Limitations when converting to QuickBooks

Please understand that it is impossible to make an exact copy of your data in a different accounting system. There will be some information that we can’t convert and some information will look different when converted. You can be confident, however, that your financial data will be accurate overall.

Foreign Currency

Converts accurately but in home Currency

Data which includes foreign currencies will be converted in the same way as other data. However, all foreign currency amounts will be changed to the home currency values. Factors specific to QuickBooks (and QBO), and beyond our control, usually mean the conversion result is not completely accurate. We cannot therefore support fixing your conversion and you will need to accept the conversion results “as is”. For more information please refer to our Foreign Currency conversion page and the post-conversion tasks.

General

Causes of complications

Please be aware that it may cause complications (we’re unable to fix) with your conversion if your source software contains in excess of any of the following in the conversion period:

  • 40,000 combined invoices, bills and credits
  • 40,000 bank transactions
  • 2,500 credit notes allocated to invoices
  • 10,000 contacts
  • 600 chart of account codes

If there are journals manually entered in Sage that have the same “Ledger year end” description as the system journals, we aren’t able to convert these. Differences will be displayed once the conversion completed and you may complete the Fix It For Me form but adjusting for these isn’t included in our service unless extremely simple.

If CIS is operated then the conversion is unlikely to be successful.

If you’ve converted into a Simple Start pricing plan then we won’t be able to offer our fixing service as it’s not possible to invite users.

If payment providers such as Stripe are used in Sage Business Cloud Accounting there may be differences caused by Sage reporting Payouts to us as transactions although they may not have been recorded in the accounts.

What data will be converted?

We will transfer the following data to QuickBooks Online

  • Customer details
  • Supplier details
  • Chart of accounts
  • Account balances
  • Customer balances
  • Supplier balances
  • Departments information (optional)
  • All individual transactions in the conversion period

It’s not possible for Movemybooks to provide custom mappings for any fields.

What data won't be converted?

We only currently convert the core accounting information and not the following types of data:

  • Sage archives or backup data that isn’t “open” or “live”
  • Sage Cloud (SageOne) Analysis Types (equivalent of departments)
  • Budgets
  • Stock/Inventory Items
  • Product/Sales Items
  • Sales / Purchase Orders
  • Drafts/Estimates/Unposted transactions
  • Memorised Transactions
  • Default nominal codes, payment terms or tax rates
  • Invoice and other Templates
  • Timesheets/Time Records
  • Payroll and Employee Records
  • Accounts that have never had any transactions
  • Deleted or cancelled transactions
  • Custom VAT rates (see workarounds below)
  • Project data
  • File attachments
  • Unpaid expense claims
  • CIS details CIS details (transactions are also unlikely to convert correctly)

Workarounds

Transaction types we can't convert

There are certain transaction types that we’re currently unable to convert to QuickBooks Online eg. Bank transfers (fund transfers). We therefore use the Journal transaction type as a substitute.

Another example is Xero’s prepayment transaction type.

It’s not possible for us to represent Xero prepayments in the same way they are in Xero.

We’re planning some improvements to this but in the meantime you are likely to see differences between Xero and QuickBooks Online for the duration a prepayment remains unallocated. Allocating the prepayment does correct the balances from the date the allocation is made.

Credit Cards

Credit card charge transactions are converted as transaction type Cheque.

Credit Card accounts can only be converted as Xero Bank Accounts. Credit card bank feeds may not be available.

Taxes

Some tax transactions including those with custom tax rates, or unusual tax transactions will be converted as closely as possible but are likely to be different. We may use a standard rate of tax or no tax and then add an adjustment to correct the tax amount if necessary. This could result in some boxes in Tax Returns being incorrect even if the Balance Sheet amount to be paid or refunded is correct.

For more information please refer to our post-conversion tasks page and also the VAT Returns Don’t Agree page.

Depending on the system you’re converting from and the transactions present, the conversion may result in some rounding differences due to the way VAT or line amount totals are calculated differently between systems.

Multiple Payables or Receivables Accounts

If you have multiple Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable accounts in your QuickBooks desktop chart of accounts then these will be merged into one single Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable account in QuickBooks Online.

Converting Batch entered invoices from Sage

If you’re converting from Sage and “Batch invoice” was used to enter invoices, each line will be converted as a separate invoice (irrespective of the reference) as Sage stores the data this way.

Things you may need to tidy post-conversion

We do provide details of our recommended post-conversion tasks but below is a summary. If performing a foreign currency conversion there may be additional tasks you wish to complete. Please refer to the foreign currency section above for more information.

Reconciling Bank Transactions

We are often unable to mark all reconciled bank transactions as such during our conversion process. Once your conversion is complete, you will need to mark the bank transactions as reconciled, leaving only the unpresented items as unreconciled and agreeing with the statement balance.

VAT Codes for Chart of Accounts Items

Our software tries to work out what the VAT Codes for each account should be, based on the transactions posted to that account in your data, but you should check and amend them if needed before working in your new QuickBooks company.

Filing VAT Returns

Returns for earlier periods may need to be “filed” in QuickBooks, to make sure that old transactions do not appear in the next VAT Return report. You should check the first VAT return you produce in QuickBooks carefully, to ensure that the numbers are as you would expect.