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

QuickBooks Desktop uses different terms than QuickBooks Online for menu options, features, lists, items, transaction types, reports, and other labels.

Here's a list of the terminology differences between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online:

• Attachments/Document Centre docs
  • _{Attachments that are 30MB or smaller}
  • _{Attachments on your computer's hard drive}
  • _{To learn more, check out Move your attachments from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.}
    
• Budgets
  • _{Profit and Loss budget types}
    
• Inventory
  •  _{Note: Inventory is included in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced}, _{and can be purchased for QuickBooks EasyStart and Essentials.}
  • _{Both FIFO and MAC inventory valuation methods}
  • _{Recalculated inventory and adjustments}
• Multi-Currency
  • _{Note: Multi-Currency is only available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced.}
  • _{Multi-currency preferences and transactions}
• Online Banking
  • _{Banking rules for Express and Advanced mode}
  • _{Auto-recognized rules for Express and Advanced Mode}
    
• Payroll - with QuickBooks Online
  • _{Note: QuickBooks Online copies the current year's paycheque information as lump sums.}
  • _{Paycheques (as regular checks)}
  • _{Liability refunds, adjustment transactions, and opening balance}
  • _{Transactions that affect accounts (copied to journal entries)}
  • _{All employees (active and inactive)} 
    • _{Note: Inactive employees that have current tax year payments become active post-migration.}
  • _{Employee addresses} 
    • _{Note: 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 Insurance Number}
  • _{Company Direct deposit account numbers}
  • _{Bank names}
  • _{Routing numbers}
  • _{Employee bank info (for Direct Deposit)}
  • _Wages
  • _{YTD balances}
  • _Items
  • _{Full employee setup}
    
• Payroll - Stand-alone (QBOP)
  • _{All employees (active and inactive)} 
  • _{Employee addresses} 
    • _{Note: 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 Insurance Number}
  • _Company
  • _{Direct deposit account numbers}
  • _{Bank names}
  • _{Routing numbers}
  • _{Employee bank info (for Direct Deposit)}
  • _Wages
  • _{YTD balances}
  • _Items

• QuickBooks Payments
  • _{Your account will move automatically from QuickBooks Desktop with Payments.}
    • _{Note: To help ensure your Payments account is migrated, make sure you are an admin user on both the QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online Intuit accounts.}
      
• Sales Tax
  • _{Some taxes move as journal entries. Sales tax won't copy for all transactions.} 
    • _{Note: There's a sales tax payment limitation when you switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. Payments made in QuickBooks Desktop apply to the wrong filings in QuickBooks Online. As a solution, delete the migrated sales tax payments, then recreate them in their sales tax centre in QuickBooks Online.}
      
      

• Budgets
  • _{Data transfers}
    • _{Note:  Budgets aren't recreated in QuickBooks Online due to mapping differences.}
• Inventory
  • _{Units of measure}
• Online Banking
  • _{Bank Feeds setup}
• QuickBooks Time
  • _{Timesheet data}
  • _{Pay Item Mappings}
  • _{Settings & Preferences}
    • _{Note: If you migrate to QuickBooks Payroll Premium or Elite, QuickBooks Time is included with your subscription, and a new account is created for you. For help with merging your new account with your old account, contact us.}
• Price Levels
  
• Write Letters
  
• Mileage Tracking
  • _Mileage
  • _{Note: You'll need to manually add previous mileage into QuickBooks Online. Learn how to track mileage in QuickBooks Online.}

• Chart of Accounts
  • _{QuickBooks Online has an additional level of account type called Detail. QuickBooks Online moves your accounts and assigns them Detail types. You can change this later if needed.}
  • _{QuickBooks Online will set the last A/R or A/P account that was used on a transaction as the default.}
  • _{Note: QuickBooks Online only allows for 1 default A/R & A/P account.}
    
• Customers and Jobs
  • _{Leaf node jobs (jobs that do not have any child jobs) will migrate as projects, and all remaining jobs will migrate as sub-customers.}
  • _{Customer Name}
  • _{Company Name}
  • _Mr./Ms.
  • _{First Name}
  • _{Middle initial (M.I.)}
  • _{Last Name}
  • _Phone
  • _FAX
  • _{Alt Ph.}
  • _{Customer E-Mail}
  • _Notes
  • _Terms
  • _{Customer Bill to Address}
  • _{Customer Ship To Address}
  • _{Tax code/item}
  • _{Preferred Payment Method}
  • _{Note (up to 4000 characters)}
  • _{Credit Card Info}
  • _{Custom fields}
  • _{Start date}
  • _{End date}
  • _{Job Bill to address}
  • _{Job Ship to address}
  • _{Job E-mail}
• Inactive Items
  • _{Inactive accounts, customers, or suppliers}
    • _{Note: If a customer has an open balance, they become active.}
  • _{If there isn't a balance tied to a name, it will move as inactive (deleted).}
    
• Memorized Transactions
  • _{Memorized Transactions will convert into Recurring Transactions.} 
  • _{Note: Memorized Transaction Groups don't migrate into QuickBooks Online, as Groups don't exist in QuickBooks Online.}
  • _{The next date will transfer without a start date on the transaction}
    
• Scheduled Transactions
  • _{Note: QuickBooks Online Plus, Advanced, Essentials, and EasyStart support recurring transactions.}
  • _{Recurring Transactions}
  • _{Scheduled transactions (become recurring transactions)}
    
• Terms
  • _{Note: 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.}
    
• Suppliers
  • _{Supplier Name}
  • _{Company Name}
  • _Mr./Ms.
  • _{First Name}
  • _M.I.
  • _{Last Name}
  • _Phone
  • _FAX
  • _E-Mail
  • _Notes
  • _Terms
  • _{Print on Check as}
  • _Address
  • _AccountTax
  • _{Custom fields}

• Chart of Accounts
  • _{Bank account numbers and notes (security reasons)}
    
• 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}
  • _Account
  • _{Credit Limit}
  • _{Job Status}
  • _{Projected End}
  • _{Job Description}
  • _{Job Type}
• Custom Fields in Items and Employees
  
• Reminders
  
• Scheduled Transactions
  • _{QuickBooks Online EasyStart doesn't support recurring transaction templates.} 
  • _{Note: To avoid errors, you'll have to delete all scheduled transactions and templates in QuickBooks Desktop before you import to EasyStart.}
    
• To Do
  
• Suppliers
  • _Contact
  • _{Alt. Contact}
  • _Status
  • _{Supplier Type}
  • _{Credit Limit}
  • _{Alt. Contact}
  • _Alt-Ph.
  • _{1099 ID}

Note: 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.