How to Convert from Xero to QuickBooks Desktop or Online

Last reviewed 2026-08-03

Switching from Xero to QuickBooks means moving your chart of accounts, contacts, products, and historical transactions out of one accounting platform and into another. Because Xero and QuickBooks store data differently, there is no single "import everything" button — but a successful, full-history conversion is absolutely doable when you plan the steps.

What You Can Move

Xero does not export to a native QuickBooks format, so the conversion relies on structured CSV files and, for full history, a manual rebuild of the data. Here is what typically transfers:

• Chart of accounts — exported from Xero and mapped to QuickBooks account types.
• Customers and suppliers — contact names, addresses, and opening balances.
• Inventory items — product or service names, prices, and quantities.
• Historical transactions — invoices, bills, payments, and journal entries (this is the most labor-intensive part).

Step 1: Export From Xero

Log in to Xero and pull the following reports and lists. Export each as a CSV file:

1. Chart of Accounts — go to Accounting, then Chart of Accounts, and export.
2. Contacts — export all customers and suppliers from the Contacts screen.
3. Trial Balance — run this for your conversion date. This gives you the opening balances for QuickBooks.
4. Individual transaction reports — export invoices, bills, bank transactions, and manual journals for the period you want to bring over.

Step 2: Set Up QuickBooks

Create a new company file in QuickBooks Desktop or a new subscription in QuickBooks Online. Import the chart of accounts first, then the contact list. Enter the trial balance figures as your opening balances so that both systems agree on the conversion date.

Step 3: Import Transactions

QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online each have import tools for transactions, but they expect specific column headers and formats. You will likely need to clean up the Xero CSV exports — renaming columns, reformatting dates, and splitting multi-line journal entries — before QuickBooks will accept them. Import in this order:

1. Unpaid invoices and bills (so you can match payments later).
2. Payments applied to those invoices and bills.
3. Bank transactions.
4. Manual journals.

What to Check After Conversion

Once the data is in QuickBooks, run these reports and compare them to Xero:

• Trial Balance as of the conversion date — this is the single most important check. If it matches, your debits and credits are intact.
• Aged Receivables and Aged Payables — confirm that every outstanding invoice and bill carried over with the correct balance.
• Bank register — reconcile each account to the bank statement for the conversion month.

If the Trial Balance matches but an individual report is off, the issue is usually a transaction that imported with the wrong date, account, or customer name.

When to Hand It to Our Team

A CSV-based import works well for simple files or recent history, but it breaks down when you need every transaction from multiple years, multi-currency entries, inventory assemblies, or reclassified payroll journals. Rebuilding that history by hand takes days and is prone to mapping errors that surface months later at tax time.

That is where a professional conversion service makes sense. We rebuild the data directly into a QuickBooks company file — preserving full transaction history, multi-currency values, and inventory layers — so you open QuickBooks with everything already in place and reconciled. If you are dealing with a large file or complex history, send us the Xero export and we will scope the conversion for you.