Migrate from QuickBooks® Desktop

The QuickBooks® migration tool ships inside Solid Accounting — there is nothing extra to download. It reads your QuickBooks Desktop company and turns it into a new Solid Accounting company file. It only reads your QuickBooks® file and never changes anything there.

The migration tool is new, so check the summary and the account-by-account comparison it shows before you rely on the imported numbers.

Migration keeps working whether or not you renew Updates & Cloud Services.

Coming from QuickBooks Online? See Migrate from QuickBooks Online — it's a different route.

Start the migration

You can start it from three places. They all open the same flow:

• Welcome screen (no company open): click Migrate from QuickBooks® Desktop.
• Menu: File → Import → QuickBooks® Migration…
• Import Transactions wizard (File → Import → Import Transactions…): the Migrate from QuickBooks® Desktop card. On Windows it has an Open the migration tool button that launches the full windowed tool.

You can also press Ctrl+K and search for Import from QuickBooks® (Migration).

Choose how your books get here

The first screen asks How do your books get here? Either way you end up with a new company file, and nothing is ever written to QuickBooks.

Connect to QuickBooks® running on this computer. Use this when QuickBooks Desktop is installed on the same Windows PC.

1. Open the company you want to migrate in QuickBooks Desktop and log in.
2. In Solid Accounting, click Connect and import.
3. The first time, QuickBooks shows its own authorization window. Approve it there; Solid Accounting continues on its own.
4. Solid Accounting reads your company step by step — company information, accounts & lists, customers, vendors & employees, items & services, transactions, audit trail, budgets, and report snapshots — with a time estimate.

I already have an extract file. Use this when QuickBooks runs on a different computer (for example, you're moving to a new PC).

1. On the Windows computer that has QuickBooks, run the standalone importer. The Get the standalone extract tool link on this screen (the app's current label for it), or the Show it in Explorer link on the Import Transactions card, gets you the program to copy across.
2. The standalone importer reads your .QBW or .QBB file and writes a .qbextract file.
3. Bring the .qbextract file back and open it with File → Import → QuickBooks® Migration… → I already have an extract file.

The Import Transactions wizard itself does not read .qbextract files — always use QuickBooks® Migration… for them.

Review, save, and check

1. Review. Solid Accounting shows what your QuickBooks company holds, with counts, and lets you confirm how each QuickBooks account maps to a Solid Accounting account type.
2. Save your new company file. Pick the name and folder. You're also asked how you ran reports in QuickBooks — Accrual (QuickBooks' default) or Cash — so your reports open the same way.
3. Check it. When the import finishes, the Migration complete — check it against QuickBooks® screen shows an account-by-account comparison against the figures QuickBooks reported. Every balance should match.

For a second check, run Trial Balance in QuickBooks and in Solid Accounting (Reports → Trial Balance) for the same date and compare them side by side.

If something is off:

• A small difference in one or two accounts — usually a reconciliation adjustment. Post a correcting journal entry.
• Off by exactly your retained earnings — post one journal entry to move the difference into Retained Earnings.
• Way off — start again into a fresh company file. Imports aren't cumulative; importing the same data twice doubles it.

What doesn't carry over

Other QuickBooks files

An IIF file (for example, a list or transaction export someone gave you) goes through File → Import → Import Transactions…. It brings in only what's in that file — no item lists, reconciliation history, or attachments — so use the migration tool for a full move. See the IIF format reference.

After the migration

• Check your fiscal year in Company → Fiscal Years… if it doesn't start in January, and close years that are already settled so nobody edits them by accident.
• Recreate memorized transactions as recurring transactions.
• Connect bank feeds and pick up from your last reconciled date.

Troubleshooting. If the migration tool is missing ("Not bundled in this build"), reinstalling Solid Accounting restores it. If the read seems slow, large files with long history can take several minutes — the progress list updates per step. Still stuck? Email support@solidaccounting.com and we'll help.