What Do I Do With My Old QuickBooks File After Converting to QBO?

Congratulations, you’ve completed the software conversion; you’ve moved from QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) to QuickBooks Online (QBO).  You had plenty of reasons for the migration.  The file may have been the last software hosted on the internal server, you may have wanted to access the file without the hosted version or you may just have been tired of sending and receiving accountant backup copies (that were so easy to forget to restore!).  

For whatever reasons you decided to switch. Now, breathe deep and pat yourself on the back. 

There are reasons for little celebrations in life and this is one.  

Now that you’ve moved your accounting file to the cloud, what do you do with the old file?  After all, the IRS may still request information from a year open to audit, and if you didn’t convert every year of the old file, there may be years in the QBD file that are not in the QBO file.

Once you’ve switched to QBO, don’t purchase another QBD license.

The beauty and responsibility of QBD was the file you owned.  It was yours to care for, back up, transfer, send to accountants, host, and access.  Now that you’re in the cloud, everything is different and many of those processes are irrelevant.

The file is still very valuable.  

Save this in a secure location, ideally far from an internet connection where it has no chance of being accessed.  In the event you need to access the information, you can download a trial QBD software to access the information.  This temporary version can be used to access and print any number of reports or information.  The best part is you don’t need to pay for that.

You can save the file as long as you’d like.  After a few years, you’ll likely find you didn’t even need it, but it provided peace of mind through the change…and peace of mind is priceless!