As Quickbooks Desktop is being discontinued, many users will be looking for options. It’s therefore good news that Quickbooks will be covering the cost for Desktop users who want to explore migration to Quickbooks Online.

Using the Movemybooks service, migration to Quickbooks is a straightforward and painless process, and with Quickbooks covering the cost, it can now be free to business owners too!

The transfer from Desktop to Online can also include the migration of up to two years’ of transaction history and Quickbooks Classes information. This is great if you like to have enough information to compare this year with last, or the last quarter with the one before. [Clue: Having these reports in place and using them to track your business is a really good idea!]

How does the process work?

It’s really quite straightforward!

If you’d like to follow the process and complete the migration to Quickbooks yourself, you can visit the Movemybooks website, and follow the steps through their online software. They’ll then convert your data and let you know once you’re ready to go with any post-conversion work.

If you’d like us to handle the transition on your behalf, as Quickbooks ProAdvisors we can do that for you, and let you know once it’s all done.

NB: We do charge for completing the migration service for you, as it takes us some time, but clients we’ve taken through the process feel it’s a worthwhile expense as it gives them peace of mind that everything’s in place, and allows them to carry on with the day job.

Our usual time requirement for managing the entire process from start to finish is around three hours, to include the tidying up mentioned below, but this may take longer if your records are particularly involved. If you’d like a firm quote, just get in touch and we can talk you through the steps required so you can make an informed decision.

Bear in mind that if you handle your own conversion, you may need to do some tidying up once the migration has been completed, or we can take care of this for you. If you want us to complete just the tidying up once the migration has been completed, it usually takes around two hours of our time. This can include tasks like cleaning up VAT records, tidying Bank Reconciliations and bank feeds, and foreign currency, if applicable. If you’d like us to do this tidying up work on your behalf, please involve us before you start the migration, so we can book the time into our diary, and familiarise ourselves with your records before the migration starts.

What to do next…

If you’re considering a move to Quickbooks Online, whether from Quickbooks Desktop of any other package, and you’re a client of ours, we’d strongly recommend we have a chat before you do anything else.

That’s not because we’ll push you in any particular direction, because we won’t, but because there are issues such as timing to consider, and it’s far better to think those through before you start rather than try to unwind any issues after the event!

What other systems can Movemybooks transfer to Quickbooks Online?

You can also use Movemybooks to migrate from packages such as UK Sage 50, Kashflow, Xero (Standard or Premium). At time of writing, Sage and Xero will both cover the cost of migration to their packages from Quickbooks Desktop, otherwise the usual charge from Movemybooks is £180+VAT, with some small extra charges for extra years’ data. Speak to us, or take a look at the Movemybooks website for more information.

If you’d like to chat through any of the above, please get in touch, and we’ll happily help you through the process, or explain in more detail what may be involved. As every business is unique, there may well be areas that you’ll need to be careful of that may not apply to other businesses; we’d always recommend a little extra time in the preparation for any change of systems as it can save lots of time later!