Insightful Accountant | Blog

Migrating From QuickBooks Desktop Pro/Pro-Plus

Written by Gary DeHart | Jul 18, 2024 6:58:51 PM

 In a February 1, 2024, QuickBooks Blog article titled QuickBooks 
Desktop to stop selling to new U.S. subscribers, Intuit published its 
public announcement concerning its policy it would no longer sell 
new subscriptions to several QuickBooks Desktop products after July 
31, 2024.


 Needless to say, this came as a shock to the tens-of-thousands, if not 
hundreds-of-thousands of small businesses who maintain their 
bookkeeping records using QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Premier. 
While Intuit stated that existing subscribers could renew their 
subscriptions after July 31, 2024*, many QuickBooks users were 
concerned by the * (asterisk) that annotates Intuit's Disclaimer about 
customer subscription renewals. "Availability, terms, conditions, 
pricing, special features, and service support options subject to 
change without notice.“ 


Intuit also announced the Sunset of the 2021 versions of QuickBooks 
Pro and Premier (as well as other products in the desktop lineup) for 
May 31, 2024.  And since, QuickBooks Desktop users have been 
continually messaged by Intuit in a variety of ways that then need to 
'migrate to QuickBooks Online.’


 It became obvious users needed an independent review of various 
accounting apps suitable for small businesses currently using QB 
Desktop Pro/Premier.   Over the last few months, we’ve been evaluating a variety of Apps on 
the market that I feel are likely to meet the needs of QB Desktop 
Pro/Premier users.

In order to do this, we identified a variety of features, functions and 
capabilities offered by QuickBooks Desktop Pro/Premier. I then 
identified the apps that were comparable to each of the desktop 
products based on my set of features. We've examined forty-eight 
criteria in evaluating each of these accounting apps and have boiled 
down today’s presentation to the eighteen most important features 
representing the major differences. 


We will also review the Pros and Cons in terms of those features for 
each of the products compared with QBDT Pro/Pro-plus.
 Then we will discuss migration pathways available for the various 
software apps so you will know what to expect.  We will tell you which 
products have tools to help you, which offer migration assistance, and 
which offer little if any conversion help. We will even give you some 
migration methodology and potential 'help-mates’ to assist in the 
process of conversion to the various apps you choose.


 While we will identify, based on the data and the Goldilocks 
methodology, the solution that is ‘most right’ (aka: “just right in the 
Goldilocks story), we want you to know that we are not trying to sell 
you any particular software. 


Our goal is to give you the information you need to choose the best 
solution and migration path for yourselves and/or your clients. 
Therefore, this Blue Paper (aka: White Paper)  is the result of our review 
of alternatives to Desktop Pro…