Migrating from QuickBooks Desktop
Bring your entire QuickBooks history into Kantivo -- accounts, contacts, invoices, bills, and payment records -- all stored locally in your PostgreSQL database.
Why Kantivo's Migration Tool Stands Apart
Typical migration utilities only transfer your chart of accounts. Kantivo goes further by pulling in your full transaction history: every customer invoice, every payment received, every vendor bill, and every bill payment -- with the relationships between them preserved.
The result is that your accounts receivable and accounts payable aging reports are accurate from the moment the import completes. Customer and vendor balances carry over correctly, and there is no need to re-enter years of historical records by hand. Everything lands in your local database where it stays private and under your control.
Data That Gets Transferred
| Category | Details Included |
|---|---|
| Chart of Accounts | Numbers, names, account types, hierarchical parent/child structure, and descriptions |
| Customers | Contact names and details (generated automatically from imported invoice records) |
| Vendors | Supplier names and details (generated automatically from imported bill records) |
| Customer Invoices | Invoice numbers, dates, individual line items mapped to income accounts, and calculated totals |
| Customer Payments | Dates, amounts, deposit account designations, and linkage to the original invoices |
| Vendor Bills | Bill reference numbers, dates, line items mapped to expense accounts, and totals |
| Bill Payments | Payment dates, amounts, the accounts used for payment, and linkage back to the source bills |
Preparing Your QuickBooks Data for Export
Exporting the Chart of Accounts
- Inside QuickBooks Desktop, open Lists > Chart of Accounts
- Use Ctrl+A to highlight every account in the list
- Open the Excel menu and choose Export All Accounts
- Save the resulting file in CSV format
Exporting Customer Activity (Invoices and Payments)
- Navigate to Reports > Customers & Receivables > Transaction List by Customer
- Adjust the date range to All (or whichever period you want to bring over)
- Select Excel > Create New Worksheet
- Open the worksheet in Excel and re-save it as a CSV file
Exporting Vendor Activity (Bills and Payments)
- Navigate to Reports > Vendors & Payables > Transaction List by Vendor
- Set the date range to All
- Select Excel > Create New Worksheet
- Open the worksheet in Excel and re-save it as a CSV file
Running the Import Inside Kantivo
- Open Settings > Data Import (alternatively, launch the import through Accountant Tools)
- Choose QuickBooks Desktop Import as the source
- Upload the three CSV files you exported:
- Your Chart of Accounts CSV
- The Transaction List by Customer CSV
- The Transaction List by Vendor CSV
- Examine the Auto-Mapping Preview -- Kantivo's engine automatically aligns QuickBooks account types with the corresponding Kantivo categories
- Make manual corrections to any mappings that need adjustment (the majority will be correct out of the box)
- Press Preview Import to review a summary of everything that will be brought in
- Press Import to execute the migration and populate your local database
How the Transaction-Level Import Works
The real power of Kantivo's migration lies in deep transaction-level reconstruction. Here is what the system does behind the scenes:
How Invoices Are Reconstructed
- Every invoice is rebuilt with its full set of line items and the correct income account allocations
- Line item amounts are cross-checked against the invoice total to flag discrepancies
- Customer records are created on the fly if they do not already exist in Kantivo
- Accounts receivable balances are computed by netting invoices against their associated payments
How Payments Are Linked to Invoices
- Each payment is connected to its originating invoice using customer name and transaction date
- Partial payments are distributed correctly across outstanding invoices
- The deposit accounts from the original QuickBooks data are carried over
- Open invoice amounts per customer reflect the true outstanding balance
How Bills and Vendor Payments Are Handled
- Vendor bills come in with their expense account allocations intact
- Each bill payment is matched to the appropriate bill record
- Accounts payable totals are derived automatically from the bill and payment pairings
- Vendor balances display the precise amount still owed
Common Issues and Fixes
Totals do not add up after import
Discounts, credits, or write-offs applied within QuickBooks can cause minor total mismatches. Kantivo flags these with a warning but completes the import regardless. Examine the flagged invoices afterward to confirm accuracy.
Certain accounts appear as unmapped
When Kantivo cannot determine the correct account type for a QuickBooks entry, it places it in an "Unmapped Accounts" list. You can manually assign the right type before finalizing the import.
The same customer or vendor appears more than once
Minor name variations in QuickBooks (for example, "ABC Corp" versus "ABC Corp.") will produce separate records. After the import, use Customers > Merge or Vendors > Merge to consolidate duplicates.
Dates are displaying incorrectly
Verify that QuickBooks exported dates in a recognizable pattern (MM/DD/YYYY). If the dates look wrong inside Kantivo, review the regional settings on your Windows machine, as they influence how CSV date fields are interpreted.