QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise to Online: what distributors lose

Do sales orders move from Enterprise to QuickBooks Online?

Yes. A 2022 thread in Intuit’s community says they don’t; Online had no sales orders then.

• You can keep creating them “if you have QuickBooks Online Plus, QuickBooks Online Advanced, or Intuit Enterprise Suite,” says Intuit’s sales order page.
• They reserve stock. Saving one updates the committed quantity; it “reserves items from inventory without affecting your books.”
• Where to find them: All apps, then Sales & Get Paid, then Sales orders. To bill one, open the dropdown in the Action column and choose Convert to invoice.

What does a distributor lose in the move?

From Intuit’s transfer guide:

Desktop Enterprise	After the move to QuickBooks Online
Price levels	“Not in QuickBooks Online.” Each customer’s price level is set up again
Average cost	Quantities and values move, then Online “recalculates them using FIFO from your migration date and records any adjustments”
Inventory sites, bins, serial and lot numbers	Not mentioned in the transfer guide
Units of measure, manufacturer’s part numbers	Set up again, with “other QuickBooks Desktop-only inventory fields”
Assemblies	“Single inventory items on sales transactions”; each component moves as its own line on purchases
Group items	Become bundles, which “aren’t tracked as inventory”
Open purchase orders	Won’t show items as received until you link each one to its bill
Customer type, sales rep, credit limit, account number	Set up again
Ship Via list	“Not in QuickBooks Online”
Memorized reports, audit trail, reconciliation reports	Rebuild reports as custom reports; save reconciliation reports before you move
Custom form templates and users	Rebuild templates as custom form styles; invite users again

Online has price rules instead, a Beta that “only selected customers can turn on” and not on Simple Start or Essentials, per Intuit’s price rules page (updated August 3, 2026). To check, open the gear icon, then Account and Settings, then the Sales tab, select Edit on Products and services, and look for Turn on price rules Beta.

Example: you buy 100 units at 10.00, then 100 at 12.00. Average cost puts every unit at 11.00. Under FIFO the first 100 sold cost 10.00 and the next 100 cost 12.00, so monthly margins shift.

QuickBooks Online Advanced or Intuit Enterprise Suite?

Need	QuickBooks Online Advanced	Intuit Enterprise Suite
Sales orders	Yes	Yes
Assemblies and builds	Assemblies become single inventory items	Manufacturing orders; assemblies, builds and bills of materials up to four levels move
Several companies	One Desktop file per Online company	Each Desktop file matched to a parent or child entity
How the move runs	You run Intuit’s migration tool	You prepare each file; Intuit’s team moves the data
Desktop version needed	2011 or newer	2023 Release 17 or higher, or 2024 Release 16 or higher
Bring in an outside team (Cleanups & bulk changes)	Exports what won’t move and rebuilds it on the other side	Prepares each file and checks the result against Desktop

Intuit’s Enterprise Suite migration page says the migration is “Fully included for QuickBooks Desktop customers.”

For sites, bins or serial and lot numbers on Online, add an inventory app. SOS Inventory lists multiple locations, bins, serial and lot tracking and multi-level assemblies, connected to QuickBooks Online.

When do you have to move?

• Enterprise 23.0 was discontinued May 31, 2026.
• Enterprise 24.0 has no end date yet. Intuit calls it one of the “final annual platform releases.” Our guide to QuickBooks Desktop 2024 end of life tracks the date.
• The Online import window is 90 days from your Online sign-up, or 180 if your accountant does the import.
• The Suite move takes days. Intuit emails you when it’s done, usually “within 2-5 days.”

How do you move an Enterprise file yourself?

1. Export what won’t move. Save to Excel price levels by customer, inventory valuation by site, serial and lot lists, units of measure, open purchase orders and the memorized reports you use. Save reconciliation reports as PDFs.

2. Back up and check the file. Make a full backup (.QBB) and keep it somewhere safe. Run Verify Data; if it finds a problem, run Rebuild Data, then verify again, as Intuit’s condense guide advises.

3. Check the size. Press F2 or Ctrl+1 for Product Information and read Total Targets. A file over 5,000,000 targets has to be condensed first. Our Desktop to Online readiness checker tells you where yours stands.

4. Update Desktop to the latest release, and make sure you’re an admin on both the Desktop file and the Online account.

5. Run the move.

• To Online: in Intuit’s online migration tool, select Get Started and sign in. Enterprise files take the switch to this link option, then Select file. Enter your Desktop admin sign-in, then Get Started.
• Choose all data or lists and balances, and whether to track inventory, then Continue. Pick the Online company, clear the checklist, then Continue and Export.
• Replacing data in an Online company that already has some is final: “You can’t undo this.”
• Enterprise Accountant can start in Desktop instead: Company, then Migrate to QuickBooks Online. If it’s missing, press Ctrl+1, then Ctrl+B+Q, then OK.
• To Enterprise Suite: open the file, select Intuit Enterprise Suite in the top menu, then Initiate upgrade process. Match each file to its entity, select Let’s Begin, work through the checklist, then Send to Intuit.

6. Rebuild what didn’t move. Price rules, customer fields, purchase order links, units and sites, reports.

How do you check the move worked?

• Balance sheet and profit and loss for the same dates match, apart from Online’s FIFO adjustments.
• Quantity on hand matches by item. Our inventory count variance report lines up two exports and shows the differences.
• Open sales orders match by count and total; committed quantities look right on top items.
• Open purchase orders link to their bills or show the right quantity to receive.
• Receivables and payables aging totals match.
• A test invoice for your largest customer picks up the right price.

Keep Desktop as your record until these agree, or until your accountant signs off the differences.