2020 QuickBooks for Mac convert to 2015 QuickBooks for Windows

Thank you for visiting the Community, AllAmericanWoman.

I'll be happy to provide the steps on how you can convert the file. 

To start, let's make sure to update your QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release. Next, search for memos with special characters like !@#$%^&*. 

Here's how:

1. Go to Reports > Custom Transaction Detail Report.
2. From the Dates drop-down menu, select All Dates.
3. Double-click a transaction with a memo to open it.
4. Delete the special characters from the memo field and select Save.
5. Close the transaction.
6. Repeat the steps for all other transactions. 
7. Re-sort your lists.
8. Run verify and rebuild on your company file. Go to the File > Utilities > Verify Data.

Finally, convert your company file by following these steps:

1. Open your company file as the admin. Go to the File > Export > To QuickBooks for Windows.
2. If you get a prompt to verify before you back up, select Verify.
3. Name the file and choose the folder to save it in. Then, click Save. Note: Make sure you don't add special characters in the file name.
4. Enter and confirm your password and hit OK.
5. Select OK on the confirmation window.
6. Move the file to your Windows computer. Most people do this with a USB flash drive, cloud storage, or email if the file is small enough.
7. Restore the file in QuickBooks for Windows.

If you want to convert your file from QuickBooks for Mac to QuickBooks for Windows and vice versa, you can read the round tripping section in this article: Convert a QuickBooks for Mac file to QuickBooks for Windows.

In addition, you can read these articles on what you can do after converting the file and if you encounter some errors: 

• What to do after converting from QuickBooks Desktop for Windows or Mac to QuickBooks Online
• Error: QuickBooks is not able to convert your Mac file to a Windows file

Please let me know if you have more questions about the process. I'll be around to answer them. Have a great day!

Something about going from 2020 to 2015 was messing us up.  I know how to convert from Mac to Windows. That wasn't the issue.  Quickbooks is pretty straightforward about that.  I read a thread that recommended manually changing the .qbb extension to .qbm and I think that might have work.  I'm waiting to hear from our accountant to see if it worked.

@AllAmericanWoman 

You may need to purchase a 3rd party roll-back service to do so. I would recommend to upgrade your QBD Mac 2020 file to QBD 2021 (Windows).

I resorted to printing out the entire general ledger because that extension change didn't do anything.  He was unable to open the file.

If you export the Mac version to Windows it will likely "just work" when you import the resulting .qbb file into the Windows version.  It isn't officially supported but the format used is common to both.  If not then you'll need a newer version of QuickBOoks Windows.