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What gets converted?

  • Updated

Using exportmybooks.com for your file conversion ensures an easy, quick, and accurate transition from QuickBooks Online to QuickBooks Desktop. But because of the many differences between the Online and Desktop product, there are several things to be aware of if you're considering making the switch.

We recommend that you carefully review the below information to learn more about how we convert your data and what currently does not convert over. This will help you decide if a move from QuickBooks Online to QuickBooks Desktop or Enterprise is right for your business.

In This Article:

What data currently does not export over

Due the many differences between the QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop products, the following information currently will not export into your converted file:

  • Attachments
  • Billable Expenses
    • QuickBooks Desktop limits billable expenses to the "expense" account type only. Any other account type for the billable expense account will not convert over. Please change all billable expense account types to "expense" before the conversion.
  • Budgets
  • Customer Information
    • Credit Card Information
    • Taxable status
    • Notes
    • Preferred Delivery Method
    • Mobile number
    • Employee Notes
  • Locations
    • Locations in QuickBooks Online can be referred to as Business, Department, Division, Property, Store, and Territory. QuickBooks Desktop does not have a Locations feature.
  • Memorized Reports
  • Paychecks Pay Period
  • Liability Payments Pay Period
  • QuickBooks Online Payroll Information
  • Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
    • Employee Social Security Number
    • Company EIN
    • Company Bank Details (Routing Number, Account Number)
    • Company Credit Card Account Number
    • Fixed Assets, Other Assets, Other Current Assets, Loan/Other Current Liability, and Long Term Liability Account Number
    • Vendor Tax ID
    • Vendor Account Number
  • Products and Services List Categories and Taxable Status
  • Purchase Order Status and Purchase Order Number on Invoices
  • Reconcile (Historical Reconciliation Reports)
  • Transactions
    • Transactions with mismatched names. This includes but is not limited to:
      • Bill with Parent. This feature is not supported in QuickBooks Desktop. This means that transactions may not be linked or payments may not export if the names do not match the invoice
      • Any type of transaction that does not use the same name to link to each other, e.g., credit memos that use a different name than what's on the associated receive payment
    • Zero total payments
    • Transactions to and from the same bank account. QuickBooks Desktop does not allow transfers to and from the same bank account
    • Transactions that link to a single General Journal Entry transaction with credit/debit lines to the same name may not convert
    • Billable status on a deposit
    • Custom fields
    • Voided transactions
    • There are historical errors with Intuit’s Desktop migration to QuickBooks Online:
      • Inventory transactions migrated may not hit COGS or Inventory Asset accounts
      • Sub-items must have the same Type as the parent item. If they do not match, the sub-item becomes a separate item
  • User List Information
  • Vendors Notes and Mobile Number

How your data is converted

Your transactional and list data will be converted over based on the Start Date you select during the export process. Please be aware of following changes that can occur to your data as part of the conversion (click on each section to expand):

 

Bank Reconciliations

  • The existing reconcile balance in QuickBooks Online isn’t transferred over to QuickBooks Desktop. After the conversion, when you attempt to reconcile in Desktop, you'll see that the beginning balances are zero. This can be fixed by running a single reconcile for the last reconciled month in QuickBooks Online. To make this work, all the transactions that were previously reconciled in QuickBooks Online are marked as “pending” in your converted Desktop file. Please reference this help article for more information.

Chart of Accounts

  • Account names are limited to 31 characters
  • Accounts will have account numbers

Classes

  • Class names are limited to 31 characters
  • Deleted classes export as inactive classes

Customers

  • Display names are limited to 31 characters
  • Full name and Company Name are limited to 41 characters
  • The company name will be added to the address block. If there is no company name, the the display name will be used. Otherwise, the address block will start with the first line of the address.
  • If the City, State, and Zipcode combine for a total more than 41 characters, then we combine the City, State, and Zipcode into a single line. This combined line will be set as the last available address line.
  • Billing and Shipping Address are limited to three lines of 41 characters each
  • E-mail addresses are limited to 81 characters
  • Deleted customers are converted as inactive customers

Dashes/Hyphens

  • Dashes/hyphens are converted to underscores

Employees

  • Display names are limited to 31 characters
  • Full names are limited to 39 characters
  • Deleted employees are exported as inactive employees

Field and Character Limitations

  • QuickBooks Desktop/Enterprise has different character limits for each field. For example, an invoice reference number has 15 characters in QuickBooks Online, but will have 11 characters after export into QuickBooks Desktop.

Global Clearning Account

  • QuickBooks Desktop differs in terms of what accounts can be used as line items on a transaction. In those cases, the Global Clearing account is created in your desktop file and is used as an intermediary account to resolve the differences.
  • Transactions that show up in the Global Clearing account are called Patching journals. Examples of Patching journals include:
    • Deposits that do not hit bank accounts
    • Line Items that hit the following account types:
      • Accounts Receivable
      • Accounts Payable
      • Undeposited Funds

Inventory Items

  • All inventory, cost of goods sold, purchase, and sales account info will convert
  • QuickBooks Online use FIFO calculation method, while Desktop will use average cost. This may account for any discrepancies after conversion
  • QuickBooks Enterprise inventory settings will be set to FIFO
  • For negative inventory:
    • QuickBooks Desktop will record the COGS and Inventory Asset as zero on the sale. The COGS and Inventory Asset will be recorded on the purchase of new inventory.
    • In QuickBooks Online, on purchase of the new inventory, the COGS and Inventory Asset will be added to the original sale transaction
    • Quantity on hand will match QuickBooks Online as of the conversion date

Paychecks and Liability Payments

  • Paychecks and liability payments will export as regular checks
  • General Journal entries are created for the following:
    • Payroll checks that don’t hit bank accounts
    • Payroll Adjustments

Payment Method

  • Display names are limited to 31 characters

Products and Services List

  • Display names are limited to 31 characters
  • Bundled Items convert to Item Groups
  • Any item type mismatch between the parent and sub-item will have the sub-item separated out as a new item
  • If any transactional line item is missing a Sales Item, a Default Sales Item will be used

Sales Tax

  • Sales Tax Rates are converted into Sales Tax Items in Desktop
  • Sales Tax Codes are converted into Sales Tax Groups in Desktop
  • Customers sales tax settings will have preferred sales tax items
  • Invoices will use sales tax items on the invoice as a whole (invoice form), unless otherwise noted. Some sales tax items may also be converted as service items depending on their last modification date
  • Tax Payments will get converted as Checks
  • Tax Adjustments will convert as General Journal entries

Time Tracking

  •  All time activities will convert as single Time Activity Records

Transactions

  • Refund receipts convert as an invoice that has a credit memo applied to it with a check made out to the customer If a check number field is blank, QuickBooks Desktop assigns a number. This can cause duplicate check numbers in your file; enter a notation in QuickBooks Online to avoid this (i.e., EFT)
  • The following transactions will convert as General Journal entries:
    • Payroll checks that don’t hit bank accounts
    • Payroll adjustments
    • >

Vendors

  • Display names are limited to 31 characters
  • Full name and Company name is limited to 41 characters
  • Print on Check as field is limited to 41 characters
  • Addresses are limited to three lines with a limit 41 characters
  • The company name will be added to the address block. If there is no company name, the the display name will be used. Otherwise, the address block will start with the first line of the address.
  • If the City, State, and Zipcode combine for a total more than 41 characters, then we combine the City, State, and Zipcode into a single line. This combined line will be set as the last available address line.
  • E-mail address are limited to 81 characters
  • Deleted vendors export as inactive vendors

 

See Also: What to know before moving to Desktop

 

 

 

 

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