Learn how to import your lists (vendors, customers, inventory, and chart of accounts) to QuickBooks Online.
You can move your existing lists to QuickBooks Online from QuickBooks Desktop or another QuickBooks Online company. This saves you from having to set up the items from your lists one by one.
Need to import bank transactions too? Connect your account to QuickBooks to download transactions automatically.
Step 1: Export your list reports to Excel
From another QuickBooks Online company
- Sign in to the account that has your lists.
- Go to Business overview and select Reports (Take me there).
- Depending on what list you need to export, search for and run Account List, Customer Contact List, Vendor Contact List, or Product/Service List report.
- Customize the list report's columns. Select each report below to check how their columns should be ordered.
Note: The list of columns that you see in your report may vary depending upon the columns you've selected. To modify this selection, go to the gear icon in the report header and select or de-select the columns as required.
Account List Report
- Account #
- Account
- Type
- Detail Type
- Description
- Balance
Customer Contact List Report
- Customer
- Company name
- Email
- Phone
- Website
- Billing Street
- Billing City
- Billing State
- Billing Zip
- Billing Country
Vendor Contact List Report
- Vendor
- Company Name
- Email
- Phone
- Website
- Street
- City
- State
- Zip
- Country
Product/Service List Report
- Product/Service
- Type
- Description
- Price
- Cost
- Qty on hand
- After saving your report, export it.
- Open the exported report in Excel.
- Delete rows 1-4 to remove your company name and report title from the sheet.
- Save your report again as Excel or CSV.
From a QuickBooks Desktop company
- Sign in to the QuickBooks Desktop company file.
- Go to Reports and select Lists.
- Depending on what list you need to export, run Account Listing, Item Listing, Customer Contact List, or Vendor Contact List report.
- Export the report to Excel.
Step 2: Import your lists to QuickBooks Online
After you export and save your reports, you can import them to QuickBooks Online.
For detailed steps on importing each list, see these articles:
Note: To see how your Excel files should look, download and open these samples:
Get help with common errors when importing lists
Errors on items that are already in your company
You may get errors on items that are already in your company. For example, the "Hours" and "Services" items that are created by default. The best thing to do is not to import these items. The rest of your items should still get imported.
Errors for non-existent accounts
If importing Products/Services, cancel the import, make sure that those accounts exist, and then try again. To avoid this error, either import your Chart of Accounts first before your Products and Services list. Or if you have just one or two missing accounts, you may want to create them manually after the import.
