Will my Sage 50 payroll items and earnings types convert to QuickBooks Payroll?
Most Sage 50 payroll items map over, but tax tables and custom earnings types need manual setup in QuickBooks Payroll.
Yes, in a typical Sage 50 to QuickBooks conversion your payroll items and earnings types do move across, but only as list entries. The names, descriptions, and basic structure of each item are mapped into QuickBooks Payroll. What does not move are the tax tables, deduction formulas, and payroll rules that sit behind those items. Those are rebuilt after the conversion, and the amount of work depends on how your file was set up.
What maps over
When our engineers convert a Sage 50 file, we map each payroll item and earnings type into the QuickBooks Payroll list. Hourly, salary, commission, bonus, deduction, and addition items generally come across with their names and descriptions intact. The expense and liability accounts each item posts to are also assigned during the conversion.
The exact result depends on how the item was built in Sage. A simple hourly earnings type maps with little fuss. A custom component with complex formulas or special accrual rules may come across as a named item, but the rule behind it will not follow.
What needs rebuilding
The tax tables are the first thing that does not convert. Sage 50 stores federal, state, and local withholding tables in its own payroll engine, and QuickBooks cannot read them. You re-enter your employees’ tax withholding setup, filing status, and year-to-date tax totals inside QuickBooks Payroll after the conversion.
The same is true for earnings types that were driven by a formula, such as a shift differential or a piece-rate calculation. Those formulas do not translate. You list the item in QuickBooks, then recreate the logic as a new payroll item or edit the employee’s pay settings.
How to know what your file will require
We cannot tell you exactly which items will map cleanly until we look at your company file. Different Sage 50 versions, payroll setups, and custom items all change the outcome. Our engineers offer a Sage 50 to QuickBooks conversion evaluation that reviews your payroll list and tells you what carries over and what you will need to rebuild.
Send us a copy of your Sage 50 company file. We will map out your payroll conversion before you commit, so there are no surprises when the QuickBooks payroll is set up.