Move your books to QuickBooks Online

Download the kit for QuickBooks Online from Ledger › Accounting › Move to QuickBooks or Xero, then follow 00-READ-ME-FIRST.pdf from the ZIP. It carries your own figures, so work from that. This article shows the shape of the job and the places QuickBooks surprises people. On a small test book, the whole job took about 20 minutes.

Before you import

Know your financial year end before you create the company. Then, in QuickBooks' settings:

• Set First month of financial year.
• Turn Custom transaction numbers on, so your invoice and bill numbers survive.
• Turn Enable account numbers on, for the chart import only.
• Turn Warn if duplicate journal number is used off.
• If you have foreign items, check Multicurrency is on. It cannot be turned off again.

The left menu of the settings pages has its own Accounting item, near the top, and it is not the one you want. These settings are on Advanced, at the bottom left of that menu.

Import the files, in order

Each one starts from the gear icon, then Import data, then the tile named in the guide.

1. Chart of accounts, file 01. Fix any red cell in Type or Detail Type on the review screen.
2. Turn Enable account numbers off. With numbers on, QuickBooks lists an account as 1999 Opening balances clearing, and the names in the other files no longer match.
3. Customers, file 02, then Suppliers, file 03.
4. Products and services, file 04. Set Name on the mapping screen, because QuickBooks leaves it blank.
5. Invoices, file 05. Set Customer on the mapping screen, and choose the date format the guide names. On a Canadian book, choose Exclusive of tax, then the out-of-scope tax code the guide names.
6. Bills, file 06, with the same date format and tax choices.
7. Journal Entries, file 07, your opening journal, with the same date format.
8. Turn Enable account numbers back on.

The chart import shows no success message. Every name stays red, the Import button seems to do nothing, and the X asks whether to leave without saving. That is normal. Open the Chart of accounts, confirm your accounts are listed, then leave the import screen.

Check it

Run the Trial balance at your move date, then the aged receivables and aged payables reports. The guide prints the figure each one should show. Your clearing account holds a balance until the by-hand items are in, then reads zero, or the small difference the guide names.

Enter the rest by hand

The guide gives each foreign or overpaid invoice or bill its own step. For a foreign bill, create the supplier in that currency, then enter the rate as QuickBooks asks for it: 1 USD = 1.37 CAD. The bill sits on its own account, such as Accounts Payable (A/P) - USD, so a supplier with both kinds of bill shows two lines in the aged payables.

Sales tax you owed on the move date stays in its own named account, not in QuickBooks' tax centre. Pay it from there.