It's nice to see you here Matt.
I can share some insights about this conversion concern between QuickBooks Desktop and Online.
During the conversion, there are elements and features that are not converted to QBO. This includes inactive customers from QuickBooks Desktop. Please see this link to Learn what doesn’t come over from QuickBooks Desktop to Online.
If you want to include them in the migration, you can make the customer active, then export it manually from QuickBooks Desktop. Then, you can import it to QuickBooks Online once the file is ready.
See the following link with the full instructions on how to move your customer list: Move your lists to QuickBooks Online.
Visit us anytime for additional questions or concerns about QuickBooks or this topic. I'll be right here to help. Have a good one!