How to migrate a client off QuickBooks Desktop

01Attach the fileYour client sends one file. You attach it in superglue.

02Review the findingssuperglue reads the whole company and asks for your decisions.

03Trial loadsuperglue loads the sandbox and reconciles it with QuickBooks.

superglue loads the sandbox and reconciles it with QuickBooks.

QBMRidgeway Builders.QBMQuickBooks Desktop company file

Migrate Ridgeway Builders from QuickBooks Desktop to NetSuite.

I read the whole company file. It holds 15 years of history, from 2011 to 2026.

1,284 customers48,213 invoices39,870 payments

Two decisions before the trial load

Customer types have no field in NetSuite. Map them to customer categories?ApproveApproved

38 vendors have had no activity since 2019. Leave them out?ApproveApproved

Trial load to the NetSuite sandbox

1,284 customers, 312 vendors and 2,140 items loaded

Open receivables tie to QuickBooks at $412,880.00

Every payment is still applied to its invoices

Many companies on QuickBooks Desktop now plan their move. Intuit released the last new version in 2024, no longer sells Pro and Premier to new customers, and stopped payroll and bank feed updates for QuickBooks Desktop 2023 in May 2026. For implementation partners, this means more QuickBooks Desktop migrations in the next few years. With superglue, each of these migrations starts from one file that your client sends you.

What the migration looks like with superglue

1. Ask the client for one file. The client opens the company in QuickBooks Desktop and saves a portable company file. It takes a few minutes. The QuickBooks Desktop files guide has steps that you can forward to the client.
2. Attach the file in superglue. Tell superglue where the company goes, for example "Migrate Ridgeway Builders from QuickBooks Desktop to NetSuite."
3. Review what superglue found. superglue reads the whole company, with the full history back to the first year. It reports what it found and lists the decisions that it needs from you, such as where customer types go or which inactive records to leave out.
4. Agree the mapping with the client. superglue prepares the mapping and the transformed data for review. You make the decisions, and the client signs off.
5. Run a trial load to the sandbox. superglue loads the sandbox and compares it with QuickBooks: the trial balance, the open receivables and payables, and the payments applied to each invoice.
6. Cut over from a final file. At the cutover date, the client sends a new file, and superglue loads the changes with the same steps as the trial load.

The steps are the same for a NetSuite data migration, a Sage Intacct data migration or a Business Central data migration.

Why this is faster than the usual way

Most QuickBooks Desktop migrations depend on the client's QuickBooks computer. Someone exports reports to Excel, or connects a tool such as QODBC while QuickBooks is open, and the consultant puts the exports back together. Exported reports lose the links between transactions, so the open balances in the new system must be rebuilt by hand.

• No sessions on the client's computer. You need the file once for the mapping and once at cutover.
• The whole history, with its links. Payments stay applied to their invoices, so open balances come over as they are in QuickBooks.
• Minutes instead of hours. For a large construction company, superglue read the file in about two minutes. The usual export through QuickBooks took about three hours.

What you still collect from the client

• Encrypted values. QuickBooks encrypts tax IDs, social security numbers, bank account numbers and credit card numbers in the file. Collect them from the client if the new system needs them.
• Attachments. Attached documents stay in the Attach folder next to the company file. Ask the client to send that folder as a zip file.
• A payroll check. superglue reads paychecks and year-to-date payroll amounts from the file. Check the totals against the QuickBooks Payroll Summary report before you load them.

Where QuickBooks Desktop stands

These are the facts from Intuit's own help pages:

• No new versions after 2024. Intuit says QuickBooks Desktop Plus 2024 and Enterprise 24.0 "were our final annual platform releases". There will be no QuickBooks Desktop 2025. Subscribers get updates within the 2024 platform instead (release process).
• No new small-business customers since September 30, 2024. Intuit stopped selling new subscriptions to QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, Premier Plus, Mac Plus and Enhanced Payroll in the US. Existing subscribers can renew, and Intuit says it keeps providing security updates, product updates and support for them (stop-sell notice).
• QuickBooks Desktop 2023 was discontinued on May 31, 2026, including Enterprise 23.0. The software still opens, but it lost payroll tax updates, bank feeds, payment processing, online banking, live support and security updates (discontinuation policy).
• QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is the exception. Intuit still sells it and calls it its "flagship desktop product".

So QuickBooks Desktop does not stop on one fixed day. Each version loses its services on its own date. Clients that plan the move can choose a clean cutover date, such as a month end or a year end. Clients that wait often move in a hurry after payroll or bank feeds stop.