To upload QuickBooks Desktop to Online, you start the move from inside Desktop, choose between bringing all company data or only lists and balances, and let Intuit build the Online company from your file. Lists, balances and transactions come across. Bank connections do not, so you reconnect feeds and fill any gap with statement files.
Upload QuickBooks Desktop to Online: all data or only lists and balances?
The Desktop upload offers two choices: bring all your company data, or bring only lists and balances. Pick all data when you want old invoices, bills and bank entries searchable in Online. Pick lists and balances when the Desktop file is cluttered and you would rather start the new company clean from a chosen date.
Intuit's help article on moving a QuickBooks Desktop file to QuickBooks Online names the two options as "Bring all your company data" and "Bring only list and balances." Most people asking how to convert a QuickBooks Desktop file to Online mean the first one. It is the closest thing to picking up the whole file and setting it down in the cloud.
How each option feels a month later
With all data, your customers, vendors and items arrive with their history. A customer who asks about an invoice from two years ago can be answered from Online. Reports for earlier years run in the new company.
With lists and balances, the names and accounts arrive, but the past stays in Desktop. You get a tidy start, and you keep the old file for lookups. This choice suits a business whose Desktop file has years of uncleared entries, duplicate accounts or test transactions that nobody wants to carry forward.
A quick way to decide
Ask one question: will anyone need to open an old transaction in Online, rather than in a saved report? If yes, bring everything. If the old years are only needed for tax records and the occasional lookup, lists and balances is lighter, and the old data can be preserved on its own terms.
The 90-day window and Total Targets limit for a Desktop upload
Two limits decide whether a QBDT to QBO conversion can go ahead: the age of the Online subscription and the size of the Desktop file. Intuit says the new Online company must be recent, and the file's Total Targets count must sit under a stated ceiling. Check both before you plan the weekend you will spend on it.
The subscription age
Intuit's help gives 90 calendar days from the creation of a self-signup QuickBooks Online account, and 180 calendar days for an account created by an accountant. If your Online company is older than that, the upload is not offered for it. The usual fix is a new Online subscription made for the move.
The file size
The same article says to confirm the Total Targets count is below 4,000,000. Targets are the lines behind each transaction, so a busy file with years of sales can be large even when it feels small. Desktop shows the count in its product information window. A file above the limit needs condensing before it will go, or the lists-and-balances option instead.
The overwrite warning
Intuit's guide to migrating from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online warns that the Desktop file replaces all data after migration. Anything you typed into the Online company beforehand is gone once the upload lands. Do the upload first, then start working in Online.
Preparing the Desktop company file before the upload
Preparing the Desktop file means making it small, clean and reachable before the upload starts. Intuit asks for the file to be saved locally on your own computer, and for you to verify the data, rebuilding it if needed, before you move it. It also asks you to update Desktop to the latest release first.
A short preparation list
- Copy the company file to the computer you will run the upload from, if it lives on a shared drive.
- Make a full backup and put it somewhere separate. This backup is your fallback if anything goes wrong.
- Run Verify Data and fix what it reports, using Rebuild Data if needed.
- Switch to single-user mode so no one else is working in the file.
- Note the Total Targets count from the product information window.
- If you run payroll in Desktop, time the upload for a few business days after a pay run.
Why payroll timing matters
Intuit's migration guide says to wait two to three business days after the last payroll run, so that paycheck data transfers without errors. Its article on moving the file adds that the migration should finish at least seven business days before the next scheduled payroll. A move started a few days after payday, early in the pay cycle, is the safest slot.
Reconcile before you move
Reconcile every bank and card account in Desktop through the most recent statement before the upload. A clean reconciliation in Desktop gives you a known balance to match in Online. If an account is three months behind, the new company inherits that backlog, and it is harder to sort out with two programs open.
What a Desktop file carries into the new Online company
A full Desktop upload brings the company's data and transaction records into the Online company: accounts, customers, vendors, items, and the invoices, bills, payments and journal entries behind them. Online banking connections are not part of the file, so bank feeds must be set up again in Online.
What usually needs rebuilding
Intuit's migration pages explain the steps, but they do not give a full list of exceptions in the articles cited here. Plan on checking these by hand after the upload:
- Bank feeds. Connections belong to the bank and the program, not to the file.
- Memorized and recurring entries. Confirm each one exists and still runs on schedule.
- Custom form templates. Online uses its own invoice styles, so expect to redo the look.
- Attachments. Check a few transactions that had documents attached in Desktop.
- User access. Each person who used Desktop needs an invitation to the Online company.
Old bank files and other formats
Some Desktop users also have history in another program, or old QIF files from a bank. Those do not ride along with the upload. Converting QIF files to QBO for QuickBooks covers how to turn that older format into something QuickBooks Online will accept.
Reconnecting bank feeds after the Desktop upload
Bank feeds must be connected fresh in the new Online company, because Desktop's bank connections do not travel in the company file. Connect each account, choose a start date just after the last transaction that came across in the upload, and review the first downloads closely so nothing is entered twice.
Choosing the feed start date
When you connect an account in QuickBooks Online, you choose a date range for the first download. Intuit's article on connecting bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks says download timespans vary by bank, from 90 days up to 24 months, and the default choice is the beginning of the year. The default is the trap. If the upload already brought January to September across, a feed reaching back to January downloads those months a second time.
Pick a custom start date. A safe choice is the day after the last transaction in that account in the uploaded data.
Filling a gap the feed cannot reach
Sometimes the upload ends weeks before the feed's earliest date, for example when the move took a while to finish. The missing days have to come in through QuickBooks Online's manual bank upload. It takes CSV, QBO, QFX and OFX files, and it can also read a PDF or image statement for you to review line by line before saving. If you would rather check a file before it goes in, SimpleBankConvert is being built to turn a PDF statement into a CSV or QBO file that QuickBooks Online can upload; the home page shows a sample of the result.
Checks to run on the Online company after the Desktop upload
The checks compare a handful of Desktop reports with the same reports in Online, for the same date and the same accounting basis. If the trial balance, receivables, payables and bank balances match, the move worked. Differences point you to the account or customer to look at first.
A comparison checklist
The figures in this table are an example only. Run the reports in Desktop just before the upload, save them, then run the same reports in Online as of the same date.
| Report | Desktop figure (example) | Online figure (example) | Match? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trial balance, total debits | 418,230.55 | 418,230.55 | Yes |
| Checking account balance | 23,914.07 | 23,914.07 | Yes |
| Business card balance | -3,108.40 | -3,108.40 | Yes |
| Accounts receivable aging, total | 12,640.00 | 12,640.00 | Yes |
| Accounts payable aging, total | 6,275.18 | 6,275.18 | Yes |
| Profit and loss, year to date, net income | 51,882.31 | 51,412.31 | No, 470.00 apart |
Following a mismatch
A difference of an exact, round amount, like 470.00 above, usually traces to one transaction. Run the profit and loss by month in both programs and find the month where the totals part. Then compare that month's transactions in the account involved. Common causes are a transaction dated on the cut-off day, or a report run on cash basis in one program and accrual in the other.
Bank balances last
Once the reports agree, open each bank register in Online and confirm the balance as of your last Desktop reconciliation. Then reconcile the next statement in Online. That first reconciliation is the best proof the bank side of the move is right.
When should you not upload a Desktop file to Online?
Skip the full upload when the Desktop file is too large or too damaged to trust, when only a few years of current data matter, or when you are not sure Online is where you want to stay. In each case, a lighter route saves time and leaves the old file safe.
The file is a mess
If Verify Data keeps finding problems or the reports in Desktop do not tie out, uploading carries the problems into Online. Choose lists and balances, set up opening balances from a reconciled date, and import bank history from files.
You might go back
Moving the other way is harder. If there is a real chance you will return to Desktop, read about converting a QuickBooks Online file back to Desktop before you commit, so you know what that reverse trip involves.
The books are really personal finances
Some people keep household money in QuickBooks Desktop and would be better served by a personal finance program. Importing QuickBooks data into Quicken explains what Quicken can and cannot take from a QuickBooks file, which helps when the right destination is not QuickBooks Online at all.