What doesn’t convert when you move from Desktop to Online

The migration tool does a decent job of what it does: it moves your transactions. The trouble is that people read "your data will be moved" as "everything will be there", and the gaps only surface weeks later when someone goes looking for a memorized transaction group or a prior-year payroll figure.

Intuit publishes the limitations. They are just not what anyone reads before committing to a date. Here is the list, and — more usefully — what to do about each one before you move.

Corrected September 26, 2026: an earlier version of this list came from Intuit's article on a different conversion tool. The list below is from Intuit's U.S. article on how features and data transfer from Desktop to Online.

What cannot convert

Intuit's U.S. feature-transfer article lists these as things that don't move from Desktop to Online. Each needs a plan before you switch.

Budgets

Intuit's list is mixed here: it shows "Profit and Loss budget types" as moving, and also says "Budgets aren't recreated in QuickBooks Online due to mapping differences." Treat your budgets as something to check, not something to assume. Export or screenshot every budget before you move, then compare what appears in Online against it and rebuild what is missing.

Memorized transaction groups

Memorized transactions themselves do come across: Intuit says they "will convert into Recurring Transactions." What doesn't is the grouping — "Memorized Transaction Groups don't migrate into QuickBooks Online, as Groups don't exist in QuickBooks Online." List your groups and what each one posts, then check every recurring transaction's schedule and amount in Online before it fires for the first time.

Custom templates

Custom templates are on Intuit's doesn't-move list; your logos move. Save a PDF of each invoice, estimate and statement layout you rely on, so the rebuild in Online matches what customers are used to seeing.

Past reconciliation reports and the audit trail

Reconciled status carries across — Intuit says all reconciled transactions will show an R in the cleared column. The reports do not: "Your past reconciliation reports" are on the doesn't-move list, and so are the audit trail and memorized reports. Print or save the reconciliation reports you may need to show someone later, and a copy of the audit trail for the period you care about.

Bank connections

"Your financial institution links don't transfer over for security reasons," and uncategorized bank-feed data from direct connections does not move either. Categorize everything waiting in the Desktop bank feed before you migrate, then reconnect each account in Online. Bank rules do move (Intuit notes that rules don't migrate from Mac files).

Units of measure, price levels and some custom fields

Units of measure, price levels and custom fields on items and employees are on the doesn't-move list. If your pricing or item setup depends on these, document it first — the rebuild in Online is a design decision, not a data entry job.

And one thing that is not data at all: existing users don't automatically get access. Intuit says they "need to be invited from QuickBooks Online."

What converts, but changes shape

Some things arrive, just not as they were. These are the ones that surprise people most.

Estimates, sales orders and progress invoices

Estimate transactions move, but "Active estimates are marked as Closed" and inactive ones as Rejected. Sales orders move, open and closed. Progress invoices — invoices based on estimates — and their extra fields do not, and open purchase orders "won't reflect items received" until each is linked to its bill. List open estimates and open purchase orders before you move so you can reopen and relink them.

Attachments

Intuit lists "Attachments that are 30MB or smaller" and attachments on your computer's hard drive as moving, and its switching guide says "Total attachment bundle sizes must be under 5GB." Anything larger, or stored somewhere other than the hard drive, should be downloaded and kept separately before the move.

Jobs and inventory history

Jobs with no child jobs migrate as projects, and all remaining jobs as sub-customers. Intuit lists both FIFO and MAC inventory valuation methods as moving, but Intuit's switching guide says "Inventory history begins on the day you migrate," so pre-migration adjustments mean re-entering starting values.

Payroll is the big one

If you run payroll in Desktop, read this part twice, because it is the gap that causes the most trouble after the fact.

Paychecks become regular checks

Intuit lists paychecks as moving "as regular checks." The money is there; the payroll structure is not. Employees move (active and inactive), and so do payroll items and year-to-date balances — but check each employee's year-to-date figures against Desktop rather than assuming they are right.

Current-year detail arrives as lump sums

Intuit says "QuickBooks Online copies the current year's paycheck information as lump sums." The per-paycheck detail behind those totals stays in the Desktop file.

The practical consequence: after conversion you have checks that reduced your bank balance correctly, and much less payroll detail behind them. Your wage expense is right in total. Your ability to reconcile a 941 to the new file, or to explain a specific employee's withholding history from it, is not.

What to do about it: export everything payroll-related before you move. Payroll summaries by employee, by quarter, and year-to-date detail for the current year. Not because the migration will fail, but because that detail stays behind in Desktop — and Intuit's view-only access to a migrated Desktop file runs for one year, on Desktop 2023 R3 or newer. You will need it at year end. Intuit also says to "Wait 2 to 3 days after your last payroll run" before migrating, so paycheck histories are ready to copy.

Sales tax

Intuit's wording is plain: "Some taxes move as journal entries. Sales tax won't copy for all transactions." It also flags a payment limitation — "Payments made in QuickBooks Desktop apply to the wrong filings in QuickBooks Online." And its switching guide notes that QuickBooks Online "no longer files sales tax returns for you."

Given how much depends on that history — and what it takes to reconstruct a liability account — verify the sales tax position in the new file against the old one before you consider the migration finished.

What happens to reconciliations and balances

Transactions convert, and reconciled transactions keep their R. In our experience, opening balances frequently need attention afterwards, and differences that don't carry across cleanly surface in Opening Balance Equity — which is why a balance so often appears there immediately after a migration.

That balance isn't just an inconvenience. It is a summary of what didn't convert cleanly, and it is worth reading before you clear it.

Large files

Very large or complex files — extensive inventory, many years of transactions — can hit Intuit's limits. Intuit says your file "should have fewer than 4,000,000 total list entries to import directly via the migration tool," that files exceeding 750,000 targets "may take longer than average to migrate," and that files near or over 2,000,000 targets "are also more at risk of inventory related errors." Press F2 in Desktop to see your Total Targets.

Find out whether yours is in that category before you pick a migration date. Discovering it mid-move turns a planned weekend into an open-ended problem.

A migration checklist worth actually following

Before you migrate

1. Export payroll detail — by employee, by quarter, year-to-date.
2. Export or screenshot budgets.
3. List memorized transactions and groups — what they are, amounts, schedules. Groups you will rebuild by hand; the rest you will check.
4. Save custom templates as PDFs so you can recreate the layouts.
5. List open estimates, sales orders and purchase orders so you can reopen and relink them.
6. Download attachments over 30MB or not stored on the hard drive.
7. Run and save balance sheet, P&L and trial balance as at the conversion date. This is the single most valuable step, and the most commonly skipped.
8. Note the last reconciled date and balance for every account, and save the past reconciliation reports.
9. Run Verify Data in Desktop; Intuit says "If there are errors, run Rebuild Data to fix them before moving."
10. Check your Total Targets (F2) against Intuit's limits.
11. If you run payroll, wait 2 to 3 days after the last payroll run, then move before the next one.

After you migrate

1. Compare the new file's balance sheet and P&L to the reports you saved — Intuit's guide says to set the date range to All Dates and make sure the totals match exactly. Where they don't, that difference is what to investigate — and step 7 is why you can.
2. Check Opening Balance Equity and identify what's in it.
3. Verify sales tax balances against the old file.
4. Check payroll year-to-date figures per employee against Desktop.
5. Rebuild memorized transaction groups and templates, and check each recurring transaction.
6. Reconnect bank feeds — carefully, so the first download doesn't duplicate transactions that already converted.
7. Do a test reconciliation against the last known-good statement before trusting the file.
8. Invite your users from QuickBooks Online.

That step 7 in the "before" list is the one that separates a migration you can verify from one you have to take on trust.

Should you migrate at all?

Worth asking honestly rather than assuming.

Migrate when the file's history has value — trends, lender questions, tax comparatives — and the file is in reasonable health. That is most businesses.

Consider a fresh start when the file is already badly broken. Converting a file that doesn't balance produces a new file that doesn't balance, plus conversion differences on top. But this is a decision to make on the file's actual condition, not on convenience — history is genuinely valuable and abandoning it creates its own problems, so it deserves a proper look rather than a shrug.

When this stops being a DIY job

Do it yourself when the file is small and healthy, you don't run payroll in Desktop, and you have few memorized transaction groups or custom templates.

Get help when:

• You run payroll in Desktop — capturing the payroll detail before the move and checking year-to-date figures employee by employee is exacting, and the consequences of getting it wrong land at year end.
• The file is large or inventory-heavy.
• The file doesn't currently reconcile, in which case fix it before moving it rather than after.
• You depend on many memorized transaction groups or custom templates.
• Sales tax history matters to you and must be verifiable in the new file.
• You need the migration to be verifiable — someone able to show the new file agrees with the old one, rather than assert it.

That is what a QuickBooks migration engagement covers: capturing what won't convert before the move, running it, and then reconciling the new file back to the old one so you know it is complete. Where the file needs work first, that is scoped as cleanup — because converting a broken file just relocates the problem.

TechBrot works remotely in your own QuickBooks file, which you continue to own and control throughout. We do the operational bookkeeping and hand your CPA a file they can file from; we don't file returns.

Sources: Intuit, Learn how features and data transfer from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online (updated September 11, 2026; read September 26, 2026). Intuit, Learn about switching from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online (updated August 20, 2026; read September 26, 2026).