Converting from QuickBooks Online

Moving your books off QuickBooks Online (QBO) is mostly a matter of exporting the right handful of reports and handing them to NP Ledger. This page tells you exactly which reports to export, where each one lives in QuickBooks, and why it's on the list — so nothing important gets left behind.

You don't need to export everything QuickBooks can print. A small, deliberate set does the job. Start with the core reports every organization needs, then add a few extras only if your situation calls for them (payroll, grants, events, inventory, and so on).

Two things have to be true when your books come across:

1. Everything adds up. Every transaction lands, and your ending cash matches your bank and payment-processor statements to the penny.
2. Everything is classified right. Which fund, which donor restriction, whether a payment was a gift or a purchase. This is where nonprofits get the most value from switching — and it's the part QuickBooks often gets wrong, because a lot of it was never captured in the first place.

The reports below are chosen to make both of those true. A report that proves your cash is right doesn't prove your restrictions are right, so you need a couple of each.

• Export as Excel. In QuickBooks, reports export to Excel (.xlsx). NP Ledger reads Excel files directly. If a step ever needs a .csv instead, open the Excel file in Excel or Google Sheets and use Save As → CSV.
• Set the date range on each ledger report to cover your full conversion window (typically the start of your current fiscal year through your cutover date).
• Have your bank and payment-processor statements handy. Those come from your bank and PayPal/Stripe, not from QuickBooks — they're your independent proof that the cash ties out.

Export these regardless of how your nonprofit is set up.

1. Account List (your Chart of Accounts)

• Where: Reports → Standard reports → Account List
• Why: It's your chart of accounts — the list of accounts your transactions post to. NP Ledger brings this in first so every transaction has an account to land on.

2. Journal (your full transaction history)

• Where: Reports → Standard reports → Journal
• Why: This is the best source for your actual ledger. The Journal keeps each transaction whole — it carries a group number for every transaction, so deposits with several lines, split checks, and multi-part entries come across as single transactions instead of getting scrambled together.

3. Sales by Product/Service Detail (your donor-intent evidence)

• Where: Reports → Standard reports → Sales and customers group → Sales by Product/Service Detail
• Why: This report carries the per-gift description a donor actually saw — the strongest evidence of what a gift was for. NP Ledger uses it to suggest which gifts are restricted and to which purpose, so restriction gets set from donor intent, not guesswork.

4. Recurring Template List (your sustainers)

• Where: Reports → Standard reports → Recurring Template List
• Why: Your roster of recurring/scheduled transactions — the sustainer donations and repeating bills. It sets up your go-forward recurring entries and confirms recurring gifts are recognized as they come in.

5. Customer Contact List (your donors)

• Where: Reports → Standard reports → Sales and customers group → Customer Contact List
• Why: Names and emails for your donors, so you can issue giving statements. The Customers list page also exports directly to CSV if you prefer that format.

6. Bank and payment-processor statements (your cash anchor)

• Where: Your bank's website and your PayPal/Stripe dashboards — not QuickBooks.
• Why: These are independent of your chart of accounts, so they're the honest check that your ending cash is right. NP Ledger ties your imported balances to these to the penny.

Skip any that don't apply. Each one earns its place only when your nonprofit actually works that way.

If you use Classes

• Export: Profit and Loss by Class (Reports → Business Overview group → Profit and Loss by Class), plus your Sales reports viewed by Class.
• Why: In most nonprofits, Classes are your real program or fund structure. Unlike Tags, a Class is a full QuickBooks field that maps cleanly to an NP Ledger fund. This report shows your Classes and their balances so the mapping can be built. See Mapping QuickBooks Classes to Funds.

If you run US payroll

• Export: Payroll Summary and Payroll Details (Reports → Standard reports → scroll to the Payroll section, or search by name). This needs an active QuickBooks Payroll subscription.
• Why: Payroll often posts as a single summarized entry that doesn't break down cleanly in the Journal. The payroll reports give you the gross-to-net and employer-tax detail you need for functional expense reporting and Form 990.

If you manage grants

• Export: Budget vs. Actuals (Reports → Standard reports → Budget vs Actuals), plus your Class or Project reports if you track grants that way.
• Why: Grant money usually comes with conditions and a budget to track against. This report anchors grant-versus-actual so spending and release stay inside each grant's terms.

If you run events or auctions

• Export: Sales by Product/Service Detail and Sales by Customer (Sales and customers group).
• Why: Event revenue is a mix — the ticket or auction item is a purchase (the donor got something for it), and only the amount above fair value is a gift. The per-line detail lets NP Ledger separate the two, which the income account alone can't show.

If you carry inventory

• Export: Inventory Valuation Summary (and Detail), from the Sales and customers group, plus your Product/Service List.
• Why: Inventory is an asset on your balance sheet with its own cost timing that the Journal alone won't reconstruct. The valuation report gives NP Ledger your inventory value at cutover.

If your books are on the cash basis (or you have unpaid invoices/bills)

• Export: Open Invoices (money owed to you) and Unpaid Bills (money you owe), and set each report's Accounting method deliberately (Customize → General → Accounting method → Cash or Accrual).
• Why: A cash-basis export leaves out what you're owed and what you owe. Those open balances need to come across as opening balances so your books are complete on day one.

If you use Projects

• Export: your Project reports (All apps → Projects → a project → Project Reports, or Reports for all projects).
• Why: Projects are a legitimate second layer for grants or programs and map into NP Ledger funds and programs.

Once you've exported your reports, head to Import Spreadsheet in the sidebar (or continue in the setup wizard). NP Ledger walks you through bringing in your Chart of Accounts, then your Journal, and shows you a preview before anything is saved. As it imports, it suggests fund and restriction classifications from the donor detail in your reports — you review and confirm, so you're always in control.

After importing, use the Trial Balance report to confirm your books balance, and check your cash against the bank and processor statements you set aside.

Do I really need all of these? You need the six core reports. The extras only apply if your nonprofit does that thing — no payroll, skip the payroll reports; no inventory, skip inventory. When in doubt, export the core set and reach out; we'll tell you if your situation needs anything more.

QuickBooks won't give me a CSV — only Excel. That's normal for reports. NP Ledger reads Excel files directly, so you can upload the .xlsx as-is. If you specifically need a CSV, open the file in Excel or Google Sheets and use Save As → CSV. List pages like Customers and Chart of Accounts also offer a direct CSV export.

Can't I just export the General Ledger or Transaction Detail report? Use the Journal instead. The other ledger reports often blank out the transaction number, which can merge separate transactions together. The Journal keeps each transaction intact, so your history comes across clean.

My QuickBooks menus don't match these paths exactly. QuickBooks moves reports between menu groups depending on your plan. The report names stay the same — go to Reports and type the name into the search box to find any of them.

What about my in-kind gifts and journal entries? Those appear in the Journal report, so they come across with the rest of your history. You can review and reclassify any of them after import.