Learn how features and data move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online

QuickBooksHelp · ‎October 25, 2018

Find out how your books will move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

When you switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, you may notice differences in how your books appear. Don’t worry, we’ll help you understand how your books were moved.

For details on how to make the switch, check out Move your QuickBooks Desktop file to QuickBooks Online.

How your books move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online

Features

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't Move to QuickBooks Online
Budgets _{• Budgets are only available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced. • Only Profit and Loss budget types will copy to QuickBooks Online.}
Inventory _{• Inventory is only available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced. • QuickBooks Online recalculates your inventory based on First-In, First-Out method. • QuickBooks Online doesn't support units of measure for inventory items.}
Multi-Currency _{• Multi-Currency is only available in QuickBooks} _{Online Plus and Advanced. • Multi-currency preferences will import to} _{QuickBooks Online.}	Multi-Currency _{• Transactions with 3 different currency types won't copy to} _{QuickBooks Online.}
Payroll _{• Check out What to do after you move to QuickBooks Online for more info. • Paychecks will copy as regular checks. • QuickBooks Online copy's the current year's paycheck information as} _lump _{sums. • Liability refunds, adjustment transactions, and opening balance transactions} _{that affect accounts copy to journal entries. • Employee addresses copy over. You might need to fix some} _{addresses. Addresses for states outside supported} _{states (such as PR, AS, VI) will be left blank. • Date of birth • Gender • Social Security Number • Direct deposit account numbers • Bank names • Routing numbers • Employee bank info (for Direct Deposit)}	Payroll _{• If it doesn't come over, you'll need to enter past year-to date payroll info for each employee. • Once you setup your payroll in QuickBooks Online, you can create paychecks. • The details behind the transactions don’t convert. For example, the payroll item breakdown and employee year-to-date numbers.}
	Price Levels
Sales Tax _{• Sales tax won't copy for all transactions. Some taxes will copy as journal entries.}
	Write Letters
	QuickBooks Payments _{• You'll need to unlink your Payments account from your Desktop file and relink the account to QuickBooks Online after you convert.}
	Mileage Tracking _{• You'll need to manually add previous mileage into QuickBooks Online. Learn how to track mileage in QuickBooks Online.}

Items

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't move to QuickBooks Online
Assemblies _{• Assembly items are inventory items made from other inventory items. • Assemblies move as Bundles for sales transactions. • All components of assemblies copy for purchase transactions. • Each item of the assembly appears on a detail line when you view the transactions. • Bundle items aren't tracked as inventory in QuickBooks Online.}
Discounts _{• Discounts for early payments move as credit memos. They're applied to a customer's outstanding balance. • Discounts taken from vendors for early payment of bills move as vendor credits. They're applied to a vendor's outstanding balance.}
Groups _{• Group items move as Bundles. • Zero amount lines are at the start and end of where the group item was. You can see which items were part of the group. • The top line shows the group name. The bottom line shows the group description. • Group total will show on the last line of the invoice in the Description field.}
Payroll Items

Lists

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't Move to QuickBooks Online
Chart of Accounts _{• For security reasons, bank account numbers and notes won't move to QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online has an additional level of account type called Detail type. QuickBooks Online will move your accounts and assign them detail types. You can change this later if you like.}
Customers and Jobs Note: Jobs move to QuickBooks Online as sub-customer of. If you track job costing in Desktop, you'll need to change sub-customers to Projects. _{• Your jobs move to sub-customers. • Customer Name • Company Name • Mr./Ms. • First Name • Middle initial (M.I.) • Last Name • Phone • FAX • Alt Ph. • E-Mail • Terms • Bill to Address (except Note) • Ship to Address (except Note) • Tax code/item • Preferred Payment Method • Note (up to 4000 characters)}	Customers and Jobs _{• Inactive status (this status remains as long as there are no unbilled charges moved) • Contact • Alt. Contact • Customer Type • Rep • Price Level • Custom Fields • Account • Credit Limit • Job Status • Start Date • Projected End • End Date • Job Description • Job Type • Credit Card Info}
	Custom Fields in Lists
Inactive Items _{• Inactive accounts, customers, or vendors move. If they have an open balance, they become active. • If there isn't a balance tied to a name, it will move as inactive (deleted).}
	Memorized Transactions
Other Names _{• QuickBooks Online doesn't have an Other Names list. • Other Names in QuickBooks Desktop move as vendors.}
	Reminders
Scheduled Transactions _{Recurring Transactions in QuickBooks Online} _{• QuickBooks Online Plus, Advanced, and Essentials support recurring transactions. • Scheduled transactions in QuickBooks Desktop move as Recurring transactions in QuickBooks Online.}	Scheduled Transactions _{• QuickBooks Online Simple Start doesn't support recurring transaction templates. To avoid errors, you'll have to delete all scheduled transactions and templates in QuickBooks Desktop before you import to Simple Start.}
	To Do
Terms _{• In QuickBooks Desktop, a job can't have its own terms. It gets the terms from its parent. • In QuickBooks Online, the equivalent to a job (a sub-customer) can have terms. You can edit the terms later to make them different from those of the parent.}
Vendors _{• Vendor Name • Company Name • Mr./Ms. • First Name • M.I. • Last Name • Phone • FAX • E-Mail • Terms • Print on Check as • Address • AccountTax}	Vendors _{• Contact • Alt. Contact • Note • Status • Vendor Type • Credit Limit • Custom Fields • Alt. Contact • Alt Ph. • 1099 ID}

Preferences

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't Move to QuickBooks Online
Closing Date Password
Layout Customization _{• Your logos will move}	Layout Customization _{• Custom templates won't move.}
Shortcut List _{• Your shortcut list and icon bar settings from QuickBooks Desktop won't move to QuickBooks Online. • QuickBooks Online has its own keystroke shortcuts. In any window, press Ctrl+Alt+? (or Ctrl+Option+? on Mac) to see the shortcut menu.}
	Users and Permissions _{• Existing users don't automatically have access to QuickBooks Online. They need to be invited from QuickBooks Online to gain access.}

Reports

QuickBooks Online doesn't have the same reports as QuickBooks Desktop.

Accrual basis reports in QuickBooks Online will match your reports in QuickBooks Desktop. Cash basis reports may not match.

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't Move to QuickBooks Online
	Audit Trail
	Memorized Reports
Reconcile _{• All reconciled transactions in the register will have an R in the cleared column in QuickBooks Online. • Cleared transactions will have a C in the cleared column in Quickbooks Online.}

Transactions

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't Move to QuickBooks Online
Bills, Bill Payments, and Bill Credits _{• The Bill received preference doesn't move to QuickBooks Online. • A bill discount in QuickBooks Desktop moves to a Vendor credit in QuickBooks Online. • The address on bill payment checks is replaced by the Vendor address on your Vendor list. • Bill payments made by credit card move to bill payments in QuickBooks Online.}
Credit Card Charges _{• Credit card charges in QuickBooks Desktop convert to Expenses in QuickBooks Online.}
Estimates _{• Your estimates in QuickBooks Desktop will move to QuickBooks Online. • Active estimates are marked as Closed. • Inactive estimates are marked as Rejected. • Estimates used for progress invoicing won't link to the invoices you created in Desktop.}
Finance Charges _{• Your finance charge invoices move to invoices in QuickBooks Online. • You can run an open invoice report to see which customers are overdue. Manually add finance charges to appear on the customer's next invoice.}
Invoices _{• Logos will move. • The PO No field will move to Custom Field 1. • Sales Rep will move to a Custom Field.}	Invoices _{• Subtotals don't move but are included in the Description field. • Progress Invoices (invoices based on estimates) and their extra fields don't move. • Other and Other Customer custom fields don't move.}
Item Receipts _{• Item receipts convert to Bills.}	Item Receipts _{• The switch removes the link between bills and Purchase Orders. • Open POs won't reflect items received. • The PO will need to be linked to the Bill to reflect items received.}
Journal Entries _{• You may see some transactions like checks and invoices move as journal entries. This only happens if: _{- Tax rates were entered as flat rates (0.00) instead of perecentages.} _{- The original transaction can't be created again.}}	Journal Entries _{• Billable statuses don't move. You can't make a journal entry billable in QuickBooks Online.}
	Pending Sales
Purchase Orders _{• The switch removes the link between bills and Purchase Orders. • Open POs won't reflect items received. • The PO will need to be linked to the Bill to reflect items received.}
	Reconcile _{• Your past reconciliation reports don't move to QuickBooks Online.}
Reimbursable Expenses _{• Reimbursable expenses and unbilled time will move as billable expenses in QuickBooks Online. • QuickBooks Online has billable expenses which are similar to reimbursable expenses in QuickBooks Desktop. • In QuickBooks Online, you specify the markup percentage when you create the purchase instead of the invoice.}