What Actually Migrates From QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Desktop-to-Online migration moves most lists and transactions, but inventory, payroll, sales tax, and attachments carry over with important caveats.
QuickBooks Desktop users preparing to move to QuickBooks Online often ask a deceptively simple question: what comes over and what gets left behind? The migration tool handles a broad range of data, but several categories arrive in a converted or incomplete state that requires cleanup after the fact. Understanding these gaps before starting the migration can save significant time and reduce the risk of reporting errors in the new file.
Attachments and Document Center
Attachments stored in the QuickBooks Desktop Document Center do transfer to QuickBooks Online, but only if each file is 30 MB or smaller. Attachments residing on the computer’s local hard drive outside the Document Center also migrate. Larger files are excluded, so users relying on bulky scanned documents or large PDFs should check file sizes before expecting them to appear in the online company.
Budgets
Profit and Loss budgets carry over through the migration. Balance Sheet budgets, however, are not part of what the tool transfers. Users who track budgets beyond the P&L will need to recreate those manually in QuickBooks Online.
Inventory
Inventory data migrates, but with a critical change in how it is valued. QuickBooks Online imports inventory using the First-In, First-Out (FIFO) method regardless of the valuation method used in Desktop. During migration, users are prompted to set a FIFO start date, and QuickBooks Online recalculates inventory values and posts adjustments based on that date. Anyone currently using Moving Average Cost in Desktop should expect their inventory figures to shift.
Inventory functionality itself requires QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced. It can also be purchased as an add-on for Simple Start and Essentials, but users on those tiers should confirm availability before migrating inventory-dependent operations.
Multi-Currency
Multi-currency preferences and historical transactions transfer, but only for QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced subscribers. Companies currently using multi-currency in Desktop that plan to move to Simple Start or Essentials will lose access to that feature and should evaluate whether the lower tier meets their needs.
Online Banking and Banking Rules
Banking rules configured for Express and Advanced modes in Desktop migrate to QuickBooks Online, along with auto-recognized rules for those same modes. This helps preserve some of the automation users have built around transaction categorization.
Payroll
Payroll migration is where the conversion gets particularly messy. QuickBooks Online copies the current year’s paycheck information as lump sums rather than as detailed, line-by-line paychecks. Paychecks arrive as regular checks. Liability refunds, adjustment transactions, and opening balances come through as journal entries.
Employee data transfers, but with caveats. All employees — active and inactive — migrate, though inactive employees with current-year payments become active again after migration. Employee addresses, dates of birth, gender, Social Security Numbers, wage information, and year-to-date balances all move over. However, some addresses may need manual correction. Addresses for states outside QuickBooks Online’s supported jurisdictions — such as Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — are left blank and must be re-entered.
Company direct deposit account numbers, bank names, routing numbers, and employee direct deposit banking details also transfer. Full employee setup carries over for users moving to QuickBooks Online Payroll. Those on stand-alone QuickBooks Online Payroll will find that company-level data and direct deposit account numbers migrate, but the setup details are more limited.
QuickBooks Payments
Payments accounts migrate automatically, but there is a prerequisite: the user must be an admin on both the QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online Intuit accounts. Without admin access on both sides, the Payments account may not carry over properly.
Sales Tax
Sales tax is perhaps the most problematic category. Some taxes migrate as journal entries, and sales tax does not copy for all transactions. More significantly, sales tax payments made in Desktop can apply to the wrong filings in QuickBooks Online after migration. The accepted workaround is to delete the migrated sales tax payments and recreate them directly in the QuickBooks Online sales tax center. This ensures payments align with the correct filings in the new system.
Planning for the Gaps
The migration tool moves a substantial amount of data, but the converted results in several areas — particularly payroll, sales tax, and inventory valuation — require review and manual correction. Users approaching this conversion should plan for post-migration cleanup in these categories rather than expecting a seamless, one-to-one transfer.