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thomas4
Level 3

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

I gave QB online a try about a year ago and for various reasons gave up and continued with Desktop (Premier 2018 at this point). However, I kept my subscription going, so I've been paying the monthly fee since then, even though I haven't used it.

 

I'd now like to try again and see if I have more success this time. I've got started by doing an export from Desktop Premier 2018, up to my QB Online account. My expectation was that it would simply overwrite the existing (and now *very* out of date) old data, with the new data. However, it appears to have created an entirely new company, and has done that under a second QB Online account (remember, I already have one). And that second account appears to be a 30 day trial.

 

Can anyone tell me how to do what I'm attempting -- namely, completely ditch the old data and start using newly imported up to date data? 

 

FWIW, while browsing around looking for info on this, I did notice this ominous message at this Intuit web page which I got to from this one:

 

  • You can only import QuickBooks Desktop data within the first 60 days of your QuickBooks Online company start date. Your QuickBooks Desktop file will also replace your entire QuickBooks Online file and overwrite any existing information.

I can't see why that first sentence should be true, but if it is then does it mean I need to cancel my entire QuickBooks online subscription and then immediately start it again, just so I can trash my old data?

 

thanks.

Solved
Best answer June 08, 2018

Best Answers
MichaelDL
QuickBooks Team

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

Hey there, @thomas4.

I'd be happy to help you get on the right path to giving QuickBooks Online another try. Your research on the matter was correct, QuickBooks Online companies can only be imported from Desktop for the first 60 days after creation. The good news is, the support team can push that date out so the data can be converted. The limitation is in place as a safety net of sorts. In the common case that someone has multiple companies, selecting the wrong one by mistake when importing could result in the loss of year's worth of data, since everything is overwritten as you had expected. If the company you're trying to import into is older than 60 days, the data will be placed in a new trial company instead.

Now you'll have a couple options to move forward:

-Cancel the current subscription and switch it to the trial company with the data. These links will provide the steps necessary to cancel the subscription and then re-subscribe in the new company.

~OR~

-Contact the QuickBooks support team to extend the date so you can continue using the original company. They can also delete the trial company that was created by accident. You'll find their contact information at the link here.

After taking either route, you'll be back to business in no time. Please know if there's anything you need to succeed with QuickBooks Online this time around, I'll be here to help. Thank you for coming to the Community, have a wonderful rest of your day.

View solution in original post

thomas4
Level 3

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

Thanks Michael, I'm literally just off a phone call to support (I'm impatient!) and got exactly the answer you gave. And yes, I was a bit surprised when as I started the (re-)import process, I was not warned about a potential data overwrite. However, since an overwrite is exactly what I wanted, I didn't care in this case. (Of course the problem then was that instead of the overwrite I wanted, I got a whole new company in a whole new trial account I didn't need).

 

Since I have zero need for my old data, I'm simply going to cancel that subscription and start afresh with a brand new one. As a bonus (or perhaps compensation for the now 3.0+ hours I've been on the phone to Intuit support today! :-) ), it appears I get to save some money for the first three months, with my monthly subscription fee dropping from $35/month to $17/month, which is nice.

 

> Please know that if there's anything you need to succeed with QuickBooks Online

> this time around, I'll be here to help.

 

I may well be back here soon with questions in that vein, so thanks. One of the major reasons our first attempt at moving to QB online failed was the fact that we work with multiple currencies, and if I remember right we hit some complications on the way the import handled some of the Home Currency Adjustments. Now, though, I have some QB Certified advisors on hand to help, so maybe it will be smoother this time. We'll see!

 

thanks again for your help,

T

 

P.S. I also have a QB Online subscription for the UK version, and I have to do exactly the same kind of re-import over there. The phone support person told me I'd have to phone them to check on how things should be handled over there, so I intend to do that, but I need to get the timezone right so the UK is alive. But I strongly suspect it will be exactly the same choice as it is here in the US -- either cancel and ten resubscribe, or get support to extend. If so, I'd just do the same as here and cancel/resubscribe. I don't suppose you know if my suspicion is correct? It would save me another phone session if you could confirm. And to stress again -- I do not care *at all* about the data currently sitting in my QB online subscriptions (US or UK). 

View solution in original post

Pen
Level 5

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

As an additional tip to save money with QBO, I thoroughly encourage two things. 

 

A. Set a scheduled event in your Outlook or Google Calendar or whatever it is you use for two years out. You are eligible for a loyalty discount once every two years, but you have to call in to get it. 

 

B. You mentioned having Proadvisors on hand:  Get them to migrate your account to their wholesale billing account. You will get Essentials at $17.50 per month as long as you are under their billing. 

 

There are a few things you should know about wholesale billing: 

 

You will no longer be in control of your billing because your accountant will get billed by Intuit for your subscription and they will in turn bill you. If you call support for information or assistance with your billing, then you will have to do so with your accountant on the phone as well to at least give permission to discuss it with you. If you ever want to downgrade, upgrade or pretty much anything else subscription related, you will have to go through your accountant. 

 

Once you invite someone as an accountant user, they have full access to your account just as though they were a Master Admin. Make sure you trust them implicitly. 

 

If you are not already, (which it sounds like you are) MAKE them give YOU Master Admin rights. The owner of a company should almost always be the one with Master Admin rights in my opinion even if they never use the account. The reason is that the owner owns the business, sure. But the Master Admin is the one who owns the data inside the company file. 

 

Draw up a contract between yourself and the ProAdvisor(s) that effectively states that in the event the two of you go your separate ways, they will immediately release your account from under their wholesale billing. Please note that when this happens, you will have to immediately provide your own billing information to keep the subscription from expiring. 

 

I hope this helps! 

 

Sincerely, 

 

Your Personal Penguin

View solution in original post

16 Comments 16
MichaelDL
QuickBooks Team

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

Hey there, @thomas4.

I'd be happy to help you get on the right path to giving QuickBooks Online another try. Your research on the matter was correct, QuickBooks Online companies can only be imported from Desktop for the first 60 days after creation. The good news is, the support team can push that date out so the data can be converted. The limitation is in place as a safety net of sorts. In the common case that someone has multiple companies, selecting the wrong one by mistake when importing could result in the loss of year's worth of data, since everything is overwritten as you had expected. If the company you're trying to import into is older than 60 days, the data will be placed in a new trial company instead.

Now you'll have a couple options to move forward:

-Cancel the current subscription and switch it to the trial company with the data. These links will provide the steps necessary to cancel the subscription and then re-subscribe in the new company.

~OR~

-Contact the QuickBooks support team to extend the date so you can continue using the original company. They can also delete the trial company that was created by accident. You'll find their contact information at the link here.

After taking either route, you'll be back to business in no time. Please know if there's anything you need to succeed with QuickBooks Online this time around, I'll be here to help. Thank you for coming to the Community, have a wonderful rest of your day.

thomas4
Level 3

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

Thanks Michael, I'm literally just off a phone call to support (I'm impatient!) and got exactly the answer you gave. And yes, I was a bit surprised when as I started the (re-)import process, I was not warned about a potential data overwrite. However, since an overwrite is exactly what I wanted, I didn't care in this case. (Of course the problem then was that instead of the overwrite I wanted, I got a whole new company in a whole new trial account I didn't need).

 

Since I have zero need for my old data, I'm simply going to cancel that subscription and start afresh with a brand new one. As a bonus (or perhaps compensation for the now 3.0+ hours I've been on the phone to Intuit support today! :-) ), it appears I get to save some money for the first three months, with my monthly subscription fee dropping from $35/month to $17/month, which is nice.

 

> Please know that if there's anything you need to succeed with QuickBooks Online

> this time around, I'll be here to help.

 

I may well be back here soon with questions in that vein, so thanks. One of the major reasons our first attempt at moving to QB online failed was the fact that we work with multiple currencies, and if I remember right we hit some complications on the way the import handled some of the Home Currency Adjustments. Now, though, I have some QB Certified advisors on hand to help, so maybe it will be smoother this time. We'll see!

 

thanks again for your help,

T

 

P.S. I also have a QB Online subscription for the UK version, and I have to do exactly the same kind of re-import over there. The phone support person told me I'd have to phone them to check on how things should be handled over there, so I intend to do that, but I need to get the timezone right so the UK is alive. But I strongly suspect it will be exactly the same choice as it is here in the US -- either cancel and ten resubscribe, or get support to extend. If so, I'd just do the same as here and cancel/resubscribe. I don't suppose you know if my suspicion is correct? It would save me another phone session if you could confirm. And to stress again -- I do not care *at all* about the data currently sitting in my QB online subscriptions (US or UK). 

Anonymous
Not applicable

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

Hi Thomas4,

 

You are entirely correct in that the UK version of QuickBooks Online does have a migration window of 90 days from the date of creation to migrate data from the Desktop product into Online.

 

As with the US product, if the file has gone past the 90 days, then it may be more financially beneficial for you to take out a new subscription from our website with a discount for a period of the first 6 months and migrate into this file.

Pen
Level 5

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

As an additional tip to save money with QBO, I thoroughly encourage two things. 

 

A. Set a scheduled event in your Outlook or Google Calendar or whatever it is you use for two years out. You are eligible for a loyalty discount once every two years, but you have to call in to get it. 

 

B. You mentioned having Proadvisors on hand:  Get them to migrate your account to their wholesale billing account. You will get Essentials at $17.50 per month as long as you are under their billing. 

 

There are a few things you should know about wholesale billing: 

 

You will no longer be in control of your billing because your accountant will get billed by Intuit for your subscription and they will in turn bill you. If you call support for information or assistance with your billing, then you will have to do so with your accountant on the phone as well to at least give permission to discuss it with you. If you ever want to downgrade, upgrade or pretty much anything else subscription related, you will have to go through your accountant. 

 

Once you invite someone as an accountant user, they have full access to your account just as though they were a Master Admin. Make sure you trust them implicitly. 

 

If you are not already, (which it sounds like you are) MAKE them give YOU Master Admin rights. The owner of a company should almost always be the one with Master Admin rights in my opinion even if they never use the account. The reason is that the owner owns the business, sure. But the Master Admin is the one who owns the data inside the company file. 

 

Draw up a contract between yourself and the ProAdvisor(s) that effectively states that in the event the two of you go your separate ways, they will immediately release your account from under their wholesale billing. Please note that when this happens, you will have to immediately provide your own billing information to keep the subscription from expiring. 

 

I hope this helps! 

 

Sincerely, 

 

Your Personal Penguin

Susan - Sober Peer
Level 1

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

I cannot find any way to speak to a QB representative. Every link I have found leads me back to the online "help" page. I cannot find help on this page because I already know the online membership is more than 60 days old; but I STILL need a way to transition the desktop QB files to the online version.

JasroV
QuickBooks Team

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

Greetings, @Susan - Sober Peer.

 

Allow me to walk you through the steps on how to convert your QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) file to QuickBooks Online (QBO).

 

Before we begin, know that QBDT and QBO are different platforms. Thus, there are some data that will not convert to QBO. For the complete details about this, check out this article: What to expect when you switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

 

To ensure a smooth transition, you’ll want to make sure your QBDT software is up to date and doesn’t exceed the file size limit. Nevertheless, here’s how to convert your file to QBO:

 

  1. Sign in as the admin in your company file you need to import.
  2. Go to the Company menu.
  3. Select Export Company File to QuickBooks Online.
  4. Click Start your export.
  5. Sign in as an admin to your QBO company.
  6. From the Choose online company drop-down menu, select the QBO company you want to be replaced by your company file.
  7. Select Continue.
  8. Enter Agree in the text field, then select Replace.
  9. Select Yes, go ahead and replace the data, then click Replace.

You can also check out this article for more details: Move your QuickBooks Desktop file to QuickBooks Online.

 

Once done, run both profit and loss reports for your QBDT and QBO account. This way, we’ll ensure the import process is successful. You can also refer to this link for guidance: What to do after converting from QuickBooks Desktop for Windows or Mac to QuickBooks Online.

 

I’d also recommend checking our QuickBooks Support page for QBO. Here, you can browse some articles that can guide you in learning your ways around QBO.

 

If you still wish to contact our Support team, you reach out to them by checking out this article: Contact QuickBooks products and services Support. Choose QBDT if you wish to contact them from your QBDT software, or QBO.

 

I’ll be around if you need further help converting your file to QBO. I’d be more than happy to work with you. Have a great day ahead.

Fiat Lux - ASIA
Level 15

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

@Susan - Sober Peer 

Just to clarify, do you need to migrate a whole data or some portion of data from QB Desktop to QB Online? If your QBO account is > 60 days older, you are unable to purge it anymore and should purchase a new account.

https:// quickbooks.grsm.io/US
https:// quickbooks.grsm.io/us-promo

 

Another option, utilize a migration tool. i.e TPExporter for Desktop, TPImporter for Online

https:// transactionpro.grsm.io/qbo

 

Carlos01
Level 1

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

Hello,

 

I have been trying to explain this to support for over an hour and they simply don't understand what I'm asking for. What is the magic language to use when requesting to extend the 60 days. I've spoken with three different people and they don't seem to have any idea as to what I'm talking about. I need to be able to upload my data - but it has been over 60 days and I don't wish to cancel my subscription and start another one if I can avoid it. 


Thank you in advance for your help. 


C

Jovychris_A
Moderator

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

Hi @Carlos01.

 

I know that this would be easy if we can extend the 60-day limit condition in QuickBooks Online (QBO) to convert the desktop file.

 

Calling the Care Support team can be the best option to extend its limit when your QBO account is unused or empty for more than 60 days. Thus, they have tools and you can request them to override the maximum limit requirement and successfully convert your file to QBO.

 

Otherwise, you may need to cancel this subscription and get a new QBO account and start all over again for the conversion. You can also check the solution shared by my peer, @JasroV, to ensure a smooth transition.

 

I've added resources/articles for you to foresee the conversion process:

 

If there's a lot of data to transfer, you can use the Condense Data utility in QBDT to reduce your file's overall size while keeping all your data in detail.

 

Please know that I'll be here to help you if you have other concerns with the migration process. Have a safe day ahead!

Peter521
Level 1

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

is it still possible to do this. Need to re-import Desktop data to QBO. How to get in extended. Purchased in March 2021. Support claims it not possible.

 

RenjolynC
QuickBooks Team

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

I appreciate your time joining in on this thread, Peter521.

 

I'll share some information about the process, and what you can do to import the data. 

 

You can only move your QuickBooks Desktop file within 60 days after signing up to QuickBooks Online. Extending the process is currently unavailable. 

 

On the other hand, you can do the following:

 

  • Cancel your current subscription and subscribe to a new account.
  • Export your QuickBooks Desktop lists and import them to QuickBooks Online.
  • Manually record the transactions in QuickBooks. 

If you consider canceling the account and getting a new subscription, you can check out the links provided by my colleague Jovychris_A. Before doing so, please read this article: What happens to my QuickBooks Online data after I cancel?.

 

To export the lists from QuickBooks Desktop, you can follow the steps here. Then, import the information in QuickBooks Online by following these steps:

 

  1. Go to the Gear > Import data.
  2. Select the list you want to import.
  3. Click the Browse button ang choose the CSV file saved from your computer.
  4. Follow the on-screen steps to map the fields. 

Here's a sample screenshot for a visual reference:

 

 

For manually recording your transactions in QuickBooks Online, the step by step process is included in this guide:  Manually add transactions to account registers in QuickBooks Online.

 

Please let me know if you need more help with the process or you have other concerns. I'll be right here to guide you. Stay safe!

Fiat Lux - ASIA
Level 15

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

@Peter521 

You are unable to purge your account any longer. You should open a new blank QBO account instead.

https:// quickbooks.grsm.io/US

https:// quickbooks.grsm.io/us-promo

sgwaltney
Level 1

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

If my trial period is still within the original 30 days, can I import my data from my desktop version, make sure that it "imports" correctly and play around with the new look and then REIMPORT it again on the 1st of the year so I have any updated data?  (I am fine with the original data being over-ridden)

Kurt_M
QuickBooks Team

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

It's nice to see you in this thread, @sgwaltney. I'll share some details about importing QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) data into your QuickBooks Online (QBO) company.

 

Yes, you're right. You can import QBDT files in your free trial version of QBO and utilize the new features that our program offers. Know that you'll have to ensure that your free trial or subscription is active. This way, you can get your data in and out of the program anytime. 

 

Also, please be aware that once your free trial or subscription expires, you can only view your files for a year. That said, you won't have the option to get them out of QuickBooks since you only have the read/view only access. However, you can still re-subscribe to your subscription to access your company files.

 

In addition, here's an article to help you successfully import your files to your QBO free trial: Move your QuickBooks Desktop file to QuickBooks Online.

 

I've also got you this article to give you an overview about QBO: Getting Started in QuickBooks Online.

 

@sgwaltney, I'm happy you've decided to try QuickBooks Online with your business. If you have any additional QuickBooks-related concerns or need help performing specific tasks, know you can always get back to me anytime. Don't hesitate to click the Reply button below. Take care, and have a nice day!

sgwaltney
Level 1

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

Thank you for your quick reply.  More directly, my question is, if I import it now to play round with, then "reimport" on Jan 1 when I convert from a trial to a live version will the newly imported file over-ride the one I was "playing around" with?  I don't want there to be 2 separate account/files

 

DivinaMercy_N
Moderator

How do I re-import Desktop into QB Online so as to start afresh?

Thanks for getting back in the Community, @sgwaltney. I'm here to share some details about your queries regarding data migration in QuickBooks.

 

Once you import your QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) file to QuickBooks Online (QBO), it will simply copy the data and input new info to your online company. That said, when you reupload the file, the newly imported data will just be added to the current one in your QBO account. To know more, please check this article: Learn about converting from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. 

 

When ready, here's the link that you can use as a reference in performing the import process: Move your QuickBooks Desktop file to QuickBooks Online. 

 

Additionally, I've attached this helpful resource that you can access to get visual guides in performing your QBO tasks: Learn about QuickBooks Online with how-to videos. 

 

If you have any other concerns about managing your data in QuickBooks, please don't hesitate to get back here. I'm just around the corner to lend a hand. Have a good one. 

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