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DS127
September 15, 2023
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Convert from QBD to QBO: best way to bring in limited number of customers and vendors

  • September 15, 2023
  • 2 replies
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Now that we've all gotten experience converting clients' books from QBD to QBO, I'm looking for advice on the best, fastest way to deal with my current client.

We are going to migrate ONLY 2022 to QBO (there's something i've learned! )  He has over a hundred customers and vendors, but at this point uses relatively few.

 

What's the best/fastest way to get only a subset of each of the customers and vendors?  The ones I want to delete do not have any open transactions associated with them.

 

--Is there a batch way to delete customers and vendors in QB Desktop? I can't find how.

--Or do I need to do something like export the customer list from QBD into Excel, then strip out the old ones and export that into my new QBO file (but then I lose the history on the handful we want to keep, right?)

--I really don't want to upload to QBO the data associated with "inactive" clients. I just want them gone!  But is one solution to de-activate them in QBD, then will the converter on Desktop let me choose to upload only the Active ones?

--If i need to deactivate first, is it possible to do this in batch?

Thanks for your help. 

Best answer by DS127

Thanks for the help!  Fiat Lux, I'm glad to know about the app and I will keep that link. Turns out after I condensed, a lot of those old customers and vendors went away so the place i ended up spending the time was in sorting out the COA (which I did after the migration, on QBO, bc to me it's easier to do there).

 

All this just underlines the point, for anyone reading this and planning a migration, to condense and convert only the last tax year, or one or two years more at the most. I've done a lot of these and am at the point now where I persuade the client to let me convert a limited amount, AND pay us for some time to cleanup the COA and it's definitely the way to go.

 

thanks again.

2 replies

C
ChristineJoieR
September 15, 2023

I can see you need a faster way to export customers and vendors from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, @DS127. I'll answer your concerns one by one, and give you additional supplemental details regarding this topic in QuickBooks Desktop.

 

Firstly, there isn't an option to delete customers through batch action in QuickBooks Desktop. What we can do is to inactive them as well as the customer's job.

 

Secondly, to successfully delete the inactivated customers and vendors, we can export them via CSV file, and manually delete the inactive customers. 

 

Here's how:

 

1. Open the Customer/Vendor Center.

2. Select the Excel drop-down, then choose:

 

  • Export Customer/Vendor list if you want to export customer/vendor data such as name, balances, and contact information.
  • Export Transactions if you want to export transactions (either by name or transaction type).

3. In the Export window, choose Create a comma-separated values (.csv) file.

4. Select Export.

5. Assign a file name, then choose the location where you want to save the file.

6. Locate, open, and edit the file as needed.

 

Third, I also noticed that when you inactivate your customers and vendors and customers' jobs, all the inactive ones aren't included in exported items. I'll share this article for more information about export and importing topics: Import and export data in QuickBooks Desktop.

 

Moreover, if you want to know what items can be moved from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, see this page for your guide: Learn how features and data move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

 

Plus, you can refer to this article on importing customers in QuickBooks Online: Move your lists to QuickBooks Online.

 

I'm still here to guide you further with your customers and vendor-related concerns. Freely add them below. 

Fiat Lux - ASIA
Fiat Lux - ASIA
September 16, 2023

@DS127 

I would recommend these following points:

1. Run the Condense Data utility to remove data prior to 2022.

2. Use a 3rd party tool (one time license, you can reuse this tool for other clients) to delete any inactive List data (Customer, Vendor, Item) in the condensed file.

https://get.transactionpro.com/qbd

3. Your client can use the trial version of QB Desktop for good to access their historical data anytime.

 

D
DS127AuthorAnswer
September 20, 2023

Thanks for the help!  Fiat Lux, I'm glad to know about the app and I will keep that link. Turns out after I condensed, a lot of those old customers and vendors went away so the place i ended up spending the time was in sorting out the COA (which I did after the migration, on QBO, bc to me it's easier to do there).

 

All this just underlines the point, for anyone reading this and planning a migration, to condense and convert only the last tax year, or one or two years more at the most. I've done a lot of these and am at the point now where I persuade the client to let me convert a limited amount, AND pay us for some time to cleanup the COA and it's definitely the way to go.

 

thanks again.

AlcaeusF
AlcaeusF
September 25, 2023

Hello DS127,

 

I have reviewed the suggestion you’ve shared and it's correct and accurate. Thank you for sharing your input to help address the issue.

 

We love to see members supporting one another! Have a great day. 

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