What to bring across
You only need the position at your start date, not every row in the workbook.
- Chart of accounts from your spreadsheet categories
- Customer and supplier lists
- Opening balances and unpaid invoices
From spreadsheets
Moving from Excel to Cloud Accounting
A practical way to move your books out of Excel: choose a start date, set up your accounts and opening balances, and bring in bank statements without retyping them.
- Choosing software rather than planning the move? Small business accounting software
Business plan
R300/month
Bookkeeper plan
R650/month
Conversion price
Quoted per company
Bank statements
PDF to transactions
Current tax year
1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027
Who it is for
Choose a plan for the work you do
Owners and bookkeepers who keep the books in Excel or Google Sheets and want to move to proper cloud accounting without losing what the spreadsheet already holds.
Start from opening balances, not years of retyping
Bank statement PDFs converted to transactions
Assisted set-up available if you would rather not do it yourself
Signs it is time to leave Excel
Spreadsheets work until the business needs controls a workbook cannot give it.
- You registered for VAT
- More than one person edits the file
- Your accountant rebuilds the numbers at year-end
Decision support
What changes when you move to Accounter
Area
Excel workbook
With Accounter
Bank transactions
Excel workbookTyped or pasted in from statements
With AccounterBank statement PDFs converted to transactions, then reconciled
Invoices and debtors
Excel workbookA separate invoice template and a list of who still owes you
With AccounterInvoices and unpaid balances in the same ledger
Month-end and VAT
Excel workbookFormulas you have to trust and check
With AccounterReports and VAT figures from double-entry records
Step by step
How to move from Excel to cloud accounting
Moving a South African small business from spreadsheet bookkeeping to Accounter.
- 1
Choose a start date
Start at your financial year-end, often the end of February, or the start of a VAT period.
- 2
Map your categories to accounts
List the income and expense columns you use in Excel and match each one to an account in the chart of accounts.
- 3
Collect customers and suppliers
Gather names, contact details and VAT numbers for the people you invoice and the suppliers you pay.
- 4
Work out opening balances
With your accountant, confirm bank balances, unpaid customer invoices, unpaid supplier invoices and VAT at the start date.
- 5
Load the opening position
Enter the accounts, contacts and opening balances in Accounter, or ask for an assisted conversion.
- 6
Bring in bank transactions
Convert bank statement PDFs from the start date into transactions and reconcile them each month.
Done with you
Assisted conversion
Our team maps your spreadsheet exports into Accounter and loads them for you. You review the result against your own reports and sign it off before you start capturing. It is a people-led service, not an automated file converter.
- Conversion price
- Quoted per company
What the conversion includes
- Chart of accounts, mapped to Accounter account types
- Customer list with contact and billing details
- Supplier list with contact and payment details
- Opening balances from your trial balance at the cut-over date
- Open items: unpaid customer invoices and unpaid supplier invoices
Tools and next steps
Move from research to action
Compare the features and costs, or try a tool for the bookkeeping task you need to finish today.
Frequently asked questions
How do I move my bookkeeping from Excel to cloud accounting?
Pick a start date, map your spreadsheet categories to a chart of accounts, collect your customer and supplier lists, work out opening balances with your accountant, load them into the new system and then bring in bank transactions from that date.
Do I need to re-enter every old transaction?
No. Start from opening balances at a chosen date and keep the old workbook as your record of earlier periods.
What opening balances do I need?
Your bank balances, what customers owe you, what you owe suppliers, VAT owed to or by SARS, and any loans or assets, all at the start date. Your accountant can confirm them from your last financial statements.
Can I import bank statements instead of typing them?
Yes. The bank statement converter turns PDF statements from South African banks into transactions you can import, so you do not have to retype them.
Can someone set it up for me?
Yes. Ask about assisted conversion: we map your spreadsheet and load the opening position for you. The assisted conversion is quoted per company once we have seen your exported reports, because the work depends on the size of your chart of accounts and the number of open items.
Reviewed and sourced
Last reviewed 2026-07-18. Tax and VAT references use official SARS sources where applicable.