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

by Intuit•34• Updated 1 week ago

If you plan to switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, there may be differences in how your books appear. In this article, you’ll learn what features and data and move and don’t move after you switch.

Note: For information on how to switch to QuickBooks Online, check out Learn about switching from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

Terminology

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:

QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Online
Bank Feeds	Online Banking / Bank Transactions
Documents / Doc Centre	Attachments
Scheduled Payroll	Run Payroll
Unscheduled Payroll	Run Payroll Bonus Only
Payment Reminders	Reminders / Automatic invoice reminders
Income Tracker	All Sales
Bill Tracker	Suppliers window
Upload & Review Bills	Receipts
Schedule Online Payment	Online Bill Pay
Forecast	Cashflow
Budgets	Budgets
Reconcile	Reconcile
Inventory Parts	Inventory
Non-inventory Parts	Non-inventory
Assemblies	Bundles (Products & services)
Groups	Bundles (Products & services)
Other Charges	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Subtotals	Subtotal
Discounts	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Payments	Payments
Services	Services
Jobs	Sub-customers Projects
Items	Products and services
Memorized transactions	Recurring transactions
Leads	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Price Levels	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Billing Rate Levels	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Other Names	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Suppliers	Suppliers (for all Suppliers)
Fixed Asset Items	Available in QuickBooks Online Advanced
Sales Reps (Customer & Supplier Profile Lists)	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Supplier Types (Customer & Supplier Profile Lists)	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Job Types (Customer & Supplier Profile Lists)	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Customer Messages (Customer & Supplier Profile Lists)	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Ship Via (Customer & Supplier Profile Lists)	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Vehicles (Customer & Supplier Profile Lists)	Manage vehicles
Templates	Custom Form Styles
Add/Edit Multiple List Entries	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Customers	Customers
Employees	Employees
Classes	Classes (and Locations)
Chart of Accounts	Chart of Accounts
Customer Types (Customer & Supplier Profile Lists)	Customer Types
Terms (Customer & Supplier Profile Lists)	Terms
Payment Methods (Customer & Supplier Profile Lists)	Payment Methods
Memorized reports	Custom reports
Scheduled reports	Custom reports
Commented reports	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Custom reports	Custom reports (QuickBooks Online Advanced)
Company Snapshot	Business Snapshot
Job & Item Estimates vs Actuals	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Bills	Expenses Bills Supplier Credits
Credit Card Charges	Expenses Credit Card Credits
Item Receipts	Expenses Bills
Sales Orders	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Credit Memos	Credit Memos Refund Receipts Delayed Credits
Batch Invoices	Batch transactions (QuickBooks Online Advanced)
Receipt Management	Receipts
Adjust Quantity/Value on Hand	Inventory Quantity Adjustment
Make General Journal Entries	Journal Entries
Make Deposits	Bank Deposits
Transfer Funds	Transfer
Enter Statement Charges	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Statements	Statements
Estimates	Estimates
Invoices	Invoices
Receive Payments	Receive Payments
Sales Receipts	Sales Receipts
Cheques	Cheques
Purchase Orders	Purchase Orders
Pay Bills	Pay Bills
Undeposited Funds	Undeposited Funds Payments to deposit
Use Account history (For Banks/Accounts)	Account history
Edit, then Preferences	Settings ⚙, then Account and settings Settings ⚙, then Payroll settings
My Company	Settings ⚙, then Account and settings
Weekly Timesheet	Time Entries (if Time tab is available) Weekly Timesheet (if Time tab isn’t available)
Time / Enter Single Activity	Time Entries (if Time tab is available) Single Time Activity (if Time tab isn’t available)
Calendar	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Set Up Users	Manage Users
To Do List	Tasks (QuickBooks Online Advanced)
Reminders	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Letters	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Customer Groups	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Payroll Item List	Edit Pay Items
Desktop Payroll Reports: • Payroll Details report • Tax Liability report • Direct Deposit report • Workers Comp report • Sick and Vacation report	Online Payroll Reports: • Payroll Summary report • Liability Balance report • Employee Direct Deposit Listing • Workers Compensation report • Vacation and Sick Leave report

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. Adjustments may occur to Cost of Goods Sold (COGS).	Inventory QuickBooks Online doesn't support Units of measure (UOM) & Manufacturer Part Numbers for inventory items.
Multi-currency Multi-currency is only available in QuickBooks Online Essentials, Plus, and Advanced.	Multi-currency Transactions with 3 or more currencies on a single entry will fail or cause errors while migrating from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.
	Mileage Tracking You'll need to manually add previous mileage into QuickBooks Online. Learn how to track mileage in QuickBooks Online.
	Attachments & Documents Saved receipt images, PDFs, or other file attachments linked to transactions or records are not transferred when migrating from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. You must save these files locally and then manually re‑upload them into QuickBooks Online.
	Bank Feed Bank feeds disconnect while migrating from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. You will need to reconnect the bank accounts in QBO and recreate bank rules.

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.	Assemblies Bundle items aren't tracked as inventory in QuickBooks Online. Assemblies aren't natively supported as an inventory-tracked item type — they only exist as non-costed Bundles.
Discounts Discounts for early payments move as credit memos. They're applied to a customer's outstanding balance. Discounts taken from suppliers for early payment of bills move as supplier credits. They're applied to a supplier'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 Historical paycheque totals from QuickBooks Desktop migrate into QuickBooks Online as journal entries, regular cheques, or summary figures to balance financial statements.	Payroll Items QuickBooks Online Payroll must be set up manually, including entering current Year‑To‑Date balances for accurate T4 generation. Detailed employee pay stub histories, tax setup rules, and item breakdowns do not transfer into the QuickBooks Online Payroll module.

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. Email 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 Detailed list‑level custom fields from QuickBooks Desktop (on items, customers, or suppliers) don’t carry over into QuickBooks Online. In most cases, this information either drops during migration or appears as standard notes.
Inactive Items Inactive accounts, customers, or suppliers 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 List entries from QuickBooks Desktop are automatically converted and merged into the Suppliers/Customers list in QuickBooks Online.
	To Do To‑Do lists, Reminders, Calendar entries, Price Levels, and Mailing Label layouts set up in Desktop are not transferred.
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.
Suppliers Supplier Name Company Name Mr./Ms. First Name M.I. Last Name Phone FAX Email Terms Print on Cheque as Address	Suppliers Contact Alt. Contact Note Status Supplier Type Credit Limit Custom Fields Alt. Contact Alt Ph.

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.
	User Passwords & Permission Settings Existing users don't automatically have access to QuickBooks Online. They need to be invited from QuickBooks Online to gain access. User logins, custom roles, and password permissions do not transfer. User access must be reconfigured manually under Manage Users in QuickBooks Online.

Reports

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.

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't move to QuickBooks Online
	Audit Trail Historical audit trail data from QuickBooks Desktop does not migrate to QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online begins a new Audit Log starting from the date the company file is created and continues tracking activity from that point forward.
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.	Reconcile Historical Reconciliation Reports do not move to QuickBooks Online.
Memorized Reports	Custom reports Custom report templates created in QuickBooks Desktop do not migrate to QuickBooks Online. Recreate any custom report templates or saved report layouts 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 Supplier credit in QuickBooks Online. The address on bill payment cheques is replaced by the Supplier address on your Supplier 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	Estimates Your estimates in QuickBooks Desktop will not move to QuickBooks Online.
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 Invoice templates don’t migrate and must be recreated in QuickBooks Online. 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 cheques and invoices move as journal entries. This only happens if: Sales tax rates were entered as flat rates (0.00) instead of percentages.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.
Sales Tax Tax agency liabilities tracked in Desktop via the Sales Tax Centre map into QuickBooks Online Canada’s automated Sales Tax module. Agency settings and historic filings need to be verified post-migration.
Purchase Orders	Purchase Orders Your Purchase Orders in QuickBooks Desktop will not move to QuickBooks Online.
	Reconcile Your past reconciliation reports don't move to QuickBooks Online. While transactions remain marked as reconciled, historical bank reconciliation reports do not convert. Print/Save PDF copies prior to export.
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.
	Sales Orders Your Sales Orders in QuickBooks Desktop will not move to QuickBooks Online.

Next steps

For a full list of each platform’s features, check out our QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online comparison chart. Check out all the benefits you get when you transfer to QuickBooks Online.