After QuickBooks Desktop

Your old QuickBooks years, still open whenever you need them.

Cancelling QuickBooks Desktop doesn't end the questions about past years: an auditor's request, a lender's file, a vendor dispute from three years ago. After cancelling, QuickBooks keeps the company file read-only for a limited time, and then it won't open at all unless you pay to reactivate. Kantivo's Desktop History Archive takes the whole company file onto your own computer and keeps it open, free, for good.

Get the free archive Windows desktop app. Pick the archive on the first screen; no card required.

Included, free, with no end date

  • A full QuickBooks Desktop import: accounts, customers, vendors, items and every year of transactions
  • Every register and document, read-only
  • Every report for any period, exported to PDF, Excel or CSV
  • Backups of the archive file, kept wherever you choose

Recording new transactions, bank feeds and our done-for-you migration are part of the paid plans, which are an annual subscription. You can move up at any time, and the same file simply becomes editable.

Three steps

  1. Install Kantivo and choose Archive your history, free.
  2. Create your sign-in and run the QuickBooks import, which tells you exactly which reports to export from Desktop. Do it while QuickBooks still opens the file, ideally before you cancel.
  3. Take 30 days to add any missing year or redo a file. After that the archive stays read-only, as an archive should.

Fair questions

What actually happens to the file when I cancel? Isn't there a QuickBooks reader?

QuickBooks Desktop goes into view-only mode. Intuit's support staff put it at about 12 months on current releases. When it ends, the file won't open without paying again, and Intuit has said it doesn't make a dedicated reader for Desktop files. Exporting a stack of PDFs before then keeps the reports you thought of, not the ones an auditor asks for in year three. The archive keeps the whole file queryable.

Why give this away?

Because the history is yours, and a file you can't open isn't a record. Some people who archive with us later decide to keep their books here too. That's their choice, on their timing.

Is my data uploaded anywhere?

No. It stays on your PC. The app checks in with our licence server only to confirm the archive.

One company or several?

The free archive holds one company file. Several files need a paid plan, which isn't charged per company.