MYOB, QuickBooks and Sage in the firing line.
A number of fixed-price online services that convert data from desktop accounting software to cloud accounting program Xero have started to spring up, in a sign of the cloud vendor’s growing momentum.
Entrepreneurial accounting firms were selling conversion services in at least three countries for some of the most popular desktop accounting brands including MYOB, QuickBooks and Sage. Prices, capabilities and file types differed for the services. Internet searches revealed more firms planning to offer competing services.
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Adelaide firm Jaquillard Minns was the latest to launch a service. XpressConvert targeted MYOB users looking to move to Xero. XpressConvert offered two services; a basic conversion for $250 including period end balances, contacts, open and unpaid invoices, and a full conversion service for $250 plus $35 for every month converted.
The full conversion included transaction history and was reconciled to the existing MYOB file and also promised completion within three business days.
The first service in Australia was Click2Convert.com.au by Five Ways Group, a Melbourne accounting firm which recently became a gold partner with Xero.
Click2Convert was a wholesale service for accountants and bookkeepers. It charged $199 per conversion for MYOB and QuickBooks files and guaranteed a three business-day turnaround.
The service imported conversion date balances as well as a chart of accounts, client list, balance date debtors and balance date creditors.
Xero’s oldest partner accounting firm, the New Zealand-based DJCA, launched LiveMigrate.com earlier this year to convert MYOB customers to Xero. The entry-level service cost NZ$249 and imported the chart of accounts, year-to-date data, all contacts and all open invoices within three business days.
The most expensive plan at NZ$749 also imported seven years of historical data, the fixed asset ledger and the previous financial year accountant’s report.
UK company Ledgerscope has launched the only known Sage to Xero conversion service, MoveMyBooks.com.
The recently released service cost £90 and had only been tested with UK versions of Sage 50 and Sage Instant. MoveMyBooks founder Adrian Pearson said he would be happy to test the service with Sage data files from other countries including Australia.
MoveMyBooks planned to start converting data files from the UK, US and Canadian versions of QuickBooks before July, Pearson said. The Australian version of QuickBooks was unlikely to work with the service, he added.