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

by Intuit•601• Updated 1 month ago

Understand how your features and data move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

Your books may look slightly different when you switch 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. Learn all about them here.

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You can also check out all the benefits you get when you move to QuickBooks Online.

You can use the special QuickBooks Online desktop app to access the view you’re used to from QuickBooks Desktop. You'll also have keyboard shortcuts, bookmarks, and the ability to flip between tabs and windows.

Different terms used in QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online

Here are the different terms used in QuickBooks Desktop and Quickbooks Online.

Note: Some features in QuickBooks Desktop aren't available in QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Desktop	QuickBooks Online
Bank Feeds	Online Banking / Bank Transactions
Documents / Doc Center	Attachments
Scheduled Payroll	Run Payroll
Unscheduled Payroll	Run Payroll Bonus Only
Payment Reminders	Reminders / Automatic invoice reminders
Income Tracker	All Sales
Bill Tracker	Vendors window
Upload & Review Bills	Receipts
Schedule Online Payment	Online Bill Pay
Forecast	Budgets
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
Vendors	Vendors (for all Vendors) Contractors (for Vendors tracked for 1099)
Fixed Asset Items	Available in QuickBooks Online Advanced
Sales Reps (Customer & Vendor Profile Lists)	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Vendor Types (Customer & Vendor Profile Lists)	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Job Types (Customer & Vendor Profile Lists)	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Customer Messages (Customer & Vendor Profile Lists)	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Ship Via (Customer & Vendor Profile Lists)	Not available in QuickBooks Online
Vehicles (Customer & Vendor 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 & Vendor Profile Lists)	Customer Types
Terms (Customer & Vendor Profile Lists)	Terms
Payment Methods (Customer & Vendor 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 Vendor 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
Checks	Checks
Purchase Orders	Purchase Orders
Pay Bills	Pay Bills
Undeposited Funds	Undeposited Funds Payments to deposit
Use Register (For Banks/Accounts)	View Register
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 Comp report • Sick and Vacation History report

Features that move and don’t move over to QuickBooks Online

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't move to QuickBooks Online
Attachments/Document Center docs _{• When you move your books from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, the attachments that are 30MB or smaller and those that are on your computer's hard drive will be moved. Check out Move your attachments from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online to learn more.}
Budgets _{• Only Profit and Loss budget types will move to QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced.}	Budgets _{• Data moves, but budgets aren't recreated in QuickBooks Online due to mapping differences.}
Inventory _{• Inventory is only available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced. • Inventory is imported as First-In, First-Out method (FIFO). • You'll be asked to set the FIFO start date. • QuickBooks Online will make the proper adjustments to recalculate inventory based on the FIFO start date. • The recalculated inventory and adjustments will be imported into QuickBooks Online. Note: If you use QuickBooks Desktop Mac, your inventory items are migrated as non-inventory items in QuickBooks Online. If you want to migrate them as inventory items, convert your QuickBooks for Mac file to QuickBooks for Windows before you use this tool.}	Inventory _{• QuickBooks Online doesn't support units of measure for inventory items.}
Multi-Currency _{• Multi-Currency is only available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced. • Multi-currency preferences will move to QuickBooks Online.}	Multi-Currency _{• Transactions with 3 different currency types won't move to QuickBooks Online. Any transactions that used currencies in QuickBooks Desktop that do not exists in QuickBooks Online will not be migrated into QuickBooks Online.}
Online Banking _{• Banking rules are moved for both Express and Advanced mode. • Auto-recognized rules are moved for both Express and Advanced Mode.}	Online Banking _{• Bank Feeds setup doesn't move to QuickBooks Online.}
Payroll - with QuickBooks Online _{• Check out What to do after you move to QuickBooks Online for more info. • Paychecks are moved as regular checks to keep your financial reports accurate. • QuickBooks Online copies the current year's paycheck information as} _lump _{sums. • Liability refunds, adjustment transactions, and opening balance} _{transactions that affect accounts are copied to journal entries. • All employees (active and inactive) will move to QuickBooks Online • Employee addresses - 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 Security 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) will move to QuickBooks Online. • Employee addresses - 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 Security Number • Company _{• Direct deposit account numbers • Bank names • Routing numbers • Employee bank info (for Direct Deposit) • Wages • YTD balances • Items}}	QuickBooks Time _{• Timesheet data • Pay Item Mappings • Settings & Preferences Note: If you migrate to QuickBooks Payroll Premium or Elite, Time is included with your subscription which will create a new QuickBooks Time account. Contact us for help merging your new account with your existing account.}
QuickBooks Payments _{• Your payments 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.}
	Price Levels
Sales Tax _{• Sales tax won't copy for all transactions. Some taxes will copy as journal entries.}
	Write Letters
	Mileage Tracking _{• You'll need to manually add previous mileage into QuickBooks Online. Learn how to track mileage in QuickBooks Online.}

Note: There's a sales tax payment limitation when you migrate from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online . Payments made in QuickBooks Desktop apply to the wrong filings in QuickBooks Online. As a workaround, customers can delete the migrated sales tax payments, and then recreate them in their sales tax center in QuickBooks Online.

Items that move over to QuickBooks Online

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't move to QuickBooks Online
Assemblies _{• Assembly items are inventory items made from other inventory items. • Assemblies move over as a Single Inventory Item on Sales Transactions. They will appear on the Products and Services screen as Inventory.. • All components of assemblies copy for purchase transactions. • Each item of the assembly appears on a detail line when you view the transactions. • Bundle items aren't tracked as inventory in QuickBooks Online.}
Discounts _{• Discounts for early payments move as credit memos. They're applied to a customer's outstanding balance. • Discounts taken from vendors for early payment of bills move as vendor credits. They're applied to a vendor'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
Inventory Items	Inventory Items _{• Manufacturer's Part Number(MPN) • Currently, none of the Desktop inventory item fields move to the SKU field in Online}
Non-Inventory Items	Non-Inventory Items _{• Manufacturer's Part Number(MPN) • Currently, none of the Desktop inventory item fields move to the SKU field in Online}

Lists that move and don’t move over to QuickBooks Online

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't move to QuickBooks Online
Chart of Accounts _{• 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. • QuickBooks Online only allows for 1 default A/R & A/P account. • QuickBooks Online will set the last A/R or A/P account that was used on a transaction as the default.}	Chart of Accounts _{• For security reasons, bank account numbers and notes won't move to QuickBooks Online.}
Customers and Jobs Note: Jobs (sub-customers) will move as Project in Plus and Advanced versions. If jobs in Desktop need to stay as sub-customers in QuickBooks Online, first sign up for QuickBooks Online Essentials. Then convert the Desktop data to QuickBooks Online. Once done, you can upgrade to QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced, if needed. The sub-customer will be sub-customers after the upgrade _{• Your jobs move to sub-customers. • Customer Name • Company Name • Mr./Ms. • First Name • Middle initial (M.I.) • Last Name • Phone • FAX • Alt Ph. • Customer E-Mail • Terms • Customer Bill to Address (except Note) • Customer Ship to Address (except Note) _{The Ship To Address converts, but not perfectly. The entire address will be placed in the main address field, leaving City, State/Province, Zip Code/ZIP code, and Country blank.} • Tax code/item • Preferred Payment Method • Note (up to 4000 characters) • Credit Card Info}	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 • Job Bill to address • Job Ship to address • Job E-Mail}
	Custom Fields in Lists
Inactive Items _{• Inactive accounts, customers, or vendors 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
Memorized Transactions Memorized Transactions will convert into Recurring Transactions. Memorized Transaction Groups do not migrate into QuickBooks Online, as Groups do not exists in QuickBooks Online. _{Other Names _{• QuickBooks Online doesn't have an Other Names list. • Other Names in QuickBooks Desktop move as vendors.}}
	Reminders
Scheduled Transactions _{Recurring Transactions in QuickBooks Online} _{• QuickBooks Online Plus, Advanced, Essentials, and Simple Start support recurring transactions. • Scheduled transactions in QuickBooks Desktop move as recurring transactions in QuickBooks Online.}	Scheduled Transactions _{• QuickBooks Online Simple Start doesn't support recurring transaction templates. To avoid errors, you'll have to delete all scheduled transactions and templates in QuickBooks Desktop before you import to Simple Start.}
	To Do
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.}
Vendors _{• Vendor Name • Company Name • Mr./Ms. • First Name • M.I. • Last Name • Phone • FAX • E-Mail • Terms • Print on Check as • Address • AccountTax}	Vendors _{• Contact • Alt. Contact • Note • Status • Vendor Type • Credit Limit • Custom Fields • Alt. Contact • Alt Ph. • 1099 ID}

Preferences that move and don’t move over to QuickBooks Online

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.}
Payment roles and permissions _{_{• Saved credit card info doesn't move over.}}
Favorites menu _{• Items you've added to the Favorites menu will move to QuickBooks Online and can be found under Bookmarks.}	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.}
	Users and Permissions _{• Existing users don't automatically have access to QuickBooks Online. They need to be invited from QuickBooks Online to gain access.}

Reports that move and don’t move over to QuickBooks Online

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't move to QuickBooks Online
	Audit Trail
	Memorized Reports
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.}
Favorite 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.

Transactions that move and don’t move over to QuickBooks Online

Moves to QuickBooks Online	Doesn't move to QuickBooks Online
Bills, Bill Payments, and Bill Credits _{• A bill discount in QuickBooks Desktop moves to a Vendor credit in QuickBooks Online.} _{• The address on bill payment checks is replaced by the Vendor address on your Vendor list.} _{• Bill payments made by credit card move to bill payments in QuickBooks Online.}	_{The Bill received preference doesn't move to QuickBooks Online.}
Credit Card Charges _{• Credit card charges in QuickBooks Desktop convert to Expenses in QuickBooks Online.}
Estimates _{• Your estimates in QuickBooks Desktop will move to QuickBooks Online.• Active estimates are marked as Closed.} _{• Inactive estimates are marked as Rejected.} _{• Estimates used for progress invoicing won't link to the invoices you created in Desktop.}
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.} _{• Credit card info saved on an invoice in QuickBooks Desktop.}	Invoices _{• 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.} _{• Recurring payment transactions.}
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 checks and invoices move as journal entries. This only happens if:} _{- 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.}
	Pending Sales
Purchase Orders _{• 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.}
	Reconcile _{• Your past reconciliation reports don't move to QuickBooks Online.}
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.}

QuickBooks Accountant Desktop PlusQuickBooks Desktop Enterprise AccountantQuickBooks Desktop Enterprise DiamondQuickBooks Desktop Enterprise GoldQuickBooks Desktop Enterprise PlatinumQuickBooks Desktop Mac PlusQuickBooks Desktop Premier PlusQuickBooks Desktop Pro PlusQuickBooks LedgerQuickBooks Online AccountantQuickBooks Online AdvancedQuickBooks Online App for iOSQuickBooks Online EssentialsQuickBooks Online Payroll CoreQuickBooks Online Payroll EliteQuickBooks Online Payroll PremiumQuickBooks Online PlusQuickBooks Online Simple Start

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