QuickBooks Desktop → Online: Conversion Differences

QuickBooks Online will move your accounts and assign them detail types. You can change this later if you like.

-Bank account numbers and notes do not convert (security reasons)

✅ Yes - Heirarchy will be converted

• Your jobs (become sub-customers unless converting to Plus or Advanced See Job Costing)
• Customer Name
• Company Name
• Mr./Ms.
• First Name
• Middle initial (M.I.)
• Last Name
• Phone
• FAX
• Alt Ph.
• Customer E-Mail
• Terms
• Customer Bill to Address (except Note)
• Customer Ship to Address (except Note)

The Ship To Address converts, but not perfectly. The entire address will be placed in the main address field, leaving City, State/Province, Zip Code/ZIP code, and Country blank.

• Tax code/item
• Preferred Payment Method
• Note (up to 4000 characters)
• Credit Card Info**

Only 1 Ship To Address converts, but not perfectly. The entire address will be placed in the main address field, leaving City, State/Province, Zip Code/ZIP code, and Country blank.

• Inactive accounts, customers, or vendors

Note: If they have an open balance, they become active.

If there isn't a balance tied to a name, it will move as inactive (deleted).

Custom fields on Customers, Vendors, Employees will be attempted to move in QBO Advanced. Custom Fields on Items do not convert.

• Subtotals don't move but are included in the Description field

Only Supported Items Types convert

• Group items move as Bundles.
• Zero amount lines are at the start and end of where the group item was. You can see which items were part of the group.
• The top line shows the group name. The bottom line shows the group description.
• Group total will show on the last line of the invoice in the Description field.

• Discounts for early payments move as credit memos. They're applied to a customer's outstanding balance.
• Discounts taken from vendors for early payment of bills move as vendor credits. They're applied to a vendor's outstanding balance.

Fields Converted (If you don't see it here, it's not going to convert)

• Vendor Name
• Company Name
• Mr./Ms.
• First Name
• M.I.
• Last Name
• Phone
• FAX
• E-Mail
• Terms
• Print on Check as
• Address
• AccountTax

⚠️ Yes and No. All the terms will come over, since QBO does not support discount calcuation, the terms with those settings will not automatically calculate of the discount.

Other names are converted as Vendors

• All employees (active and inactive) will move to QuickBooks Online
• Employee addresses - You might need to fix some addresses. Addresses for states outside supported states (such as PR, AS, VI) will be left blank.
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Social Security Number
• Company Direct deposit account numbers
• Bank names
• Routing numbers
• Employee bank info (for Direct Deposit)
• Wages
• YTD balances
• Items
• Full employee setup

✅ Yes (Class List)

✅ Yes - Customer Invoice History Does cconvert. Double-check for missing data, especially custom fields.

• Logos will move.
• The PO No field will move to Custom Field 1.
• Sales Rep will move to a Custom Field.
• Credit card info saved on an invoice in QuickBooks Desktop.
• Other and Other Customer custom fields don't move.

More than likely not exactly converted

• Your estimates in QuickBooks Desktop will move to QuickBooks Online.• Active estimates are marked as Closed.
• Inactive estimates are marked as Rejected.
• Estimates used for progress invoicing will link to the invoices you created in Desktop. [updated and confirmed 3/2026]

• Your finance charge invoices move to invoices in QuickBooks Online.
• You can run an open invoice report to see which customers are overdue. Manually add finance charges to appear on the customer's next invoice.

❌ Not Converted

• Estimates used for progress invoicing won't link to the invoices you created in Desktop
• Progress Invoices (invoices based on estimates) and their extra fields don't move.

❌ Not Converted - Price Levels do not convert so they will need to be re-established

⚠️ If using Weighted Average cost calcualtion in desktop, understandt that QBO is ONLY FIFO - needs to file change with IRS. See other considerations here

Fields not converted

• Manufacturer's Part Number (MPN)
• Desktop inventory item fields

Currently, none of the Desktop inventory item fields move to the SKU field in Online

⚠️ When converting, Subitems convert as sub-items which means that categories and their list is not usable - they will not be able to use categories on their product/service list in QBO.

Assemblies come over as Inventory Items

• All components of assemblies copy for purchase transactions.
• Each item of the assembly (appears on a detail line when you view the transactions)

During the conversion, the inactive items will remain open, and not be able to be made inactive. If you have an inactive item with an O/H Qty - you will want ot zero out Inventory in Desktop prior to converting or correct post conversion.

❌ Not Converted

❌ Not Converted

❌ Not Converted

❌ Not Converted

❌ Not Converted

⚠️ The Bill received preference doesn't move to QuickBooks Online.

• The address on bill payment checks is replaced by the Vendor address on your Vendor list.
• Bill payments made by credit card move to bill payments in QuickBooks Online.

⚠️ A bill discount in QuickBooks Desktop moves to a Vendor credit in QuickBooks Online.

Credit card charges in QuickBooks Desktop convert to Expenses in QuickBooks Online.

N/A

• The switch removes the link between bills and Purchase Orders.
• Open POs won't reflect items received.
• The PO will need to be linked to the Bill to reflect items received.

• Item receipts convert to Bills.
• Open POs won't reflect items received.
• The PO will need to be linked to the Bill to reflect items received.

⚠️ Job Info (tab) not converted. Note: Jobs (sub-customers) will move as Projects in Plus and Advanced versions. If jobs in Desktop need to stay as sub-customers in QuickBooks Online, first sign up for QuickBooks Online Essentials. Then convert the Desktop data to QuickBooks Online. Once done, you can upgrade to QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced, if needed. The sub-customer will be sub-customers after the upgrade

• Reimbursable expenses and unbilled time will move as billable expenses in QuickBooks Online.

⚠️ Only P&L Budgets migrate. Any BS Budget will need to be manually recreated in QBO

⚠️ Yes (and No) If conversion is done correctly, most Payroll setup transfers, Employees, Direct deposit info, Pay Rate. Current year only for Payroll history.

⚠️ Paychecks are moved as regular checks to keep your financial reports accurate.

⚠️ Current year only for Payroll history as Lump Sum

⚠️ Converted as Checks

⚠️ Liability refunds, adjustment transactions, and opening balance

transactions that affect accounts are copied to journal entries.

✅ Yes

⚠️ Yes, but fundamentally handled differently - Review setup.

Note: Some taxes will become journal entries.

❌ Not Converted

Note: There's a sales tax payment limitation when you migrate from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online . Payments made in QuickBooks Desktop apply to the wrong filings in QuickBooks Online. As a workaround, customers can delete the migrated sales tax payments, and then recreate them in their sales tax center in QuickBooks Online.

❌ Not Converted

Reconnect accounts and recreate rules in QBO.

• Banking rules for both Express and Advanced mode converted
• Auto-recognized rules for both Express and Advanced Mode converted

• All reconciled transactions in the register will have an R in the cleared column in QuickBooks Online.
• Cleared transactions will have a C in the cleared column in Quickbooks Online.

-Reconciliation Reports do not convert

• You may see some transactions like checks and invoices move as journal entries. This only happens if:
• Tax rates were entered as flat rates (0.00) instead of percentages.
• The original transaction can't be created again.

⚠️ Memorized Tranaction list comes over but the schedule needs to be setup again.

• Recurring payment transactions do not transfer

N/A

⚠️ Memorized Tranaction list comes over but the schedule needs to be setup again.

Not converted - make transactions final before converting if you want them to convert.

N/A

⚠️ An attempt is made, but if the variables don't exactly match the report will need to be recreated

N/A

N/A

Only in Advanced see below

QBO Advanced will try to set up user roles and invite them if Intuit Account is assigned in desktop

N/A

N/A

❌ Not Converted

❌ Not Converted

N/A

N/A

N/A

Yes - QB DT file AND attachements must be stored locally.

⚠️ Yes, but does Not Convert

• Transactions with 3 different currency types
• Any transactions that use currencies in QuickBooks Desktop that don't exist in QuickBooks Online

N/A