# Conversion Date When Switching to QuickBooks

- Author: SimpleBankConvert (https://www.simplebankconvert.com)
- Published: 2026-08-09
- Updated: 2026-08-09
- Category: Switching accounting software
- Canonical: https://www.simplebankconvert.com/blog/conversion-date-when-switching-to-quickbooks

> How to choose a conversion date when switching to QuickBooks: year start or month start, what balances you need on that date and how bank imports follow.
The conversion date when switching to QuickBooks is the first day QuickBooks becomes your record. Pick the start of your financial year if you can, or the start of a month if you can't wait. On that date you need every account balance, open invoices and bills. Bank imports then start on the same day.

## What the conversion date decides in a QuickBooks switch

The conversion date in a QuickBooks switch decides which system holds which period. Everything before it stays in the old software, as saved reports. Everything on or after it is recorded in QuickBooks. Opening balances, the first bank import and the first feed download all hang off this one day.

That makes it the most important decision in the move, and also the easiest to get subtly wrong. Three separate settings must agree on it:

- **Opening balance dates** on every bank, card and loan account.
- **The first transaction date** in each bank upload file.
- **The feed start date** when you connect a bank feed, which should begin after the last uploaded line.

When those agree, the books tie to the bank from the first day. When one of them is a day off, the account starts out wrong by that day's activity, and the error hides inside every later reconciliation.

The date also sets how much history you are choosing to rebuild. A conversion date of January 1 with a switch in October means nine months of bank lines to load. A conversion date of October 1 means none. The trade-off between those two is covered in [how much bank history to move to new software](/blog/how-much-bank-history-to-move-to-new-software).

## Year start or month start for a QuickBooks conversion date?

A year start is the cleaner QuickBooks conversion date, and a month start is the faster one. [Intuit's guide to entering an opening balance](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/bank-deposits/enter-opening-balance-account-quickbooks-online/L7NcxTbuu_US_en_US) notes that most businesses start tracking accounts from the beginning of the year. That keeps a full year's reports in one program.

Compare the two choices:

| Question | Year start | Month start |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Where is this year's profit and loss? | All in QuickBooks | Split across two systems |
| How much past activity do you load? | Every month so far this year | None, or only what you choose |
| When can you start? | Now, if you load the months, or at year end | The first of next month |
| What does the tax preparer need? | One set of reports | Reports from both systems, added together |

If you switch in the first quarter, pick the year start and load the few months already passed. Late in the year, waiting for January 1 is often simplest: keep using the old software until December closes, then start fresh.

A month start makes sense when the old software is failing you now, or a subscription ends mid-year. It also suits a business with little activity, where adding two profit and loss reports together at year end is a small job.

Avoid odd dates such as the 17th. A conversion date that is not the first of a month rarely lines up with a statement, a report period or a tax period.

## Balances to collect for the QuickBooks conversion date

For the QuickBooks conversion date you need the balance of every account as of the day before, plus a list of what is open. Bank and card balances come from statements. Customer and supplier balances come from the old software's aging reports. Everything else comes from the old trial balance on that day.

### Worked example

An example business switches to QuickBooks on 2027-01-01. All figures are illustrative.

| Balance | Example figure | Source | Entered in QuickBooks as |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Checking account | 14,206.50 | December bank statement closing balance | Opening balance, dated 2027-01-01 |
| Savings account | 5,000.00 | December savings statement | Opening balance, dated 2027-01-01 |
| Credit card | 1,318.77 owed | December card statement | Opening balance on the card account |
| Unpaid customer invoices | 3 invoices, 4,650.00 | Old software's receivables aging | Each invoice entered with its own date |
| Unpaid supplier bills | 2 bills, 890.00 | Old software's payables aging | Each bill entered with its own date |
| Loan | 22,400.00 | Lender's year-end statement | Opening balance on the loan account |
| Petty cash | 150.00 | Count of the cash box | Opening balance on a cash account |

Intuit's page says to take each bank opening balance from the statement, because that figure becomes the account's starting point. For an existing account, it points to the beginning date of your next statement. In this example, that is the balance carried into the January statement, which equals December's closing balance.

Cash outside the bank is easy to forget. A petty cash box has a balance on the conversion date too, and [importing petty cash transactions into QuickBooks Online](/blog/import-petty-cash-transactions-into-quickbooks-online) explains how to keep it as its own account.

Once the figures are in, compare QuickBooks' balance sheet on the conversion date with the old trial balance. Any difference that remains usually sits in an equity account and needs your accountant's eye.

## How do bank imports line up with the conversion date?

Bank imports line up with the conversion date by starting on it exactly. The first uploaded file for each account begins on the conversion date and contains nothing earlier. Each later file starts the day after the previous one ended. The bank feed, once connected, picks up after the last uploaded line.

Intuit's opening balance page warns about the main risk. If you add transactions from before the start date without changing the opening balance, you count the same money twice. A line dated December 30 in a file for a January 1 conversion is exactly that mistake.

Before each upload, open the file and check two things:

1. The first row's date is on or after the conversion date.
2. The last row's date is the day before the next file's first row.

Then mind the limits. [Intuit's help page on uploading transactions manually](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/import-transactions/manually-upload-transactions-quickbooks-online/L0rE9OXBz_US_en_US) allows up to 1,000 lines and 350 KB per file, so a busy account may need one file per month. When the bank no longer offers downloads for older months, the PDF statements are still the record. SimpleBankConvert is being built to turn those PDFs into CSV or QBO files for QuickBooks Online, and you can [get on the early access list](/get-started).

## Locking QuickBooks before the conversion date

Locking QuickBooks before the conversion date stops anyone from posting into the period the old software owns. QuickBooks Online does this with its close-the-books setting. Set the closing date to the day before your conversion date, once opening balances and open invoices are in.

[Intuit's guide to closing the books](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/close-books/close-books-quickbooks-online/L59LelyPM_US_en_US) lists the steps: Settings, Account and settings, Advanced, then turn on Close the books and enter a date. You then choose between a warning only and a password. The password option is the stronger choice once the conversion is checked.

Order matters here. Opening invoices and bills often carry dates before the conversion date, because they were raised in the old system. Enter them first, check them, and only then set the closing date. If you lock first, you will have to unlock to enter them.

Lock the old software too, if it allows a lock date. That way nobody records a late December expense in the old system after its balances have already been carried into QuickBooks.

## A conversion date that falls mid-statement

A conversion date can fall mid-statement when your bank's statements run, say, from the 15th to the 14th. Keep the conversion date on the first of a month anyway, and take the opening balance from the bank's daily balance on the day before, not from a statement total. Many online banking screens show a running or daily balance.

If the bank shows only statement balances, work it out from the statement that spans the date:

1. Start from the statement's opening balance.
2. Add the deposits and subtract the withdrawals dated before your conversion date.
3. The result is the balance at the end of the day before. Use it as the opening balance.

Then split that statement's lines. Lines before the conversion date stay out of QuickBooks. Lines from the conversion date onward go into the first upload file. The first reconciliation in QuickBooks will cover a part statement, from the conversion date to the statement's end date, and should tie to the statement's closing balance.

The same arithmetic applies to credit cards with closing dates mid-month. Write the working down and keep it with your conversion records, so the figure can be traced later.

## When a later QuickBooks conversion date beats an early one

A later QuickBooks conversion date beats an early one when the months in between are hard to rebuild. If the old books for those months are not reconciled, or you lack statements for them, a start date after them is cleaner. The old software keeps the messy months, and QuickBooks starts from a known balance.

Push the conversion date later when:

- The old software's bank accounts are not reconciled for recent months.
- Some months' statements are missing and the bank can't supply them quickly.
- Your accountant is still adjusting last year's books, so year-end balances may change.
- You are switching during a busy season and can't spare the time to load history.

Moving the date later doesn't remove the work of fixing the old months, but it keeps that work out of QuickBooks. The new books start clean, and the old system holds a period you can finish separately.

The same reasoning holds in other software. Xero uses a conversion date and conversion balances in the same way, and the guide to [opening balances when switching to Xero](/blog/opening-balances-when-switching-to-xero) shows that version of the setup.