More Info

 

Learn about things to be aware of when using exportmybooks.com, what data doesn’t export to QuickBooks Desktop, how we convert your data, and more.

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Before you start the conversion

 

Here are a few things to be aware of before using our conversion service:

  • Active QuickBooks Online Account: You must have an active QuickBooks Online company file to convert and verify that you have selected the correct company file. Otherwise you may end up with an empty company file.

  • User Permission: Make sure you are using the master administrator or company admin user permission in order to connect exportmybooks.com with your QuickBooks Online company file.

  • Multicurrency: We do not support multicurrency conversions at this time.

  • QuickBooks Online Self-Employed: We do not support QuickBooks Online Self-Employed conversions at this time.

  • Supported QuickBooks Desktop versions: The minimum version that our conversion supports is US QuickBooks Desktop Windows Pro/Premier 2020, US QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise 2020, and QuickBooks Desktop Mac 2019. You can easily upgrade this file to a later year version.

  • Export Settings: Please read the FAQ to learn more about the export settings options.

  • Start Date: With our service, the start date will be the date where all accounts will have their starting balances set in QuickBooks Desktop; this means that transactions on and after that date will be converted over. In addition, any unpaid invoice and bill transactions will be retained regardless of when they were recorded.

  • Multiple company files: You can use exportmybooks.com to convert any number of different company files. Each conversion will be charged separately. Please read the FAQ for more information on how to switch company files.

  • Using a different Intuit account: Our service assumes you’re using the same Intuit account to access your company file(s). However, if you need access to another company file using a different Intuit sign in, please read this FAQ for more information.

  • List limits

    • In QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Premier, your combined list items (customers, vendors, employees, etc.) can’t exceed 14,500.

    • If a list exceeds 10,000 items, only the first 10,000 will convert.

    • If you exceed these limits already in QuickBooks Online, you’ll need to export to QuickBooks Enterprise.

 What data currently does not export over

 

Due the many differences between the QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop products, the following information currently will not export into your converted file:

 

Attachments

Billable Expenses

  • QuickBooks Desktop limits billable expenses to the "expense" account type only. Any other account type for the billable expense account will not convert over. Please change all billable expense account types to "expense" before the conversion.

Budgets

Customers

  • Credit Card Information

  • Taxable status

  • Notes

  • Preferred Delivery Method

  • Mobile number

Employee Notes

Locations

  • Locations in QuickBooks Online can be referred to as Business, Department, Division, Property, Store, and Territory. QuickBooks Desktop does not have a Locations feature.

Memorized Reports

Paychecks Pay Period, Liability Payments Pay Period, and QuickBooks Payroll Online Information

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

  • Employee Social Security Number

  • Company EIN

  • Company Bank Details (Routing Number, Account Number)

  • Company Credit Card Account Number

  • Fixed Assets, Other Assets, Other Current Assets, Loan/Other Current Liability, and Long Term Liability Account Number

  • Vendor Tax ID

  • Vendor Account Number

Products and Services List Categories and Taxable Status

Purchase Order Status and Purchase Order Number on Invoices

Reconcile (Historical Reconciliation Reports)

Transactions

  • Transactions with mismatched names. This includes but is not limited to:

    • Bill with Parent. This feature is not supported in QuickBooks Desktop. This means that transactions may not be linked or payments may not export if the names do not match the invoice.

    • Any type of transaction that does not use the same name to link to each other, e.g., credit memos that use a different name than what's on the associated receive payment.

  • Zero total payments

  • Transactions to and from the same bank account. QuickBooks Desktop does not allow transfers to and from the same bank account

  • Transactions that link to a single General Journal Entry transaction with credit/debit lines to the same name may not convert

  • Billable status on a deposit

  • Custom fields

  • Memorized transactions

  • Voided transactions

  • There are historical errors with Intuit’s Desktop migration to QuickBooks Online:

    • Inventory transactions migrated may not hit COGS or Inventory Asset accounts.

    • Sub-items must have the same Type as the parent item. If they do not match, the sub-item becomes a separate item.

User List Information

Vendors Notes and Mobile Number

 

How your data is converted

 

Your transactional and list data will be converted over based on the Start Date you select during the export process. Please be aware of following changes that can occur to your data as part of the conversion (click on each section to expand):

 

Chart of Accounts

  • Account name is limited to 31 characters
  • Accounts will have account numbers

Classes

  • Class names are limited to 31 characters
  • Deleted classes export as inactive classes

Customers

  • Display names are limited to 31 characters
  • Full name and Company Name are limited to 41 characters
  • The company name will be added to the address block. If there is no company name, the the display name will be used. Otherwise, the address block will start with the first line of the address.
  • If the City, State, and Zipcode combine for a total more than 41 characters, then we combine the City, State, and Zipcode into a single line. This combined line will be set as the last available address line.
  • Billing and Shipping Address are limited to three lines of 41 characters each
  • E-mail addresses are limited to 81 characters
  • Deleted customers are converted as inactive customers

Dashes / Hyphens

  • Dashes/hyphens are converted to underscores

Employees

  • Display names are limited to 31 characters
  • Full names are limited to 39 characters
  • Deleted employees are exported as inactive employees

Field and Character Limitations

  • QuickBooks Desktop/Enterprise has different character limits for each field. For example an invoice reference number has 15 characters in QuickBooks Online, but will have 11 characters after export into QuickBooks Desktop.

Global Clearing Account

  • QuickBooks Desktop differs in terms of what accounts can be used as line items on a transaction. In those cases, the Global Clearing account is created in your desktop file and is used as an intermediary account to resolve the differences.
  • Transactions that show up in the Global Clearing account are called Patching journals. Examples of Patching journals include:
    • Deposits that do not hit bank accounts
    • Line Items that hit the following account types:
      • Accounts Receivable
      • Accounts Payable
      • Undeposited Funds

Inventory Items

  • All inventory, cost of goods sold, purchase, and sales account info will convert
  • QuickBooks Online use FIFO calculation method, while Desktop will use average cost. This may account for any discrepancies after conversion
  • QuickBooks Enterprise inventory settings will be set to FIFO
  • For negative inventory:
    • QuickBooks Desktop will record the COGS and Inventory Asset as zero on the sale. The COGS and Inventory Asset will be recorded on the purchase of new inventory.
    • In QuickBooks Online, on purchase of the new inventory, the COGS and Inventory Asset will be added to the original sale transaction.
    • Quantity on hand will match QuickBooks Online as of the conversion date

Paychecks and Liability Payments

  • Paychecks and liability payments will export as regular checks
  • General Journal entries are created for the following:
    • Payroll checks that don’t hit bank accounts
    • Payroll Adjustments

Payment Method

  • Display names are limited to 31 characters

Products and Services List

  • Display names are limited to 31 characters
  • Bundled Items convert to Item Groups
  • Any item type mismatch between the parent and sub-item will have the sub-item separated out as a new item
  • If any transactional line item is missing a Sales Item, a Default Sales Item will be used

Reconcile

  • The existing reconcile balance in QuickBooks Online isn’t transferred over to QuickBooks Desktop. After the conversion, when you attempt to reconcile in Desktop, you'll see that the beginning balances are zero.
  • This can be fixed by running a single reconcile for the last reconciled month in QuickBooks Online. To make this work, all the transactions that were previously reconciled in QuickBooks Online are marked as “pending” in your converted Desktop file.
  • Please reference this help article for more information.

Sales Tax

  • Sales Tax Rates are converted into Sales Tax Items in Desktop
  • Sales Tax Codes are converted into Sales Tax Groups in Desktop
  • Customers sales tax settings will have preferred sales tax items
  • Invoices will use sales tax items on the invoice as a whole (invoice form), unless otherwise noted
    • Some sales tax items may also be converted as service items depending on their last modification date
  • Tax Payments will get converted as Checks
  • Tax Adjustments will convert as General Journal entries

Time Tracking

  • All time activities will convert as single Time Activity Records

Transactions

  • Refund receipts convert as an invoice that has a credit memo applied to it with a check made out to the customer
  • If a check number field is blank, QuickBooks Desktop assigns a number. This can cause duplicate check numbers in your file; enter a notation in QuickBooks Online to avoid this (I.e. EFT)
  • The following transactions will convert as General Journal entries:
    • Payroll checks that don’t hit bank accounts
    • Payroll Adjustments

Vendors

  • Display names are limited to 31 characters
  • Full name and Company name is limited to 41 characters
  • Print on Check as field is limited to 41 characters
  • Addresses are limited to three lines with a limit 41 characters
  • The company name will be added to the address block. If there is no company name, the the display name will be used. Otherwise, the address block will start with the first line of the address.
  • If the City, State, and Zipcode combine for a total more than 41 characters, then we combine the City, State, and Zipcode into a single line. This combined line will be set as the last available address line.
  • E-mail address are limited to 81 characters
  • Deleted vendors export as inactive vendors


During the conversion

 

  • How long will it take? Most conversions are completed within a couple hours. However, large and complex company files can take a few days to convert. If there is a lot of data in your company file and you need your file sooner please choose a recent conversion date.

  • Session timeout: After a few minutes of inactivity you will receive a "Session has timed out" message in our app. Intuit will automatically log you out of QuickBooks Online and/or the exportmybooks.com app for security purposes. This does not, however, affect your conversion. We will continue to work on converting your file regardless of whether or not you're logged in to QuickBooks Online or to the exportmybooks.com app (but please do not disconnect from the app while we are processing a conversion).

  • Conversion status: We will send periodic status updates to the email address associated with the QuickBooks Online account. If you do not hear from us you may assume that your conversion is still in progress.

 After the conversion has completed

 

  • Restoring the Converted File in Desktop: Full instructions on how to purchase, download, and restore the converted file in Desktop can be found here.

  • Password: The password for a specific export is unique for that particular file. We recommend that you change your password after restoring the backup file.

  • File Access: You can download the file for up to 30 days.  To maintain your security, the file will be deleted and removed from our servers after the 30 day period.

  • Audit Report: The Audit Report displays accounts with balances with your QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop trial balance reports and will not display any accounts that contain zero balance. The Conversion Errors section lists any specific transactions that could not convert. Please review for discrepancies and fix any issues in your Desktop company file. Learn more about the audit report here.

  • Retained Earnings account: Any earnings equity account converted from your QuickBooks Online company file should be merged to the Retained Earnings account in QuickBooks Desktop. Learn how to do that here.

  • Bank Reconciliations: The existing reconcile balance in QuickBooks Online isn’t transferred over to QuickBooks Desktop. After the conversion, when you attempt to reconcile in Desktop, you'll see that the beginning balances are zero. This can be fixed by running a single reconcile for the last reconciled month in QuickBooks Online. Instructions on how to do that can be found here.

  • Tax Form and Line Mapping: Your converted file will have the Tax Form set to "Other/None”. Please update the Tax Form to the correct type that your business uses. You will also need to set the Tax Line mapping by hand for each account.

  • Payroll: While paychecks convert using our service, most payroll data does not.  What does not convert includes pay period and liability period as well as Quickbooks Payroll Online information. To continue running payroll after you export your QuickBooks Online data, please set up your employees and enter historical tax payments (learn how to do that here). PII (personally identifiable information) such as social security numbers is inaccessible for the conversion and must be entered manually.

Visit our Help Center for answers to FAQs and more