Every accounting file collects clutter: duplicate customers, an old check that never cleared, a deposit sitting in the wrong place. In QuickBooks® you work around it. In a migration, every one of those becomes a balance that doesn't match and has to be tracked down.
An afternoon of cleanup before you migrate saves days afterward. Work through this list before your cutover date.
Reconcile every bank and credit card account
Reconcile each account through your last statement before the cutover date. Your opening balances in the new system come from these accounts, so they need to be right first.
Clear out Undeposited Funds
Payments you received but never recorded as deposited sit in Undeposited Funds (newer versions of QuickBooks Online may call it Payments to deposit). Match each one to its bank deposit, so the balance reflects only money you really haven't deposited yet.
Deal with old uncleared items
Look at checks and deposits that have been outstanding for months. Void the ones that will never clear, after checking with your accountant, rather than carrying them into the new books.
Merge duplicates
Search your customer, vendor, and item lists for duplicates: "ABC Supply" and "ABC Supply, Inc.", or two items for the same part. Merge them in QuickBooks so their history ends up in one place.
Inactivate what you don't use
Make unused accounts, customers, vendors, and items inactive. You'll decide what moves over with a much shorter list, and the new chart of accounts starts clean.
Review open invoices and bills
Run your A/R and A/P aging reports. For anything old:
- Apply unapplied payments and credits to the invoices they belong to.
- Write off invoices you won't collect, with your accountant's input.
- Check that every open bill is really still owed.
Open invoices and bills usually move over one by one, so the cleaner these lists are, the better.
Check inventory
If you track inventory, look for items with negative quantities or obviously wrong costs, and fix them. Count high-value stock if it's been a while.
Run Verify Data
In QuickBooks Desktop, run File > Utilities > Verify Data and fix any problems it reports. Damaged data is much easier to repair before it's exported.
Save your reports and a backup
As of the cutover date, run and save the trial balance, balance sheet, profit and loss, and A/R and A/P aging. These are what you'll reconcile the new system against. Then make a full backup of the company file and store it somewhere safe.
Once your books are clean, you're ready to pick a cutover date and start the move.
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