Extract text from Sage form layouts (FOL)
To convert FOL form layouts to another format, you need Sage 50 Accounts or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Accounting Layout File" file type, you need software like Sage 50 Accounts or a similar tool.
A .FOL file is primarily an internal form layout template used by Sage 50 Accounts and occasionally imported or referenced by QuickBooks. It dictates the visual structure of business documents like invoices, statements, and purchase orders. In reality, a modern .FOL file is a standard ZIP archive in disguise; it contains a compressed .FL7 file that holds the actual proprietary layout code. Historically, the .FOL extension was also used for legacy Gerbil Database System files and PFS:First Choice databases by SoftKey.
The main disadvantage of the .FOL format is that it is highly proprietary and useless on its own. It is merely a template, meaning it contains zero actual customer or transaction data. Furthermore, because it requires the expensive Sage rendering engine to preview, you cannot simply open it in a web browser or standard text editor. Users often mistakenly try to convert these files into a final PDF, but without the parent database to populate the fields, the layout remains empty.
Standard online converters fail to process .FOL files because they do not have access to your accounting database to generate the final document. Since the dominant .FOL format is a compressed archive, our system can detect the underlying ZIP wrapper, allowing you to extract the internal .FL7 file for manual inspection or backup.
Convert.Guru analyzes your FOL file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted QBM, QBB, QBX and CNF files.
If you want to convert FOL file to CNF, DB, SQLITE, SQLITE3, MDB, ACCDB, DBF, ODB, FDB, GDB, MYD or FRM, you can use Sage 50 Accounts or similar software from the "Accounting Form Layout Template" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert NDF, SQLITE3, BAK, RDB, SQL, DB4, MDF, MDB, LDF, DB, DB3 or SQLITE files to FOL, try Sage 50 Accounts or another comparable tool in the "Accounting Form Layout Template" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our FOL converter.