GFS guide
Planning a move off QuickBooks Desktop
Many businesses on QuickBooks Desktop are weighing a move, pushed by subscription price increases and Intuit steering customers toward QuickBooks Online. Whatever you move to, the same decisions come up. This guide walks through them.
· 8 min read · By the Consus Solutions team
Start with why you are moving
Write down the two or three things that are actually driving the decision — cost, remote access, multi-user work, a server you no longer want to maintain. They are the tests every option has to pass. If the only real problem is working from outside the office, you may not need to leave Desktop at all: a sync portal or one of the other remote access options can solve it.
Decide how much history to bring
This is the decision that most affects cost and risk.
- Opening balances only. Quickest, but past reports stay in QuickBooks, which you will need to keep accessible.
- Recent years. A common middle ground; comparisons with earlier years still need the old file.
- Full history. Every transaction comes across, so year-over-year reports, customer histories and audits all live in one place. It is only practical with a tool that converts reliably.
Plan how you will verify the conversion
Do not accept a conversion you cannot check. Before you switch, run the same reports in both systems for the same dates and compare them:
- Balance Sheet at the conversion date
- Profit & Loss for each year you brought across
- A/R and A/P aging
- Customer and vendor balance summaries
- Bank balances against your last reconciliation
GFS builds this step in: after the import it runs these comparisons against QuickBooks' own reports and marks every account as matched, close or different before you approve anything.
Multiple company files
If you run several entities, each probably has its own QuickBooks file. Check how the destination handles that: one login for all of them, per-company pricing, and whether you can report across companies without exporting to a spreadsheet. See multi-company accounting.
Plan for the people, not just the data
Your team knows where things are in QuickBooks Desktop. A destination with different screens and different words for the same things costs weeks of slower work. List the ten tasks your team does most, and try each one in the new system before you commit.
A short checklist
- Reasons for moving written down and agreed
- History decision made: opening balances, recent years or full
- Verification reports listed, with a named person to sign off
- Every company file accounted for
- Integrations and add-ons listed, with replacements
- Top ten daily tasks tried in the new system
- A cut-over date after a period close, not in the middle of one
- The old QuickBooks file kept, backed up and readable