How to Migrate from Great Plains to QuickBooks

Switching from a comprehensive ERP like Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains to a more streamlined system like QuickBooks is a significant step. The process requires careful planning but pays off with a more user-friendly and cost-effective accounting solution. This guide walks you through the entire migration, from preparing your data in Great Plains to validating it in QuickBooks and ensuring a smooth transition.

Before You Start: Planning Your Migration

A successful migration is 90% planning and 10% execution. Rushing this initial phase can lead to data errors and operational headaches later. Before you export a single file, work through these preparatory steps.

Step 1: Perform a Data Audit and Cleanup

Your Great Plains system likely contains years of data. Not all of it needs to move. A data audit helps you start fresh in QuickBooks with clean, relevant information.

• Review Your Chart of Accounts: Great Plains often uses a complex, segmented chart of accounts. Now is the time to simplify it for QuickBooks. Identify and deactivate redundant or unused accounts.
• Clean Up Vendor and Customer Lists: Archive inactive customers and vendors you haven’t done business with in years. Merge duplicate entries to ensure your starting lists are accurate.
• Settle Open Transactions: Reconcile all bank and credit card accounts. Clear out old, outstanding checks or pending AR/AP items that can be resolved.

Next, you must establish a clear cut-off date. This is the date you will stop entering transactions in Great Plains and start entering them in QuickBooks. A good choice is often the end of a month or quarter to simplify bank reconciliations and financial reporting. All data exported from Great Plains should be as of this date.

Step 2: Choose Your QuickBooks Version

Many businesses migrating from Great Plains find the best fit with QuickBooks Online Advanced or QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise. These versions offer advanced features for reporting, user permissions, and transaction volume that are better suited for a business accustomed to an ERP system. QuickBooks Online offers cloud accessibility, while QuickBooks Desktop provides more robust, traditional functionality.

Step 3: Create a Comprehensive Backup

This is non-negotiable. Before you begin any data export, create a complete backup of your Great Plains company file. Should any part of the migration process go wrong, this backup is your only safety net to restore your data and start again. Store it securely in a separate location from your main server.

Step 1: Exporting Your Data from Great Plains

Microsoft Dynamics GP doesn’t have a one-click "Export to QuickBooks" feature. The migration process relies on exporting your master files and transaction data into a format that QuickBooks can import, typically as CSV or Excel files. You'll need to export several distinct data sets.

Exporting Master Lists

The first set of files to export are your core data lists. These provide the foundational structure for your QuickBooks company file. You should export each of these as a separate file:

• Chart of Accounts: A complete list of all active asset, liability, equity, income, and expense accounts.
• Customer List: Include customer names, addresses, contact information, and credit terms.
• Vendor List: Include vendor names, addresses, tax IDs, and payment terms.
• Employee List: Basic employee information like names and addresses (detailed payroll history is typically not migrated and is instead archived).
• Products & Services List: A list of the items you sell, including names, descriptions, and a sales price if applicable.

Most of this data can be exported using the "SmartList" feature in Great Plains or through direct database queries if you have technical support.

Handling Transactional Data

Migrating historical transactions is the most complex part of the process. You have two primary approaches:

1. Import Opening Balances Only: This is the simplest and most common method. You run a Trial Balance in Great Plains on your cut-off date and enter those balances into QuickBooks using a single journal entry. You'll also import any unpaid (open) invoices and bills as of that date. Historical detail remains archived in a read-only copy of Great Plains.
2. Import Full Transaction History: This is much more technically challenging and labor-intensive. It requires exporting detailed transaction data (every invoice, bill, payment, etc.) and is often best handled by a third-party migration service. For most businesses, this is not necessary.

Step 2: Transforming and Preparing Your Data

Once you have your exported Excel or CSV files from Great Plains, you can't just upload them directly into QuickBooks. You must first format them to match QuickBooks' specific import templates.

Map the Chart of Accounts

Your Great Plains Chart of Accounts is likely different from the standard QuickBooks structure. Open the exported Chart of Accounts file and your empty QuickBooks file side-by-side. You will need to "map" each Great Plains account to a corresponding account in QuickBooks.

• Match account types (e.g., Bank, Accounts Receivable, Cost of Goods Sold).
• Simplify complex segmented accounts from Great Plains into parent and sub-account structures in QuickBooks.
• Ensure the account numbers and names comply with QuickBooks' formatting rules.

Format Import Files

Inside QuickBooks, navigate to the import tool (found under Settings > Import Data in QuickBooks Online). From there, you can download sample Excel or CSV import templates for customers, vendors, and your chart of accounts. You must reformat your Great Plains data to match the column headings and structure of these templates exactly. Any deviation will cause the import to fail. This is often the most time-consuming part of the manual process, involving a lot of copying and pasting.

Step 3: Importing Your Data into QuickBooks

With your data correctly formatted in the QuickBooks templates, you're ready to start the import. It's crucial to import data in the correct sequence to maintain relationships between records. Follow this order:

1. Chart of Accounts
2. Vendors
3. Customers
4. Products and Services
5. Open Invoices (both customer and vendor bills)

For each import, use the "Import Data" tool in QuickBooks and upload your prepared file. QuickBooks will show you a preview and allow you to map columns before finalizing the import. Review this mapping carefully to ensure all data goes to the right place.

Using Third-Party Migration Tools

If the manual formatting process seems too daunting or if you need to migrate transactional history, consider using a third-party migration tool. Services like Dataswitcher or Transaction Pro Importer are designed to automate this process. They connect directly to your source and destination files, handle data mapping for you, and can reliably transfer a large volume of historical data, saving you dozens of hours and reducing the risk of manual error.

Step 4: Post-Migration Validation and Reconciliation

Your data is in QuickBooks, but the job isn't done. Now you must verify that everything transferred correctly. Do not skip this step, as it ensures the integrity of your financial data.

• Run a Trial Balance Report: Generate a Trial Balance in both Great Plains and QuickBooks for your cut-off date. The debit and credit totals, and ideally every account balance, should match perfectly. If they don't, you need to investigate the discrepancy.
• Verify AR and AP Aging Reports: Run an Accounts Receivable Aging Summary and an Accounts Payable Aging Summary report in both systems. The total owed to you and the total you owe should be identical.
• Reconcile Your First Bank Statement: Perform a bank reconciliation for the first month in QuickBooks. This is the ultimate test to ensure your opening cash balance was correct and that all subsequent transactions are accounted for.
• Connect Bank Feeds and Apps: Once you've confirmed your data is accurate, connect your business bank and credit card accounts to the QuickBooks bank feed. Also, reintegrate any third-party applications (like payroll, time tracking, or CRM systems) that you previously used with Great Plains.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Steer clear of these common pitfalls to ensure your migration is a success:

• Not Backing Up Data: Failure to back up a system before migration is the biggest risk you can take.
• Skipping Data Cleanup: The "garbage in, garbage out" rule applies. A messy Great Plains setup will lead to a messy QuickBooks file.
• Underestimating the Time Commitment: A migration from an ERP is not a one-day project. Allocate sufficient time for each step, especially the data formatting and post-migration validation.
• Forgetting About Staff Training: While QuickBooks is intuitive, your team will still need training to understand new workflows and reporting functionalities.

Final Thoughts

Moving from Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains to QuickBooks is a detailed process, but it is entirely manageable with thoughtful preparation and methodical execution. By carefully planning your steps, cleaning your data, and performing thorough validation, you can successfully transition to a system that better fits your business needs.

Once your migration is complete and your books are in order, staying on top of tax planning and compliance is always the next priority. When you face complex business tax questions or need to understand the implications of a financial decision, you don't have to get stuck in manual research. Instead, Feather AI gives you instant, citation-backed answers from authoritative IRS and state tax codes, helping you resolve an issue in seconds.