Transitioning from QBO-Accountant to Intuit Accountant Suite

Intuit Accountant Suite (IAS) is Intuit's newest product for Accountants. IAS will replace QuickBooks Online Accountant approximately one year from now. 

But, accountants using QuickBooks Online-Accountant (QBOAc) can opt-in to trying Intuit Accountant Suite immediately, you do not have to wait to experience the added benefits IAS offers over QBOAc. 

Identifying Your Firm's 'Realm' Status

No two accounting firms are identical, even if they are using QuickBooks Online-Accountant. It's extremely important you identify your firm's 'realm' status before beginning the process of transitioning from QBOAc to IAS. 

Firm Type 1: 'Single Realm' - When it comes to transitioning from QBOAc to IAS you need to identify the 'realm' status of your practice. You may have a small firm with only a single instance of QBOAc even though you have multiple team members who all log into the same QBOAc. In this case all of your clients, 3rd-party Apps, and connected Intuit services like your 'firm books' and 'revenue share' are part of your realm identity.

Firm Type 2: 'Multi-Realm' - On the other hand, especially if you've acquired new partners, merged with another firm, or hired long-standing accountants who were practicing on their own, chances are your firm identity is a conglomeration of QBOAc realms. Clients might be associated with each of the various realms, and so might 3rd party Apps. There could even be different Intuit 'revenue share' services based on where the clients are linked. This type of firm can also be complicated by connection of ProConnect Tax to specific clients attached to different realms. Firms with such complexities will require use of a special migration tool Intuit will make available to QBOAc firms, but I will NOT be discussing these types of transitions in this article. You should reach out to QuickBooks Support for assistance in transitioning your multi-realm firm, it various realms, and other complexities to IAS. 

Transitioning Type 1: 'Single Realm' Firms to IAC

If your firm involves only a single realm, and your 'Firm Books', 'Revenue Share' and 'ProConnect Tax' are all connected to this single realm you are in good shape to self-transition to IAS from QBOAc. In such a case, all of your 'Firm Books' information will transition along with your QBOAc into IAS. Similarly, all of your clients' data (including user roles and permissions) along with all of your 3rd-party Apps will transition to IAS as well. 

The steps to transition:

• Login to QBOAc as the Primary Admin

• Navigate to and click the Gear icon. 

• Locate, then click, the 'Try Intuit Accountant Suite' prompt in the "Explore the new Intuit Accountant Suite" option box at the bottom of the gear options window. 

• After a few moments of transition the 'Introducing Intuit Accountant Suite' window opens, locate and click the 'Sign up' button
• After a few more moments the Upgrade window opens to 'Plans made for accountants like you.' This window describes your options:
  • Go back to QBO-Accountant
  • Upgrade to 'free' Intuit Accountant Suite 'Core'
  • Upgrade to 'currently free' (Beta) Intuit Accountant Suite Accelerate
• Be certain to read all three options completely. 

• This step-by-step will proceed with the Accelerate option, as such we select 'Switch to Accelerate'. If you want to wait to see Accelerate options after they come out of "Beta" then you could choose to upgrade to 'Core.' If you've already 'chickened out' and are scared to proceed, then select 'Current Plan' under QBO-Accountant to return to your QBO-Ac just as it was. (Let me interject here that there is nothing right now that prevents you from opting out of IAS and going back to QBOAc even after you upgrade to it. I myself have switched back twice already just to test 'doing so'.) 
• After a few seconds, the upgrade process proceeds to the Subscription Summary page in which you will need to confirm your 'billing information' even though the Beta subscription is 'free at present.' Choose 'Subscribe' to continue.(Hint, the fact that you must have a credit card on file to upgrade to Accellerate is a guarantee that Intuit will be charging for this 'cream of the crop' version with all the 'bells and whistles' at some point.)

• After a few more seconds the 'Welcome to Intuit Accountant Suite Accelerate' confirmation appears in the center of the 'Subscribe' window.  Go ahead, get "future ready", click the 'Get Started' button. 

• Another few seconds, and the future of "Accountant's accounting" appears before your eyes, the new Intuit Accountant Suite. I suggest you take some time to make yourself familiar with IAS before you proceed on to the next phase of transitioning, if needed. 

Transferring Clients and related Team Members

• If all of your clients are not already in your IAS at this point, you will need to transfer those clients to your IAS realm. Again, you must be logged in as the Primary Admin to perform this task. 
• Locate, then click on, the Gear Icon.

• Locate, then click on, the Transfer clients. 

• When the Transfer clients window opens, read "what to expect" and if you wish to proceed, click Get Started
• Select the realm with the clients you want to transfer, and then select Next. (Note that you can only transfer from one realm at a time. If you want to transfer clients from multiple realms, you can return to this list for each additional transfer.)

• In the same way, select the check-boxes for the clients you want to move to the new realm. You can select the column headers to sort the list or you can filter the list to display a more refined list to choose from. As you select clients, you’ll see a running total of the number that will be transferred. When you’ve finished selecting the clients to transfer, select Next.
• Choose whether to transfer team member access along with the clients. Select See which team members are linked to the clients being transferred to display a list of team members and their access. Select Search and begin entering a name to find a specific team member. When you’ve made your team member access selections, select Next. If the team members already exist within the IAS realm, their access to clients will transfer with the related client(s). 
•  Review the specifics of the client transfer and select Start transfer to begin.

Once your transfer has begun, select View Transfer status to check its progress.

You can also select Move more clients to begin another client transfer.

If you have Team members who were not copied over during the client and team transfers, you will need to 'invite' them and then set their permissions. 

You are now ready to begin working in IAS, you need to make your team aware that the transition to IAS is completed and the clients and their QBO files are now accessible when they log-in to IAS. 

Disclosures:

Content (including graphic content) is based on or adapted from Intuit media source materials, including, but not limited to the Intuit Accountant Suite website and the actual Intuit Accountant Suite product including supporting help documentation. Intuit content adapted by Insightful Accountant from Intuit sources is furnished for educational purposes only.

The steps outlined in this feature are intended to provide the reader with 'general' guidance in transitioning from QuickBooks Online-Accountant to Intuit Accountant Suite including consolidation of QBO-Accountant realms, clients, and team members, where applicable. For more information, consult instructional (help) information from the QuickBooks and Intuit Accountant Suite websites. 

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