The short version
- The reports are on the Reports menu. Set the dates we give you, and Report Basis to Accrual.
- Export each one with the Excel button at the top of the report, as a comma separated values (.csv) file.
- Upload the reports to the QuickBooks Desktop exports line on your onboarding page.
- Export your customer, supplier and item lists from their own windows, and bring them over yourself under Your lists.
- Don't send the company file or a backup, and don't use the IIF export.
The reports
Your cutover date is on your onboarding page. Use it wherever this table says cutover.
| Report | Where, and the dates to set | What it gives us |
|---|---|---|
| Account Listing | Reports, List. Include inactive accounts | Your chart of accounts |
| Trial Balance | Reports, Accountant & Taxes. From and To: both the cutover | Every opening balance |
| Open Invoices | Reports, Customers & Receivables. Date: the cutover | What customers owed you at the cutover |
| Unpaid Bills Detail | Reports, Suppliers & Payables. Date: the cutover | What you owed at the cutover |
| General Ledger | Reports, Accountant & Taxes. The start of your fiscal year to the cutover | Everything posted this year, bank and card included |
| Previous Reconciliation | Reports, Banking. The last one for each bank and card account up to the cutover | What had cleared, and what hadn't |
1. Set the dates and the basis
Open each report from the Reports menu, in the group the table names. Set the dates at the top: for a single date, set From and To both to the cutover. Select Customize Report and, on the Display tab, set Report Basis to Accrual.
For Unpaid Bills Detail, also go to Customize Report, Advanced, and set Open Balance / Aging to Report Date, so it shows what was owed at the cutover rather than today.
2. Export as a CSV file
At the top of the report, select Excel, then Create New Worksheet. In the window that opens, choose Create a comma separated values (.csv) file, then Export. CSV keeps the report plain; an Excel file is fine too.
Your customers, suppliers, and products and services
These three come over a different way: you bring each one over yourself, on your onboarding page under Your lists, and see every row before anything is added. Names, contact details, payment terms and prices come over. Nothing already there is overwritten, and no balances come over this way.
To get each one out of QuickBooks Desktop:
- Customers: Customers, Customer Centre. Leave the view on Active Customers, then select Excel, Export Customer List, and the .csv option. Jobs stay behind: each customer comes over once.
- Suppliers: Suppliers, Supplier Centre, then Excel, Export Supplier List, and the .csv option.
- Products and services: Lists, Item List, then the Excel button at the bottom of the window, Export all Items, and the .csv option. Subtotals, discounts and payments in the list stay behind; only what you sell or buy comes over.
QuickBooks Desktop gives items its own tax codes, which don't say plainly which tax they mean. They come over as GST (G), and the screen says so: check each item's tax code after.
Then, on your onboarding page under Your lists, choose Bring it over beside each list. Choose QuickBooks Desktop as where the list is now, then the file. Check what each column holds, check the rows, and choose Bring it over. If a list has nothing in it, say no suppliers, choose Nothing to bring instead.
Bank details never come over. If an export has columns for bank account numbers, they're left out of the import and out of the copy we keep.
Don't use the IIF export
File, Utilities, Export, Lists to IIF Files writes an older format that can carry bank account numbers in the chart of accounts and your employees' SINs in the employee list. Use the lists' own exports above instead.
3. Upload the reports
On your onboarding page, upload every report to the QuickBooks Desktop exports line. You can upload several at once. We check them against your statements before anything is brought in.
If a report won't export
If your version won't send a report to Excel, print it to PDF, upload that, and tell us on your onboarding page which year your QuickBooks is.
Common questions
Can I just send you my company file?
Please don't. A company file or a backup holds everything, bank details and employees' SINs included, and needs QuickBooks to open. The reports give us what we need and nothing more.
Do I need to keep QuickBooks Desktop?
Keep it, and a backup, until your first year end with us is done. Your CPA may need to look something up.