The currency specified in the import file could not be found" in Sage 50
Sage 50 is rejecting an import because a currency code in your file does not match a currency set up in the company.
The message “The currency specified in the import file could not be found” means Sage 50 read your import file, hit a currency code it does not recognize, and stopped the import. It is not saying your file is corrupt. It is saying the currency named in a row of your import file does not exist as a set-up currency in the company you are importing into.
What the message actually means
Sage 50 checks every currency reference in an import against the currencies configured in the destination company. If a row says EUR and the company only has USD and CAD defined, the import halts with this message. The mismatch is usually invisible in the file itself, because a three-letter code looks fine on screen. What matters is whether that exact code exists in the company’s currency list.
Check the currency codes in your import file
Open the import file and look at the currency column. Common causes include a typo, a trailing space, inconsistent casing between rows, or a blank cell where a code was expected. Make sure every row uses one code consistently, with no hidden characters. Fixing the file in a spreadsheet and re-importing is the safest first step and often resolves it.
Check the currencies set up in the company
The other half of the mismatch is the company itself. The destination company must have the currency defined before you import data that references it. Whether you can add a currency, and how multicurrency behaves, depends on the edition and how the company was first set up. If the company was created as single-currency, you may not be able to add more currencies later, and that constraint, not the import file, is the real problem.
Watch for encoding and formatting issues
A file exported from another system can carry currency codes that look correct but are not. Non-breaking spaces, quotation marks, or a different text encoding can make a valid code unrecognizable to Sage 50. Saving the file as plain CSV and re-checking the column in a text editor, not just a spreadsheet, will reveal these. This is a frequent culprit when the code visibly matches and the import still fails.
When the import keeps failing
If the codes match, the company has the currency defined, and the import still stops here, the data may need to be mapped or converted rather than imported directly. That is common when moving between accounting systems, since currency handling differs between products and a straight file import rarely accounts for it. Our engineers handle this kind of data movement regularly, including converting Sage 50 to QuickBooks where currency definitions differ between the two products.
A useful next step
Send us the import file and a description of what you are importing into. We will look at it and tell you whether this is a quick fix on your side or something that needs the data remapped. The evaluation is free, and there is no obligation.