How to export data from QuickBooks

Decide what you need out of QuickBooks. Intuit offers the export so you can share your data or work with it outside the app. The Export data tool gathers reports and lists into a single download. If you only want one report in Excel, you can export it from the report itself instead, as the note below explains.

Know what the bulk export holds. It's built around posting transactions, meaning those that change your account balances, such as invoices, receipts and bills. Non-posting transactions, such as quotes and purchase orders, don't affect your reports, and Intuit gives separate steps for exporting them. Customer statements and attachments have their own steps too, listed under What changes afterwards.

Have a date range in mind before you start, along with a folder on your computer to save the file in.

1. Go to Settings and select Export data.
2. On the Reports tab, pick a date range from the Pre-selected date ranges dropdown.
3. Work through the Reports and Lists tabs, turning each item on or off to choose what goes into the export.
4. Select Export to Excel.
5. Choose the folder for the file, then select Save.
6. Select OK to finish.

You end up with one .zip file in the folder you picked, holding an Excel file for each report and list you left turned on. A single report export gives you one Excel file instead. Either way, the data is ready to open, share or keep outside QuickBooks.

For non-posting transactions and attachments, Intuit gives these routes. Quotes: under Sales & Get Paid, open Sales transactions, choose Quotes from the Type dropdown, set the dates and select the export icon. Purchase orders: under Expenses & Bills, open Expense transactions, choose Purchase order from the All transactions dropdown, select Filter, set the dates, select Apply and then the export icon. Attachments: go to Settings, select Attachments, tick the ones you want, then choose Export from the Batch Actions dropdown; they arrive as a zip file.

Intuit also exports some lists through a report. For the chart of accounts, open the Account List report from Standard reports, select the export icon and choose Export to Excel. Recurring transactions work the same way with the Recurring Template List report, using the dropdown next to the export icon. For products and services, go to Sales & Get Paid, open Products & services, choose Run reports from the More dropdown and export that report to Excel. A customer statement downloads as a PDF from the Statements tab on that customer's page, opened through Customer Hub and Customers & leads, by selecting Print or Preview and then the download icon.

If a report seems to be missing data once it's open in Excel, Intuit says you can edit the file in Excel. If a customer's statement doesn't appear on the Statements tab, widen the period with the Date dropdown and look again.