The short version
- Wave's reports are under Reports. Set the dates, choose Accrual, then Export as CSV.
- Your customers and vendors come from Wave's Data Export, which Wave emails to you.
- Wave can't export products and services, so you copy them into our blank list.
- Upload the reports to the Wave exports line on your onboarding page.
- Bring the three lists over yourself, under Your lists.
- Exporting needs the owner or an admin in Wave: viewers and editors can't.
The reports
Your cutover date is on your onboarding page. Use it wherever this table says cutover.
| Report | Dates to set | What it gives us |
|---|---|---|
| Trial Balance | As of: the cutover. Report type: Accrual (Paid & Unpaid) | Every opening balance |
| Account Transactions (General Ledger) | All accounts, the start of your fiscal year to the cutover, Accrual | Every transaction this year, bank and card included |
| Aged Receivables | As of: the cutover | What customers owed you at the cutover |
| Aged Payables | As of: the cutover | What you owed at the cutover |
| Sales Tax Report | The start of your fiscal year to the cutover, Accrual | The GST and PST you charged and paid |
| Data Export (Accounting) | None: it's the whole history | Every transaction, and your customer and vendor lists |
1. Export each report
Select Reports, then the report. Set the dates from the table, choose Accrual (Paid & Unpaid) as the report type, and update the report. Then select Export, and CSV.
2. What was still owed, invoice by invoice
Wave's Aged Receivables and Aged Payables total by customer and vendor, not by invoice. So also open Sales & Payments, Invoices, show only unpaid and overdue invoices, and save the list as a PDF or a screenshot. Do the same under Purchases, Bills, for unpaid bills. Upload both with the reports.
3. Ask Wave for your data
Select your business name, then Business settings. Under Other, choose Data Export, then Accounting. Wave emails a download link to your address. The file it sends holds four files: accounting.csv, bill_items.csv, customers.csv and vendors.csv.
Upload accounting.csv to the Wave exports line as it is. Don't open it in Excel and save it again: Excel rounds Wave's long transaction numbers. Keep customers.csv and vendors.csv for the next step.
Your customers, suppliers, and products and services
These three come over a different way: you bring each one over yourself, on your onboarding page under Your lists, and see every row before anything is added. Names, contact details, payment terms and prices come over. Nothing already there is overwritten, and no balances come over this way.
To get each one out of Wave:
- Customers: customers.csv, from the Data Export.
- Suppliers: vendors.csv, from the same export. Wave calls them vendors.
- Products and services: Wave can't export these. Download our blank list of products and services, copy each one's name, description and price from Sales & Payments, Products & Services, and bring it over choosing A spreadsheet. If you use Wave Connect, Wave's add-on for Google Sheets, you can download your products with it and bring that file over instead.
Then, on your onboarding page under Your lists, choose Bring it over beside each list. Choose Wave as where the list is now, then the file. Check what each column holds, check the rows, and choose Bring it over. If a list has nothing in it, say no suppliers, choose Nothing to bring instead.
Bank details never come over. If an export has columns for bank account numbers, they're left out of the import and out of the copy we keep.
4. Upload the reports
On your onboarding page, upload every report, the unpaid lists and accounting.csv to the Wave exports line. You can upload several at once. We check them against your statements before anything is brought in.
If something isn't there
If a report or the Data Export isn't offered, check you're signed in as the owner or an admin of the business in Wave. If it still isn't there, tell us on your onboarding page and we'll work from what you have.
Common questions
Do I need to cancel Wave?
Not yet. Keep it until your first year end with us is done, and keep the Data Export: it's your whole history in one place.
Why is there no export for products and services?
Wave doesn't offer one. Our blank list has the same columns the import reads, so a list copied into it comes over without any matching.