Changing from QB self-employed to QB online (horrific experience)

Darren38 · ‎April 21, 2022

Hi

I don't know if anyone has had the same problems as myself changing over from QB Self-Employed to QB Online.

I needed to upgrade as I have gone VAT registered. Why QB SE can not work produce and work out VAT is beyond me but that is another discussion.

I have now spent days with this issue and spoken to a number of QB 'experts' none of who know what to do. We exported my existing data (nearly 4 years worth) from QB SE and I was talked through the exporting the information into QB Online. A lot of the data did not go over correctly or in the right fields and all of my invoices were shown as not paid so I needed to go through each one individually which was time consuming but not the end of the world.

However none of my receipts would transfer over because they were not .csv files, there a multiple receipts since I started with QB SE and I find it utterly bemusing that they can not be exported properly from one QB platform to another.

I just keep being told they are on different platforms and so and can not be transferred over without manually changing all the files, I find this incredible from a company the size of Quickbooks.

Firstly, I don't understand who QB SE can not produce VAT invoices and secondly how their information doesn't transfer on between their own software.

It has been a really time consuming and distressing experience, you can't speak or email anyone other than the support staff who don't know how to solve the problem.

It seems like my options are (1) just keep using QB SE but my accounts will be wrong because they can't take into account VAT. (2) Move everything over but lose my receipts and potentially other information.

(3) Start again with QB on-line but keep paying monthly subscription to QB SE as well to keep my other information.

It really is appalling from QB and I would warn anyone who is considering purchasing QB to not do so until the transfer of their information is able to be completed properly.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

GeorgiaC · ‎April 21, 2022

Thanks for getting back to us Darren, the reason that the data migration is not possible is due to the bookkeeping systems; QBSE uses single-entry with categories derived from HMRC's self-assessment whereas QB Online is double-entry, meaning every transaction entered in QBSE would need to be re-categorised against an additional account (either an asset, liability, income, expense or equity account). We do have a guide linked here which aims to walk through the process of switching, if there is any specific issue that you're experiencing please detail this below so that we can help further :)

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EmmaM · ‎April 21, 2022

Hello Darren, Thanks for leaving feedback about your experience of moving from Quickbooks Self Employed to Quickbooks Online. You are right the Self Employed product was never built to handle VAT or VAT returns. It is a basic package. We do see there are businesses that make the change to being VAT registered and now because of Making Tax Digital they need to have Online software for that. In the past year, we have begun introducing Self Employed features into Quickbooks Online. Including the calculation for your Self Assessment at the moment it works best with businesses with only allowable expenses but that will be changing in the future. If that meets your business you could start over in Quickbooks Online.

We take on board the difficulty in moving from one product to the other, they were set up originally as separate entities and we do see the frustration that moving the data has caused you. We do want it to be a smooth process and at the moment it is not.

Darren38 · ‎April 21, 2022

Thanks for coming back to me Emma it is much appreciated.

However, I do find it incredible that a company as big as quick books has got this big problem in their system which on the face of it seems quite easy to fix by either allowing VAT invoices in self-employed or allowing the transfer of data over easily from one system to another.

As it stands I still have no solution and am subscribed to 2 different QB products (neither of which are doing their job properly).

I could not recommend QB to anyone who is starting their business and hoping it will grow (which I would imagine is nearly everybody).

If you can provide me a solution to the issue I would be hugely grateful.

Darren

GeorgiaC · ‎April 21, 2022

Thanks for getting back to us Darren, the reason that the data migration is not possible is due to the bookkeeping systems; QBSE uses single-entry with categories derived from HMRC's self-assessment whereas QB Online is double-entry, meaning every transaction entered in QBSE would need to be re-categorised against an additional account (either an asset, liability, income, expense or equity account). We do have a guide linked here which aims to walk through the process of switching, if there is any specific issue that you're experiencing please detail this below so that we can help further :)

Darren38 · ‎April 25, 2022

Thanks Georgia. the last representative I spoke to last week also promised a manager/supervisor would call me and I haven't heard anything back yet. The service has been very poor and does not look good on QB.

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Changing from QB self-employed to QB online (horrific experience)