Sage does not provide a downgrade compatibility. You cannot take a Premium database and move it to Pro. However, having said that I know that this has been done but only if the Premium database has never been used with Premium only functionality. It is also expensive.

If you are using Sage 50 Canadian for client files why are you not a member of the Sage Accountants Network. This membership includes the Sage 50 Accountants Edition which enables you to open files in Pro, Premium or Quantum and then save them back to the same Pro, Premium or Quantum. This AE also includes payroll and other perks. You can then handle as many clients as you wish in any of the Sage 50 editions. Check it out on the Sage website.

As Alwyn suggested, doing book-keeping for paying clients is best done with the Accountants' Edition unless the client also has Pro and is going to do some of their own entries.

Treana said:

Can I have the previous bookkeeper export the transactions into excel then I can upload them?

The 'ledgers' in Sage 50 (lists of employees, accounts, inventory, customers, vendors, projects - the names and other static non-transaction info) can be exported into a text file format that can be directly imported into another 'company file'.

for transactions, the format of the export is not the same as the import, so the whole list has to be reworked before importing again.   And the import functionality has to be exactly correct or it won't work, and you'll have to restore the backup and start over.   For 100 entries I would rekey them manually, for 1000 I would take the time to set up the import.  For 10,000 I would look into having the data down-converted by a company that specializes in doing that.

Can I use Sage 50 Accountants Edition to open a "Premium" file but save it to "Pro" instead? My client wants to switch from "Premium" to "Pro" this year.

Louis: Unfortunately you cannot use the Accountants Edition to down grade a data set. The Accountants Edition gives you the ability to open any data set that is a compatible version. ie: with the Accountants Edition 2018.1 you will be able to open a Sage 50 Pro, Premium or Quantum file if they are 2018.1 as well. Once opened you will be able to save to Pro, Premium or Quantum 2018.1. If you upgrade a Pro file to Premium when saving then the file will only be opened as a Premium file. The reverse of saving a Premium file as a Pro file cannot be done in the program. Down grading is not an option within Sage 50. Also, if you open an earlier file, Pro 2017.0 and save it as Pro 2018.1 then it cannot be downgraded back to 2017.0

It is for this reason that many of us with the Accountants Edition maintain various versions on our computers so that we can open and save a client's file without changing the version. I have all versions of the Accountants Edition dating back to Sage 50 12.1 active on my computer. This gives me the ability to open a client file and save it again without forcing the client into buying an upgrading they did not want and probably did not need. 

Treana as Alwyn and Randy suggest the best road to take is joining the Sage accountant's network but in case there are problems you contact us at Business Innovations and we can change the program to Pro  www.BITHelp.ca