Move a company from QuickBooks to LedgerHQ

Moving a client from QuickBooks Online to LedgerHQ works best when the team separates setup from live bookkeeping. The client can connect banks before the final import, but the firm should wait to post LedgerHQ bank-feed activity until after the QuickBooks financials import has been completed and reviewed.

That order keeps QuickBooks as the working books while bank access is still being collected. Once the bank connection is ready, the firm can bring over a fresh QuickBooks Chart of Accounts and Journal report and then start new work in LedgerHQ from a clear cutoff date.

Why Bank Connection Usually Comes First

Bank connection is often the slowest human step in a migration. The client may need to find login credentials, approve multifactor prompts, reconnect a broken institution, or confirm which accounts should be shared. If the firm imports QuickBooks first and then waits days or weeks for bank access, QuickBooks may keep changing while LedgerHQ sits with stale history.

Sending the bank invite early lets the firm confirm that the bank plumbing is ready before choosing the final QuickBooks cutoff. During this setup period, QuickBooks remains the system of record. The LedgerHQ company can exist, and the bank connection can be staged, but live LedgerHQ posting should wait.

Recommended Migration Sequence

1. Create or select the LedgerHQ company.
2. Send the client the secure bank connection request.
3. Keep QuickBooks Online as the working books while the client completes the bank connection.
4. Confirm the connected bank and credit card accounts are the accounts the firm expects to continue in LedgerHQ.
5. Choose a cutoff date, usually the end of a month or another clean reporting period.
6. Finish QuickBooks activity through the cutoff date.
7. Export the QuickBooks Chart of Accounts and Journal report from the same QuickBooks company after the cutoff work is complete.
8. Preview and import those two files in LedgerHQ.
9. Review the imported Chart of Accounts, Journal Entries, reports, and bank or credit card registers.
10. Decide whether any final statement-period cutover window should remain open for reconciliation review.
11. Start coding and posting LedgerHQ bank-feed activity after the cutoff date.

The goal is not to make the client wait until the books are imported before connecting banks. The goal is to prevent the team from posting new LedgerHQ activity on top of a ledger that may still be replaced by the final QuickBooks import.

What The Bank Invite Means Before Import

Before the QuickBooks import, treat a bank connection as setup evidence. It proves that LedgerHQ can see the institution and accounts that will become the ongoing bank-feed source. It does not mean the company is ready for live bookkeeping.

Bookkeepers should avoid coding, posting, reclassing, reconciling, or relying on new LedgerHQ bank-feed rows until the imported ledger has been reviewed. If a row appears in Bank Feeds or Fast Coding during setup, leave it unposted unless the firm has intentionally finished the migration and decided not to replace the ledger with a later QuickBooks import.

Pick A Cutoff Date

The cutoff date is the line between old work in QuickBooks and new work in LedgerHQ. A month-end cutoff is usually easiest because the team can compare QuickBooks and LedgerHQ reports for a familiar period before moving forward.

For a full historical migration, export the QuickBooks Journal report for all dates. For a shorter migration, export from the chosen start date only if the firm has already handled opening balances as of the day before that report begins.

After the cutoff date is chosen, finish QuickBooks through that date before exporting the Chart of Accounts and Journal report. The two exports should come from the same QuickBooks company at the same stage of cleanup so the journal lines can match the account names in the chart.

Complete And Review The Import

Use Settings > Import & Export in the selected LedgerHQ company to preview the QuickBooks Chart of Accounts CSV and Journal report CSV. The preview should show a clean account match, no missing accounts, no unbalanced entries, and the date range the firm expects.

After importing, review the major sections of the Chart of Accounts, spot-check imported Journal Entries, and compare the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Trial Balance to QuickBooks for the cutoff period. Also confirm that imported QuickBooks Bank and Credit Card accounts have matching register structure so Bank Feeds and Bank Recs have the right accounts to work from.

If the import offered a final statement-period reconciliation setup window, review that setup before going live. The goal is to preserve the period the firm still needs to reconcile without reopening broad imported history that is already settled.

If the reports or registers do not look right, stop before posting new LedgerHQ bank-feed activity. It is much easier to re-export, re-import, or repair the migration before the team has added live work on top.

When To Start Live LedgerHQ Work

Start live LedgerHQ bookkeeping after these conditions are true:

• the bank connection is complete or any blocker is documented;
• QuickBooks is finished through the cutoff date;
• the QuickBooks import preview is clean;
• the import has completed;
• the imported reports and registers have been reviewed; and
• any final statement-period reconciliation setup has been reviewed; and
• the team agrees that new activity after the cutoff belongs in LedgerHQ.

At that point, LedgerHQ becomes the working books. Bookkeepers can code and post new bank-feed rows, create manual entries when needed, reconcile bank and credit card accounts, and run client-ready reports from LedgerHQ.

If The Client Delays Bank Access

If the client does not complete bank access quickly, the firm can still run a test import or prepare the QuickBooks exports. Do not treat a test import as the final migration unless the firm is ready to keep that cutoff.

For a delayed bank connection, choose one of these paths:

• wait for bank access, then do the final QuickBooks import from a fresh cutoff;
• import now with a documented cutoff, then manually handle later QuickBooks activity before going live; or
• create a support ticket from Tally if the firm is unsure whether a replacement import would overwrite work that should be kept.

The safest default is still bank connection first, final QuickBooks import second, and live LedgerHQ posting third.