Switching to Ledgers

From Xero to live
in under a week.

The biggest fear about switching accounting software: "will my history come with me?" Short answer: yes. Long answer: the Migration Agent does most of the work, flags anything that looks off, and you sign off when you're satisfied. Most switches finish in 3–7 days. No mid-year disasters, no lost trial balance.

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Day-by-day

The week of a switch.

Most migrations follow this pattern. Days are approximate — bigger orgs take longer, smaller ones finish faster.

Day 160 min

Connect & export

Sign up for Ledgers (free). Connect your UK bank via Open Banking. Export your Trial Balance as of last month-end from Xero / QuickBooks / FreeAgent (one menu click in each). Drop the CSV into the Migration Agent.

Day 1–2Background

Agent rebuilds

The Migration Agent reads your TB, infers your chart of accounts (creates any missing accounts in Ledgers' schema), posts opening balances as journal entries, and locks the periods before the cutover so nothing retroactively shifts.

Day 2–320 min

You review

You get a one-page diff: "here's what we brought across, here's the chart-of-accounts mapping, here's what didn't match." You edit anything that's wrong; the agent re-posts.

Day 3–5Background

Catch-up close

For the period between your TB date and today, we pull bank transactions and re-categorise via the Categorisation Agent. Your bookkeeping for the current month is done before you finish your first week.

Day 5–730 min

Review & approve

The Migration Agent checks the migration: opening balances tie, chart of accounts is sane, current-month categorisation looks right. Anything ambiguous is surfaced for you to approve, then it's signed with a SHA-256 hash. You get a Trust Receipt for your records.

Day 72 min

Cancel the old one

Cancel your Xero / QuickBooks subscription. Tell your bookkeeper (politely). You're live on Ledgers.

What comes across.
And what doesn't.

Honest summary. We don't pretend everything migrates clean.

Comes across
  • ✓ Opening trial balance (every account, every balance)
  • ✓ Chart of accounts (auto-mapped + edited)
  • ✓ Bank accounts + balances at cutover date
  • ✓ Open invoices (AR) and open bills (AP)
  • ✓ Outstanding VAT position
  • ✓ Suppliers and customers (with cleanup)
  • ✓ Period locks for all closed months
Doesn't come across (yet)
  • · Historical line-item detail (we keep summary, not every JE line)
  • · App-marketplace integrations from Xero/QB
  • · Customised report templates
  • · Attached files older than 6 months (storage cost)
  • · Bank-feed rules — we re-learn from your own bulk-accepts (and we seed common UK brands)
  • · Cap-table / equity records (use Carta/Pulley)
The mid-year question

Switch mid-year?
Totally fine.

We migrate at your last clean month-end. Periods before that are locked and read-only in Ledgers — they're your historical record. Your accountant does year-end in Xero one last time, hands off, and you're fully on Ledgers from the new FY.

If you switch mid-FY (say, in October when your FY started in April): Ledgers has months 1–6 as locked historical, then runs months 7–12 live. Year-end accountant gets everything in one place.

Worked example

Acme Studio Ltd, FY April–March. Decides to switch in October 2026.

  • Apr–Sep 2026 · Xero historical, locked in Ledgers
  • Oct 2026 → · Live on Ledgers, books keep themselves
  • Mar 2027 · Year-end pack to accountant from Ledgers — full year visible
  • Apr 2027 → · Cancel Xero. Switch complete.

Honest answers to the worry list.

What if my accountant only knows Xero?

They'll be fine. Ledgers exports P&L, BS, TB, and a full year-end pack. Most accountants are agnostic — they want clean numbers, not a specific tool. We've had accountants tell us our handover is the cleanest they get from any cloud platform.

What if I want to switch back?

You own your data. We provide a full export in standard formats (CSV per ledger, plus a TB) that's re-importable to any major platform. No lock-in.

What about open invoices and bills?

They migrate. Open AR and AP land in Ledgers as open records with the same customer / supplier / due date. When payment hits the bank, they auto-match — same as if you'd issued them in Ledgers from the start.

What about VAT mid-quarter?

We bring across the quarter-to-date VAT position. Your first Ledgers VAT return covers the period from cutover to quarter-end, and includes whatever was in Xero up to cutover — full quarter, one return. The Migration Agent flags any duplicate-risk transactions for review.

Do I need to migrate myself?

No — Growth+ tier includes white-glove migration help. We walk the diff with you on a screen-share so you can approve it. Free / Solo / Starter tiers are self-serve but the Migration Agent does the heavy lifting; we'll still help if you get stuck.

How long does it actually take?

Pre-revenue startup (10-30 txns, no payroll, no VAT): 1 day. Established SME (200+ txns, payroll, VAT, multiple banks): 5-7 days. Multi-entity or specialist sector (regulated, group structure): 2-3 weeks with the Custom tier.

Bring your books.
We'll do the rest.

Start free. Run the migration in parallel with your existing tool. Cut over when you're sure.

Start your migration →