Moving from QuickBooks Desktop

You can bring the bank and credit-card history you kept in QuickBooks Desktop into Pennyweight. Export a transaction report, give it to your AI, and it sends the rows to Pennyweight one account at a time. Nothing is saved until you approve a preview. New to importing? Start with how importing works.

Get a report out of QuickBooks Desktop

Export your transactions through a report. Per QuickBooks' help center, you can export a report as an Excel workbook, a CSV file or a PDF. Use Excel or CSV.

Pick the report. Per QuickBooks' help center, the Custom Transaction Detail report lists individual transactions and shows each account involved in a transaction on a separate line. It covers the current month to date, so choose a wider range from the Dates list. To narrow it, select Customize Report and use the Filters tab.

On Windows, as Excel. Per QuickBooks' help center:

1. Go to Reports, then Reports Center.
2. Double-click the report you want.
3. Select the Excel dropdown, then Create New Worksheet.
4. If QuickBooks says the report has too many columns, select Advanced, clear Space between columns, then select OK.
5. Select OK to export.

As a CSV file. Per QuickBooks' help center, open the report, select the Excel dropdown, then Create New Worksheet. In the Send Report to Excel window, select Create a comma separated values (.csv) file, then Export, and choose where to save it.

On a Mac. Per QuickBooks' help center, go to Reports, find the report, and select Export. When the file opens, select File, then Save As. Your report preferences set whether QuickBooks exports .xlsx or .sylk.

IIF won't carry transactions. Per QuickBooks' help center, File, Utilities, Export, Lists to IIF Files exports lists, and you can import transactions into QuickBooks but can't export them.

How to do it

1. Share the exported file with your AI. Say which QuickBooks accounts to bring over and which Pennyweight account each one goes into.
2. Ask your AI to keep only the lines on your bank and card accounts, and to use the account on the other line, such as an expense account, as the category.
3. If an account doesn't exist in Pennyweight yet, ask your AI to add it with its balance at the start of the report. See add a manual account.
4. Check the preview for each account: how many rows are new, which look like duplicates, and how the balance would change. Nothing is saved yet.
5. Say yes to import.

What you'll see

Your AI shows a preview for each account: how many rows are new, how many look like duplicates or need a look, and how the balance would change. After you confirm, it reports how many rows were saved in each account and lists any skipped row with the reason. See reading an import preview.

What carries over

Each row brings its date, amount, payee, category text and notes. Invoices, bills, receivables and payables, payroll, inventory and classes don't move. See the full list of what doesn't move.

Good to know

• Your AI does the reading. Pennyweight has no QuickBooks importer. Uploading a file straight to Pennyweight works for CSV only, and it reads every line below the header as a transaction. A report that lists each account on its own line doesn't fit that, so let your AI read it.
• Dates. The rows your AI sends need dates written as YYYY-MM-DD, so your AI converts each date first.
• Very long reports. Per QuickBooks' help center, the Excel export has a limit of 65,536 detail lines, due to limits in Excel 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013. For years of history, export one date range at a time.
• One account per import. Each import goes into a single account, so your AI sends one batch per account.
• Signs. Pennyweight stores money out as negative and money in as positive. Check the balance change in the preview before you say yes.
• Credit cards and loans. Give the opening balance as the amount you owed, as a positive number.
• Transfers. A payment from checking to your card appears in both accounts. Import each side into its own account, then ask your AI to find the pairs and link them.
• Categories and rules. Your rows keep the categories your AI sends, unless one of your active Pennyweight rules matches. Rules run when the import is saved, and a matching rule's category replaces the one from the file. To keep every QuickBooks category, ask your AI to import with rules turned off. Your QuickBooks rules don't come across. See rebuild your rules after moving.
• Check the balance. After the import, compare each account's balance with your QuickBooks balance for the same date. See after you import.