Transferring Reckon Hosted data to QuickBooks Online

You can move your Reckon Hosted data over to QuickBooks Online using Dataswitcher, Intuit's partner in data conversion. 

This article will cover the following topics on converting your data:

• How does the transfer process work?
• Limitations
• Pre-migration checklist
• How to start your data conversion
• Post-migration checklist

How does the transfer process work?

How long will it take to transfer my data?

The process of transferring data takes, on average, about 1 hour from the time you begin your data transfer.

While most migrations are completed within a few hours or even minutes, some may take up to 24 hours. Reach out to batch@dataswitcher.com if the transfer has been longer than 24 hours.

How will my business data be protected?

Your business data is protected in the following ways:

• As long as you use the online form to upload, your data is protected using industry-standard SSL encryption.
• Your data is governed by Intuit's Data Stewardship Principles.

Limitations

What Reckon Hosted Data won't be transferred?

The following data types can't be transferred at this time:

• Budgets
• Memorised transactions
• Invoice template and other templates
• Jobs that aren't attached to transactions
• File attachments
• Draft or unposted journals
• Sales orders, quotes, and proposals
• Closed or partially closed estimates and purchase orders
• Deleted, memorised, or recurring transactions
• Bank reconciliation history
• Fixed asset management
• Payroll information (employee details, pay calendars, tax information and pension, etc.)
• Project details (quotes and estimates, tasks and expenses, profitability, etc.)
• Non-posting entries (estimates)

Opening balance for transactions outside conversion period

Transactions outside the conversion period will be consolidated into an automatically-calculated opening balance for all GL accounts, customers and suppliers.

By default, Dataswitcher will transfer the last two financial years of your data. Transactions from all prior years will be consolidated into an automatically-calculated opening balance unless extra years are purchased.

Multi-currency

Dataswitcher does not support multi-currency conversions. All transactions, regardless of the currency, are converted into the home currency. This can cause discrepancies in accounts like Accounts Receivable (AR), Accounts Payable (AP), bank accounts with multi-currency transactions, Unrealised Gain or Loss, and Bank Revaluations.

Read this article for more details on multi-currency.

Chart of Accounts

Accounting systems handle chart of accounts differently, with varying account settings (e.g., account types, subtypes, detail types). Furthermore, QuickBooks Online does not allow duplicate names in the chart of accounts. Hence, you might find in your conversion results accounts with suffixes or accounts with different settings. This will not impact the account balances and can be modified as per your preference post-conversion.

See this article for more details on chart of accounts.

AR (Accounts Receivable) and AP (Accounts Payable) Transactions

Some accounts receivable and payables transactions might not be posted as expected due to the API differences between Reckon Hosted and QuickBooks Online.

Paid invoices or bills may also be posted in QuickBooks Online as open or overdue invoices and a post-conversion task will be required to close and match these items. Please note though that the end balance for each customer and supplier will still be correct. Overall, the end result of the migration should be ok.

Furthermore, Dataswitcher will only migrate customer and supplier records for those with whom you have financial transactions within the conversion period. This ensures that your new QuickBooks Online account will have the contact details of those organisations you have recently done business with. This will also allow Dataswitcher to complete the conversion as quickly as possible and maintain the quality of your data.

Sub-customers

Sub-customers will be converted as their parent customer. This is because Reckon Hosted does not split payments between these entities and Dataswitcher cannot convert them as such.

Inventory items (Products and Services)

The Dataswitcher conversion wizard supports up to 1,000 inventory items. If you have more than this, then you can import or create them manually in QuickBooks Online once your conversion is completed.

Dataswitcher will convert the following data related to inventory items: 

• Name
• Description
• Type
• Cost
• Price
• Qty on Hand

Financial Years

The Dataswitcher conversion wizard will only convert two financial years of Reckon Hosted data by default. You can add more years for an extra fee. If you decide not to purchase additional financial years, then any transactions from the remaining years on file will be consolidated into an automatically calculated opening balance. 

GST

If the conversion is submitted without enabling taxes, GST is converted as a line item and a GST adjustment may be required. Learn more detailed instruction on GST adjustment on our page. To include GST in the conversion, ‘Enable taxes’ should be selected from the optional extras. Dataswitcher converts GST codes based on Simpler BAS.

Transactions entered in Reckon Hosted after backup is created

Dataswitcher can only convert transactions included in the Reckon Hosted backup file that is uploaded in the Dataswitcher conversion wizard.

Transactions posted to QuickBooks Online after conversion is started

Transactions posted to QuickBooks Online after initiating the conversion through the Dataswitcher conversion wizard will likely be deleted and can even cause the conversion to fail.

Dataswitcher can't be paused, and can be disconnected from QuickBooks Online only after conversion is completed and conversion results are reviewed.

Dataswitcher should also not be disconnected from the My Apps section of QuickBooks Online while the conversion is under process and not yet completed.

Pre-migration checklist

This article outlines the specific pre-conversion steps for Reckon Hosted. We expect that you have already covered the general pre-conversion steps and you can simply go ahead with the remaining ones on this list. Click here for the general pre-conversion checklist.

Step 1: Do your GST report for the remaining month or quarter 

If you use Cash-basis accounting, we advise you to migrate directly after the close and reconciliation of a GST (goods and services tax) period. Otherwise, the post-conversion process in QuickBooks Online can be a lot of work (considering partially paid invoices). Whether you are using either accrual or cash-basis GST reporting, please do take note of the following:

1. Ensure all GST reports are up to date before migration.
2. Check GST Closing balance is correct for that period.
3. Export GST Reports at the date of migration for post-migration checks.

Step 2: Extract post-conversion check data 

After the conversion is completed, you should be able to verify the results. Ensure that the following reports are available in Reckon Hosted.

1. Profit and loss for the period ending at conversion date
2. Balance Sheet as of conversion date
3. Trial balance for the period ending at conversion date
4. Bank Account balances as of conversion date
5. A list of outstanding invoices of your customers and suppliers as per conversion date (AR Ageing Summary and AP Ageing Summary)

For your guidance, reports to check and compare include but are not limited to the following:

It'd be useful to have the reports listed above for either the current financial year or all financial years covered by the conversion period. This information can greatly help in verifying the conversion results.

Step 3: Set a password for your Reckon Hosted company 

Password helps avoid reading errors and gives your data an extra layer of security. If you have set a password to your Reckon Hosted file, please make sure that the correct details are provided when uploading the backup in the conversion wizard.

Step 4: Keep your backups for audit purposes

Make sure you keep a backup of your Reckon Hosted file in a safe location for any auditing purposes.

Step 5: Make a backup: Reckon Hosted

This article describes how to make a backup in Reckon Hosted. A backup includes all company information and transactions at the time the backup was made. We recommend to create a backup before starting the pre-conversion checklist. After completing the checklist, you can then create the backup required for Dataswitcher conversion.

To create a new backup in Reckon Hosted, follow the following steps:

1. Open Reckon Hosted and login to your company.
2. Select Save Copy or Backup from the File Menu.
3. The file type should ‌be a backup copy.
4. Select when to backup accordingly and save the backup in your preferred file location.
5. Click OK to confirm and complete the backup process.

Start transferring your data to QuickBooks Online

Visit the Dataswitcher migration wizard to get started.

1. Prepare your current Reckon Hosted file for conversion, ensuring your QuickBooks Online file is set up correctly.
2. Enter the required information and select Next or select Sign in with Intuit.
3. Select the Dataswitcher package that suits your needs.
4. Select how many extra years of Reckon Hosted data you wish to have transferred, as well as any optional add-ons you wish to purchase.
5. Confirm you've done each of the following
   1. Reconcile all accounts.
   2. Complete tax reporting.
   3. Extract all open invoices and credits.
   4. Extract reports.
6. Select the Backup File of your Reckon Hosted file you downloaded.
7. Click Connect to QuickBooks Online 2.0 and select your company and file you set up on the pre-migration checklist, then click Connect.
8. Resolve any issues, then click Start conversion and the data transfer will begin.
9. You'll receive a link so you can follow the process of your data transfer. Make sure you don’t use QuickBooks Online before you receive an email confirming that your data has been successfully transferred.

Transfer data for more than one QuickBooks Online file

Once your first migration is complete, you can repeat above steps with the conversion wizard for each of your remaining files in bulk.

You will receive a progress tracking link once the conversion of each file begins. Most migrations complete within a few hours. Some may take up to 24 hours depending on file size and complexity. Reach out to batch@dataswitcher.com if the transfer has been longer than 24 hours.

Start using QuickBooks Online

Important: Make sure you don’t use QuickBooks Online before you receive an email confirming that your data has been successfully transferred. Otherwise, your data may not migrate properly.

Once you’ve received a confirmation email letting you know you data has been transferred, you can start using QuickBooks Online. You may reach out to our support team if you have questions about any of these tasks.

Post-migration checklist

Although we try to make data conversions as comprehensive as possible, there are still a few tasks you'll need to perform before you start using QuickBooks Online. It's best to complete these as soon as possible before you make any changes to the data or enter new transactions.

Enter your company information and fiscal start month

Company information includes elements such as address, phone, email, and more.

1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Account and settings.
2. In the Company tab, enter your company and contact information.
3. Update or verify the email addresses to ensure billing and customer communications are handled correctly.
4. Enter the email address in the Company email box where you would like to receive the monthly invoices for your QuickBooks Online subscription.
   Note: If you don't want to use the company email address for your customers to contact you, enter the email address in the Customer-facing email box that you want your customers to associate with your business.
5. Select Save.

Set the Fiscal Start month:

1. Select the Advanced tab.
2. Select the first month of your financial year from the First month of financial year ▼ dropdown.
3. Select Save, then select Done.

Check your data by comparing reports

We suggest you compare the following reports in QuickBooks Online and in Reckon Hosted to ensure that your data was transferred correctly. To verify your reports, run the following reports via This Year in QuickBooks Online:

• Balance Sheet.
• Trial Balance.
• A/R Ageing Summary.
• A/P Ageing Summary.
• Profit and Loss.
• GST/Sales tax report.

Reconcile your bank and credit card accounts

Note: It is critical that you complete this step before connecting your bank and credit card accounts to online banking.

Since you haven't yet performed a bank reconciliation in QuickBooks Online, it assumes that no bank transactions have been reconciled. You need to tell QuickBooks Online to mark all transactions up to the conversion date as reconciled, so that it only considers future transactions for reconciliation:

1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Reconcile.
2. Select a relevant bank account from the Account ▼ dropdown.
3. Enter an Ending balance, and an Ending date.
4. Enter any other information as required depending upon the bank account you've selected.
5. Select Start reconciling. A list of transactions displays.
6. Tick the box in the header row to select all transactions in the list.
7. Untick the transactions that aren't yet cleared. When the difference is zero you have completed these steps successfully.
8. Select Finish now, then select Done.
9. Repeat the above steps for all bank and credit card accounts in QuickBooks Online.