QuickBooks for Mac can convert a Quicken for Mac file created with, or updated by, Quicken for Mac 2007.
Note: QuickBooks does not import data from Quicken Essentials for Mac at this time.
You may need to make some changes to your Quicken Account list and Memorized Transaction list to make the transition from Quicken to QuickBooks as smooth as possible.
If you plan to continue using Quicken with this data (for example, if you had combined business and personal finances in your Quicken file), make a copy of your Quicken file to convert before you make any of the following changes.
Before you convert to QuickBooks, delete accounts in Quicken that you know you won't want in QuickBooks. In QuickBooks, you cannot delete accounts that contain transactions, but in Quicken you can. So it's easier to delete accounts you know you won't want before you convert.
You might want to delete some accounts from your Quicken file in the following situations:
QuickBooks converts the following Quicken transactions:
When you convert to QuickBooks, names in your Accounts Receivable register become customers, and transactions become invoices and payments. If you used different names for the same customer in Quicken, QuickBooks won't link the customer's invoices and payments correctly. (For example, perhaps you have your customer Daniel Miller listed as Dan Miller, D. Miller, and Daniel G. Miller.) To avoid this problem, edit your customer names in Quicken so that each customer goes by only one name.
QuickBooks does not change your original Quicken files in any way. You can continue to use those original files with Quicken. You may want to continue using Quicken for personal finance and for investment accounts. There is no connection between your Quicken data and your new QuickBooks company file.
If you click Yes:
Important: Do NOT select a bank account or any account that has employee names in it. You cannot change a customer to an employee or vendor after you have converted. If you select the wrong accounts, you will have to convert again.
QuickBooks uses the data from your Quicken A/R account to create a QuickBooks A/R account.
Choose QuickBooks > Preferences and click Inventory. Select the “Inventory and purchase orders are used” checkbox and click Apply.
Choose QuickBooks > Preferences and click Sales Tax. Select the “Customers are charged sales tax” checkbox and click Apply.
Following is a list of the differences in your new QuickBooks file:
Quicken account type | Converted to QuickBooks account type |
Bank | Bank |
Credit Card | Credit Card |
Cash | Other Current Asset |
Asset | Other Current Asset |
Liability | Other Current Liability |
Investment | Other Current Asset |
QuickBooks places the name (or description) from every Quicken transaction (except in your A/R account) in the Other Names list. This list contains not only names of customers, vendors, and employees but also descriptions such as “Deposit,” “Transfer,” and “Interest.”
If you have slightly different versions of the same name (for example, Mike Rhymes, Michael Rhymes, and Michael P. Rhymes), QuickBooks puts each version of the name on the Other Names list.
This change cannot be undone after you record it.
A name can be on only one list. If you need to have the same person or company on two lists, add a new name that is slightly different from the first name.
The transactions in your Quicken A/R account are converted in the following ways:
This item in your Quicken A/R account... | ...is converted to this in QuickBooks |
Each transaction that increases your A/R balance | An invoice to a customer |
Each transaction that decreases your A/R balance and has only one split line | A credit memo |
Each transaction that decreases your A/R balance and has more than one split line | A credit memo to a customer |
Each payee | A customer on your QuickBooks Customer:Job list |
Each category | Both an item on your Item list and an income account on your Chart of Accounts |
QuickBooks marks invoices as paid by assigning each payment it converts to the oldest invoices for that customer first.
The conversion saves you the time of typing in all your accounts receivable transactions, but you'll probably want to make some changes to the converted data.
For example, if the category you used in most A/R transactions was “Sales income,” you'll want to change the name of the converted invoice item from “Sales income” to the product or service you actually sell, such as “Consulting hours.” The converted income account, however, may be just fine as “Sales income.”
The Quicken manual explains how to use Quicken for cash-basis accounts payable and for accrual-basis accounts payable. For a cash-basis system, the manual recommends using a Bank account and simply postdating checks. For an accrual-basis system, the manual recommends using an Other Liability account. The transition to QuickBooks accounts payable is the same for either system.
If you used postdated checks to track your bills, treat checks you've already entered in your usual manner.
If you had a Quicken Other Liability account for accounts payable, it is now a QuickBooks Other Current Liability account. Continue to use it only for bills you already entered that are still outstanding. Track your payments of these bills as you did in Quicken.
QuickBooks automatically adds a new account named Accounts Payable to your Chart of Accounts when you enter your first bill. No matter which method you were using in Quicken, from now on, use the Enter Bills window to enter new bills into the new QuickBooks Accounts Payable account.
Quicken payees are now on the Other Names list in QuickBooks. You must move vendor names from the Other Names list to the Vendor list before you can use them in QuickBooks accounts payable.
If the Quicken payee has a balance, continue as you did in Quicken until the balance of your old Quicken A/P account equals zero (you've paid off all your bills for that vendor). Enter any new bills into QuickBooks accounts payable.
If QuickBooks converted memorized transactions for Quicken accounts payable, delete them because they will not work in QuickBooks accounts payable.