Nightmare conversion from Desktop to Online - All customers active. All previously hidden expenses now unhidden.

Run  the Condense Data utility on your QB Desktop to remove older years. You don't need to convert the whole data to QB Online and you can open your old company file to access historical data.

I'll share an easier way to remove the previously hidden customers when converting from QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) to QuickBooks Online (QBO), @ChipConnJohn.

When migrating from QBDT to QBO, all the inactive customers with unbilled charges will become active in QBO, and then the unbilled charges will become billable.

If your QuickBooks Online account is new and less than 60 days old, I recommend the resolution provided by 4Gal. You can purge your account to start fresh and run the Condense Data Utility before migrating from QuickBooks Desktop to remove the older years' data that you don't need.

Before doing so, make sure to back up your QuickBooks Desktop files. This way, you can restore your data if ever you run into problems.

Here's how to condense data and keep all transactions:

1. Go to File, then select Utilities.
2. Choose Condense Data.
3. Click Remove the transactions you select from your company file. Select Next.
4. Select the transactions you’d like to remove, then choose Next.
5. Choose how transactions would be summarized, then click Next.
6. Select how inventory should be condensed, then hit Next.
7. Choose the recommended transactions you’d like to remove, then select Next.
8. Select List entries you’d like to remove, then select Next.
9. Click Begin Condense.
10. Once done, select Close.

Refer to this article for the detailed steps: Use the Condense Data utility.

I'm also adding this article to help you navigate getting started with QuickBooks Online: Getting Started in QuickBooks Online.

Let me know if you have questions about QuickBooks Desktop system performance. I'm always here to help.

We've already migrated from desktop to QBO...is there a way to still easily make all these old customers/jobs inactive after the migration is complete?

Yes, @ahoheise22, there is. You can easily make your customers inactive in QuickBooks Online (QBO) by utilizing the Batch actions feature. Let's go over some details to achieve the task.

Before doing so, please know that it's best if you had run the Condense Data utility on your QuickBooks Desktop before migrating the data. This way, you can remove older years you don't need. Always provide a backup of your company file before doing the process so you'll have a copy in case you run into problems.

Here's how to make your customers inactive:

1. Go to Sales, then select Customers.
2. Place a checkmark beside their names.
3. From the Batch actions dropdown, choose Make inactive.
4. Then confirm by selecting Yes, make inactive.

You may visit this handy article that tackles all the information you need to know when migrating your desktop file to the online platform: Learn how features and data move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

Keep in touch if you have additional questions about migrating your desktop data to QBO. I'm more than happy to lend a hand. 

Unfortunately we already migrated, so completing the condensed utility is not an option. We also can't batch the jobs inactive because it is telling me they all have billable costs associated with them and can't be made inactive. 

Thanks for following up on this thread, ahoheise22.

At this time the Condense Data utility or the batch action feature are the only options available to make customers inactive. I recommend submitting feedback to the Product Development Team for review. This can be done directly through your account by clicking the Gear icon in the top right corner then select Feedback. This is the best way for your suggestions to be heard as many product updates and feature releases come directly from great user entries like yours.

Please don't hesitate to reach back out if you need assistance with anything else. I'll be here to help in any way that I can.

Ok, I gave up and connected with my accountant and here's what she did.

- Go into each of the billable items which you can see if you run an Unbilled Charges report.  You'll need to change the time frame and you can filter out time entries if you want.

- In each expense, change the customer to a generic customer.  This way all the expenses are under one customer.

- Create one invoice for that generic customer.

- Create a credit memo for that generic customer and apply it to the invoice.

- Create a Journal Entry Crediting Bad Debts and debiting all the accounts that the unbilled expenses were from.  Unfortunately, I can't tell you how she found all the accounts the expenses went up against.  She did the journal entry. 

Then you've cleared all the unbilled expenses and you don't have Bad Debts that you shouldn't have. 

Then you can make all the old customers inactive.

Thanks for following up, ChipConnJohn.

This is great info. It's always important to know what accountants suggest when it comes to situations like this. I believe your post will be helpful to others on this thread.

Feel free to drop a comment below if you have any other questions. Take care!

There is also a url you can run in QBO to delete billable expenses prior to a given date.

qbo.intuit.com/app/managebillableexpense