can I start my migration from QB Desktop to QB Online Essentials? I think I have inadvertently double entered bank transactions from prior to 1/1/2025

If you have duplicate transactions, it's best to get rid of them first in QuickBooks Desktop (QDBT) before moving your company file to QuickBooks Online (QBO), Kari. Let me provide the steps you can perform before starting the migration process.

Linking your bank account to QuickBooks Desktop after creating manual transactions can result in duplicate entries. This may create confusion and discrepancies in your financial records since both manual and bank transactions could be imported.

To avoid having to delete duplicates again after migrating to QBO, ensure you resolve any double transactions in QBDT beforehand.

Here are the steps to remove duplicate transactions in QuickBooks Desktop:

1. Open your QuickBooks Desktop account.
2. Go to the Accountant menu.
3. Click on Chart of Accounts.
4. Choose the Bank account with the duplicate transactions.
5. Click the duplicate transaction.
6. Right-click, then select Delete.

Once you've cleaned up the duplicates, you can migrate your Desktop data into your QuickBooks Online account.

For more information about the migration process, please refer to step 3 in this article: Move your QuickBooks Desktop file to QuickBooks Online.

Linking your bank and credit card accounts allows QuickBooks to download transactions to date. For older transactions or if your bank isn't supported, you can upload them manually. Check this article for details: Manually upload transactions into QuickBooks Online.

If you have any questions or need assistance preparing and cleaning your data thoroughly, please don't hesitate to reach us. We are here to help. Have a great day!

thank you for this answer. It really does clarify some of what I should do in making the transition.

However, what I really think I want to know is can I "restore to zero" and re-do the migration from the Desktop version to the QBO version?

When I first migrated, everything matched up perfectly and basically seamlessly....I was thrilled to basically get on to posting Jan work, and present financials etc.  but then I think I screwed up and "added" all the transactions from past years, and I have no idea how to undo that and actually assign them as "exclude" as I had already assigned all transactions from previous years as they needed to be.  

I was doing all my entry on QB Desktop manually, but have upgraded to downloading from the bank for all transactions 

Thank you for returning, Kari. You can prepare your desktop file and redo your migration to QuickBooks Online (QBO), as this will overwrite your existing company files if your QBO account is less than 90 days old. Let me explain this further.

If you redo the migration from Desktop to QBO, it will replace the existing company file in QBO with the updated QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) file.

Keep in mind that if it has been more than 90 days since you created your QBO account, you may want to consider subscribing to a new plan and canceling the old one, as redoing the data migration is only possible within that timeframe.

 If you are unsure how long you have had your QBO subscription, you can check by logging into your account.

Regarding the unwanted transactions you inadvertently added to QuickBooks Online, you can exclude a bank transaction that you've downloaded to resolve the duplicate entries.

When QuickBooks downloads new bank and credit card transactions, it tries to match them with your existing entries. If it can't find a match, it creates a new record, which you need to review and approve. To unmatch downloaded bank transactions or move them to a different account, follow these steps: Unmatch downloaded bank transactions or move them to another account.

Additionally, you can refer to this article for guidance on reviewing categories for automatically downloaded transactions when you connect your bank to QuickBooks Online: Categorize online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Let me know if you need further assistance with migrating your QBDT file to QBO or if you have any other QBO-related questions. I’m here to help! Take care!

Thank you again for your answer. I really appreciate it and this is helping me work through this a little more confidently.

I am thinking that rather than put myself through any more stress on trying to figure out how to fix what I did especially since I'm not familiar enough yet with QuickBooks online, it is going to be best if I just restart at Ground Zero. I've only had this plan for a week or two maybe, so starting from the beginning again is not going to be such a problem. I don't think I need to cancel and restart because I've only worked on January's numbers so far.

The question that comes to mind is will I have to re-download or reassign the bank in order to download transactions?  I realize that I will probably have to input all of January again but at least this time I'll have a little more certainty as to what I need to do in order to get the books reconciled and be able to present financials to my client.

I did not have any problem with migrating the first time, and I feel confident starting with a clean slate on this will help me to move forward much more confidently. I'm just trying to think through all of the consequences of doing this and making sure that I have everything accounted for accordingly. The first time I did the immigration everything did transfer over perfectly, so, maybe I should just somehow close out the December books on the QuickBooks online? I'm just not sure what will effectively handle the nearly 3000 transactions the banks will download from 2024, which I do not actually need to assign categories to in QBO. I hope that makes sense. I'm still trying to think through this process.

Sorry to have so many questions about this, but I want to be prepared for as many surprises as might happen when I do this. Lol thank you so much for your help.

I just wanted to say thank you for all your incredible help on this migration issue, as well as helping me understand a little bit more of how this operating system works for QuickBooks online. I was able to get back to square one, reconnect to the bank and reconcile accounts comfortably so I can present financial information to my client. 
TYSVM!

Thanks for coming back to this thread, Kari.

We're glad to hear that the recommendations shared by my colleagues was able to help your migration processes and getting to know more about QuickBooks Online. It's always our goal to help every user with navigating the platform seamlessly.

Please know that you can always count on us whenever needed. If you have more questions about QuickBooks Online functions and processes, feel free to reply to this thread. Have a good one.