BrightBooks Migration Guide

Overview

When you move your bookkeeping over to BrightBooks, you have two ways of bringing your data across from your previous software. This guide explains what each option involves, why you might choose one over the other, and takes you through the steps for both, so you can make the right decision for your business and complete your migration with confidence.

For each option, we cover what it means, why you would choose it, and how to carry it out.

The Options Available

Option 1: Opening Balances (Recommended)

You enter your trial balance and your customer and supplier balances as at a single start date, then enter everything else in BrightBooks as normal from that point forward. This is the quicker, lower-risk option and the one we recommend for almost all customers.

Option 2: Full Data Import (Not Recommended)

You import several years of individual transactions, on top of an opening balance for your starting year, and then reconcile everything up to the current date. This gives you historical transaction detail in BrightBooks, but it is significantly more time-consuming and carries a much higher risk of errors that can be difficult, or impossible, to fully recover from.

Our recommendation: Choose Opening Balances wherever possible. Customers who use this option are far more successful in their BrightBooks journey. Full Data Import should only be considered if you have the time, data confidence, and reconciliation experience the process demands.

Things to Consider When Choosing

Before you decide, weigh up the following:

If you are unsure, Opening Balances is almost always the safer and more successful path. Many issues encountered during a Full Data Import are never fully recovered from, which can affect your confidence in the system going forward.

Option 1: Opening Balances — Step by Step

What This Involves

This method only requires your trial balance, and your customer and supplier details and balances. You enter these as at a single date, either the start of the current year or a mid-year date (the date you export the data from your old software), then enter everything else in BrightBooks as normal from that point. You will not have comparative balances in BrightBooks, so make sure your historical data remains saved and accessible in your old software or your own records.

Why We Recommend This Option

This is by far the easiest option and requires the least amount of work to get started in BrightBooks. It saves time and avoids the potential for human error that comes with long, complex imports and reconciliations. Customers who use this option are consistently far more successful in their BrightBooks journey.

What You'll Need

• List of customers (names, addresses, emails, etc. + outstanding balances)
• List of suppliers (names, addresses, emails, etc. + outstanding balances)
• Trial balance report

Decide the date you want to start from in BrightBooks, then export the above as at the day before. For example, if you are starting your data input in BrightBooks on 01/09/2026, obtain the above information as at 31/08/2026.

Choosing Your Start Date

We recommend choosing a start date that lines up with the end of one of your VAT return periods. This means you won't end up preparing part of a VAT return in your old software and part in BrightBooks.

You should also complete a bank reconciliation as at this same date, and post any outstanding receipts or payments in your old software first, so your bank position is accurate and complete before you start entering data in BrightBooks.

Step-by-Step Process

• A — Export your customers, suppliers, their balances, and your trial balance from your old software as at your chosen date.
• B — Review your settings for contact codes and check the nominal codes available in your chart of accounts.
• C — Download the import files from BrightBooks for contacts and journals, enter your data, and import.
• D — Enter your opening customer and supplier balances manually.
• E — Carry out a quick review to confirm the opening balances for your customers, suppliers, and nominal codes all match your old software. Your opening debtor and creditor listings must agree back to the trial balance figure, and your opening bank balance must agree to your bank statement and trial balance as at that date.

Once these checks are complete, you're all set and ready to process new transactions in BrightBooks.

Getting the Import Files

• Contacts import file — Settings > Imports > select Contacts > Next > click "Template" to download it.
• Journal import file — Settings > Imports > Journals > Next > click "Template" to download it.

BrightBooks uses a different nominal code structure to your previous software, so you'll need to know which BrightBooks code each of your trial balance codes should map to. Review the available codes in General Ledger > Chart of Accounts, where you can also add or rename codes if needed.

Entering Opening Customer and Supplier Balances

Customer and supplier details can be imported through the contacts import, but their opening balances are entered separately:

• Customers — go to Sales > Opening Customer Balances > select Invoice for a positive opening balance or Receipt for a credit opening balance > enter the date (the day after your export date) > select your customer > enter a reference > enter the values. Repeat for every customer until each has a row with their total balance.
• Suppliers — go to Purchases > Opening Supplier Balances > select Invoice for a positive opening balance or Payment for a credit opening balance > enter the date (the day after your export date) > select your supplier > enter a reference > enter the values. Repeat for every supplier until each has a row with their total balance.

Contacts Import — Things to Note

Journal Import — Things to Note

Option 2: Full Data Import — Step by Step

This option is not recommended for most businesses. Only proceed if you have the time available, and you are confident in your ability to extract, import and reconcile the data accurately. Issues encountered part-way through a full import can be very difficult to recover from.

What This Involves

This option imports multiple years' worth of individual transactions into BrightBooks. It is far more time-consuming than Opening Balances and carries much more room for error. It involves an opening balance (as above) for the year you start your import from, followed by imports of all transactions from that point to the current year. You will then need to allocate receipts, reconcile your bank, and generate VAT returns and bank reconciliations to bring everything up to date.

Why Some Customers Choose This Option

Despite the extra effort, this option does have benefits: you retain access to invoice records for past years, and to customer/supplier ledgers and comparative nominal balances. Many customers, however, do not find this trade-off against time and effort worthwhile.

What You'll Need

• List of customers (names, addresses, emails, etc. + outstanding balances)
• List of suppliers (names, addresses, emails, etc. + outstanding balances)
• Trial balance report

Note: take these reports as at the end of the year before the one you are importing into BrightBooks. For example, if you are importing three years of data back to January 2023, the above should be based on your closing balances as at December 2022.

You will also need:

• A list of all receipts posted across the years you are importing
• A list of all payments posted across the years you are importing
• A list of all journals posted across the years you are importing
• A trial balance report at the end of each year you are importing
• A customer/supplier balances report at the end of each year you are importing

Once you have all of this data, cross-check it to confirm your exports tally to the balances in your old software before you move on.

Key Differences to Understand Before You Start

• BrightBooks handles refunds as negative receipts on customer accounts and negative payments on supplier accounts.
• BrightBooks does not allow journal postings to customers or suppliers.
• BrightBooks VAT returns are heavily dependent on the country selection of your customers and suppliers.
• BrightBooks may not have all the VAT codes you need by default — review Settings > VAT Rates to see what's available and add any required for scenarios such as EU/non-EU trade.
• Imports will not allocate receipts and payments against invoices — you will need to allocate these manually after import.
• We recommend reconciling as you go, rather than importing every year first and reconciling at the end. At a minimum, allocate receipts and payments, reconcile your bank, and complete a VAT return year by year — ideally more frequently than that.
• You will need to run a bank reconciliation at the end of each year you import. We recommend doing this more frequently than once a year where possible, but at a minimum it must be done year on year.
• You will need to run at least one dummy VAT return after import, up to the last period completed in your old software, so future VAT returns pull in accurate data. Ideally, run this at the end of each year as you import, rather than only once at the very end of the process.
• You will also need to run at least one VIES and Intrastat return if applicable, again up to the last period completed in your old software.
• If any opening customer/supplier balances were already included on a previous VAT return, enter them with VAT code N (0%, not applicable) so they are not declared again.
• There is a limit of 1,000 rows per import — larger volumes of transactions may need to be split across multiple imports. You must import no more than one year of transactions in a single import — never combine multiple years together, even if the row count would allow it.
• Check your current financial year setting in BrightBooks before you begin. If it's set to the current year, imports of previous years' data will fall into the wrong (open) year. Go to Settings > Accounting Periods and set this to the year you need to start entering data for. As up to five years can be open at a time, this allows you to import everything you need.
• Opening balance customer invoice numbers should be lower than the numbers used for the rest of that year and future years. Don't use random numbers (e.g. 99999) for opening balances, as auto-numbering will always generate the next number based on the highest number in use.
• BrightBooks does not support alphanumeric sales invoice numbers — these must be numerical only.
• To retain your own invoice numbers on import, disable auto invoice numbering in Settings > Accounts – Setup.
• If you continue posting in your old software during the migration, none of those new transactions will appear in BrightBooks automatically — you must enter them manually once set up, so keep track of them.
• You must have confidence in your raw data before importing. Check that export file totals tally to the expected balances — for example, some software allows deleted items to be included in an export if all options are ticked, which will immediately make your BrightBooks balances incorrect and require hours of work to identify and fix.

Step-by-Step Process

• Import your customer and supplier records first.
• Import your opening trial balance journal.
• Enter your opening customer/supplier balances for the first year in BrightBooks (as in Option 1 above).
• Stop and reconcile these values back to your old software before continuing.

Once you're happy the opening position is correct, import all transactions for that first year using the following import files:

• Summary customer invoices and credit notes
• Summary supplier invoices and credit notes
• Customer and non-customer receipts
• Supplier and non-supplier payments
• Journals

Detailed invoices are available and allow products to be selected, but for historical transactions we recommend the summary transaction imports. All of these import files are available in Settings > Imports — select the one you need, then click "Template" on the next screen to download it. Due to the 1,000-row import limit, and to keep your reconciliations manageable, you must import one year of transactions at a time — never combine more than one year in a single import.

Once you have imported a year's transactions, complete the following before moving on to the next year:

• Allocate your customer and supplier receipts and payments against invoices for that year — do this at a minimum once per year, ideally more frequently.
• Reconcile your bank account for that year.
• Run a VAT return (or dummy VAT return) up to the end of that year to confirm accuracy.
• Once everything is fully reconciled, complete a year end in BrightBooks for that year (Settings > Year End) before importing the next year's transactions.
• Repeat this cycle — import, allocate, reconcile bank, VAT return, year end — one year at a time until you reach the current year.

Importing Invoice Files — Field Notes

Importing Receipt Files — Field Notes

Importing Journal Files — Things to Note

Balancing and Rolling Forward

Once imported, cross-check balances at the end of every year in BrightBooks against your old software, including customer and supplier balances, all nominal balances, and a completed bank reconciliation. Skipping these checks can hide issues and cause incorrect brought-forward balances that automatically skew later years. As above, we recommend doing this reconciliation cycle year by year as you go (or more frequently), rather than importing all years first and reconciling only at the end.

Once a year's balances are confirmed correct, complete a year end to roll forward: go to Settings > Year End and follow the on-screen steps. This moves your current year forward (e.g. from 2023 to 2024) and generates the following year's opening balances automatically. Repeat this check-and-roll-forward process year by year until you reach the current year — if a year's balances are not correct, stop, investigate, and correct them before completing the year end. Once you're up to date, you can begin entering new transactions directly into BrightBooks.

Additional Considerations

The following features are not applicable to every business, but if any of them are enabled or set up for you, there are extra steps you must follow during migration: