Fixing issues with the new QuickBooks to Xero conversion tool

While Xero has been converting QuickBooks files to its online accounting software platform for some time, it released a tool a few days ago allowing users to upload files themselves for conversion.  I am quite happy with the result, but it wasn’t as simple as making a few clicks.  When I converted a QuickBooks Online file to Xero, I discovered the following:
  • Subaccounts may cause problems.  I got an error message after uploading my QuickBooks file, but it didn’t specify what the error was and the file converted anyway.  Everything seemed fine at first, but then I found that I couldn’t make manual journal entries to a couple of credit card accounts.  It was as if they didn’t exist in Xero, though they both showed up in the complete chart of accounts list.  I believe that the reason for this problem was that they were both subaccounts of a credit card account in QuickBooks Online.  I deleted the Xero company, moved both accounts up a level so that they weren’t subaccounts in QuickBooks Online, and then went through the conversion process again.  There was no error message the second time, and now both credit card accounts are working as they should.
  • The balances don’t match!  After connecting the bank feed, I found that the balance in Xero was correct, but the statement balance was off. I had made sure it was reconciled and up-to-date in QuickBooks Online prior to the conversion.  In Xero, there were no imported transactions and no bank statement lines to reconcile, yet the “account transactions” tab showed many unreconciled transactions going back two years.  It was a perplexing problem, but I found a solution.  I exported a reconciliation report to Excel, made a few formatting changes, and imported it as a statement into Xero.  My finger is sore after clicking on “OK” a couple hundred times to match the transactions, but now I have a beautifully reconciled account.
Xero reconciling Has anyone else experienced these issues and know of a faster way to fix them?

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Comments (2)

  • Avatar

    Catherine-Xero

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    Hi Dustin – just wanted to jump in here to help with these items.

    1 – as you discovered, Xero does have a flat structure for the Chart of Accounts – I’m sorry this wasn’t clear before you started out – we do specify this in our detailed step by step guide but I’ll see about getting it updated to specifically mention bank accounts.

    2 – there’s no need to export and re-import to reconcile the historical bank transactions in Xero, you can manually mark these as reconciled from the Account Transactions screen. If you watch the 2nd conversion video provided in our conversion guide “QuickBooks Conversion: check your file after conversion” you can see this explained and demonstrated in detail at around 8 mins 15 sec.

    The steps from our Help Center conversion guide and two videos for preparing the QuickBooks file and checking the data once converted into Xero are here:
    Convert a client’s data from QuickBooks

    Thanks for calling out Dustin! Glad you got everything working in the end.

    Catherine
    Xero Community Manager

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Dustin Wheeler, CPA

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    Catherine,

    Thanks so much! I didn’t take the time to see the videos.

    The “Enable Mark as Reconciled” trick worked like magic.

    Reply

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