Have you been looking for the magic button to convert your QuickBooks Enterprise data to QuickBooks Premier or Pro?

Sorry to say, it doesn’t exist…

The good news is that it can be done (in most cases), but it is a process.

Here’s the scoop on how it works…

CONVERTING QUICKBOOKS ENTERPRISE TO QUICKBOOKS PREMIER/PRO

In order to make the conversion out of Enterprise, it is necessary to enlist a third party company to help you, and pay a fee for their service.

There are no menu options in Enterprise that will do this conversion for you automatically, and this is not a service that Intuit provides.

I have worked with Mario and the team from Mendelson Consulting on their QuickBooks Enterprise to QuickBooks Pro downgrade service for a number of years.

They have treated my clients exceptionally well, and will be candid if the file is not a good candidate to convert.

POTENTIAL GOTCHAS IF PLANNING TO CONVERT FROM ENTERPRISE TO PREMIER OR PRO

These issues may put a stop to your plans to convert…

• Is your current QuickBooks Enterprise file a valid candidate to convert to Premier/Pro?
  • If you have more than 14,500 names or 14,500 items in Enterprise, the file cannot be converted
• Does your current QuickBooks Enterprise file have a lot of data corruption in it?
  • If so, it is not a candidate to convert to Premier or Pro
• Is your current QuickBooks Enterprise file pretty large? (i.e. 2 GB or more)
  • If so, it may convert, but you’ll likely be quite disappointed with the performance of it
  • Keep in mind that it is not recommended to run files bigger than 500 mb in either QuickBooks Premier or Pro

MAKING THE MOVE FROM ENTERPRISE

If you decide to move out of Enterprise and into Premier or Pro, you need to acquire and install the proper licensing – feel free to check out my web site for discounts on QuickBooks Premier and Pro.

Please understand that you may lose functionality that the business needs by moving out of Enterprise. For example, the user permissions and security are quite different between Enterprise and Premier/Pro. In addition, QuickBooks Pro allows you to have a maximum of 3 concurrent users in the company file, and Premier allows for a maximum of 5.

Tap into my handy guide that discusses the key differences in QuickBooks Enterprise, Premier and Pro to be sure you’re not going to regret making the move.

Once your QuickBooks is installed, you coordinate the actual timing of the conversion process with the QuickBooks Enterprise conversion team you have chosen to work with. They will provide you a link to upload your Enterprise file.

From there, they will work their magic and then send you back the converted file for use with QuickBooks Premier or Pro. In many cases, this happens over a weekend so that you finish on Friday using QuickBooks Enterprise and then start on Monday using QuickBooks Premier or Pro.

HAVE YOU MADE THE MOVE?

Curious to know if your business has bailed on QuickBooks Enterprise and moved back into QuickBooks Premier/Pro?

If so, how did the transition work out for you? Feel free to share your comments below so others can share in your experience…