero's default chart. Either way every nominal is mapped and agreed before loading.

What happens to Sage tax codes?

Sage's T codes (T0 zero-rated, T1 standard, T2 exempt, T9 outside the scope, and the reverse-charge and EU codes) are mapped to Xero tax rates. Open items are checked so the first Xero VAT return treats them the same way Sage would have.

Sage 50 is on one desktop PC. Does that matter?

Only for the extract. The data is exported from that PC (or from a backup restored elsewhere) at the cut-over date. The rest of the work happens in Xero. Keep the Sage backup for the six-year retention period.

When should we switch from Sage to Xero?

At a VAT quarter end, so the return comes from one system, and ideally at a financial year end if one is close. Xero is connected to HMRC for Making Tax Digital before the first return it files.

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