Windows to Mac Conversion Failing for Accounts Payable / Receivables accounts

jgbinpa

I'm trying to transfer a Windows 10 file to my new Mac and get the following errors during the conversion process

9 accounts processed (4 were imported, 0 matched existing accounts)
Unspecified Account was not imported because of an error
The account Unspecified Account could not be imported because no installed module supports 0 accounts
Imported DMN - Cash Account
Imported Marbella - Cash Account
Imported YWD - Cash Account
DMN - Accounts Receivable was not imported because of an error
The account DMN - Accounts Receivable could not be imported because no installed module supports 4001 accounts
YWD - Accounts Receivable was not imported because of an error
The account YWD - Accounts Receivable could not be imported because no installed module supports 4001 accounts
DMN - Accounts Payable was not imported because of an error
The account DMN - Accounts Payable could not be imported because no installed module supports 5001 accounts
Imported YWD - *Sales Tax*
YWD - Accounts Payable was not imported because of an error
The account YWD - Accounts Payable could not be imported because no installed module supports 5001 accounts

Anyone else experience this issue?

Thanks, John

Boatnmaniac

It sounds like you might be trying to convert Quicken for Windows Home & Business to Mac.  But Mac does not have a Home & Business edition.  So if that is what you are trying to do you will not be able to do a normal conversion and things like Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable (Home & Business account types) cannot be converted because Mac doesn't have all the equivalent Home & Business account types.

If you really do want/need Home & Business you might want to consider installing Parallels on your Mac.  It is my understanding that you will then be able to run the QW Home & Business on your Mac with data file conversion needed.

jacobs

@jgbinpa As you likely know, Quicken Mac doesn't have any true business software components, although it can definitely be used for managing a small business.

In Quicken windows, is Accounts Receivable an actual account type, like checking, savings, credit card, etc.? Or is "DMW - Accounts Receivable" just the name you have given to an Asset account? I have not read of people having a problem with asset and liability accounts not transferring.

Quicken Mac has an Asset account type and a Liability account type, so you can definitely have an account for Accounts Receivable and and account for Accounts Payable, you'll need to manage with manual entries.

If the account in Quicken Windows for your Accounts Receivable is not Type=Asset, can you (in a copy of your data file) change the account type to Asset? The same for Accounts Payable being Type=Liability. 

Boatnmaniac

It sounds like you might be trying to convert Quicken for Windows Home & Business to Mac.  But Mac does not have a Home & Business edition.  So if that is what you are trying to do you will not be able to do a normal conversion and things like Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable (Home & Business account types) cannot be converted because Mac doesn't have all the equivalent Home & Business account types.

If you really do want/need Home & Business you might want to consider installing Parallels on your Mac.  It is my understanding that you will then be able to run the QW Home & Business on your Mac with data file conversion needed.

jgbinpa

Jacobs, thanks for responding so quickly.

Unfortunately, I didn't know Quicken Mac "doesn't have any true business software components". That's a big disappointment especially since the version I am using is called Quicken Home & Business. I have been using the Windows version to handle my wife's and my businesses for more than a decade, generating invoices, noting payments, tracking billed expenses and mileage, etc..

When I look at the details of each account, for the "Accounts Receivable" accounts, the account type is listed as Customer Invoice. For the "Accounts Payable" accounts, the account type is listed as Vendor Invoice. I'm not sure I can edit the file as it is a binary file.

The Quicken file conversion utility handled my other two files (personal and investments) with no problem. Seems like I need to dig a little deeper to see if it will support my business needs.

Thanks again. John

jacobs

@Boatnmaniac So in Quicken Windows H&B, are Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable specific payment types? And if so, can the payment type be switched to Asset and Liability instead? 

Boatnmaniac

jacobs said:

@Boatnmaniac So in Quicken Windows H&B, are Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable specific payment types? And if so, can the payment type be switched to Asset and Liability instead? 

Type in "Account Types" in Help and a list of account types comes up for the various editions.  Yes, A/R and A/P are specific account types in H&B.  Unfortunately, I don't have H&B myself so I can't answer your question.  Hopefully, someone with H&B will pop in here and educate us.

UPDATE:  In that "Account Types" in Help it says that account types cannot be changed but that account intent can be changed.  Again, I don't have H&B so I don't know what account intent options might be available for those account types or if they will be of help in this situation.

jgbinpa

@Boatnmaniac Thanks for the information. Running on Parallels is an option, although I'm not a fan of the virtual environments stuff as it adds another level of complexity (and I say that as a Software Engineer). My IT group at my work is pretty sharp. Perhaps I'll see what they know about Parallesl.

Fortunately, I can leave my Windows PC running for now and just use that for the Business while I investigate my options. Perhaps I can move to Quickbooks (and downgrade my subscription from the Home & Business edition).

jacobs

@jgbinpa You can use Quicken Mac to track business transactions. My wife ran her own business for years, and we used Quicken Mac to manage her finances (including A/R); I was the treasurer of a small national association for a long time, and used Quicken to do the books (including A/R and A/P). But A/R and A/P are not automated; there is no invoicing/billing built into Quicken Mac. So it depends what specifically you need to do, and perhaps what volume of these types of transactions you have, whether Quicken Mac is a viable match for your needs.

There are many Quicken users who use Parallels on a Mac so they can run Quicken Windows software. Also, if you have a Mac from the past 18 months or so (with an M1 or M2 chip instead of an Intel processor), you'll need to obtain the Windows 11 on ARM Insider Preview; the Parallels folks make this very easy and it's well-documented exactly how to get it installed. 

Boatnmaniac

jgbinpa said:

@Boatnmaniac Thanks for the information. Running on Parallels is an option, although I'm not a fan of the virtual environments stuff as it adds another level of complexity (and I say that as a Software Engineer). My IT group at my work is pretty sharp. Perhaps I'll see what they know about Parallesl.

Fortunately, I can leave my Windows PC running for now and just use that for the Business while I investigate my options. Perhaps I can move to Quickbooks (and downgrade my subscription from the Home & Business edition).

Parallels is the one that I most frequently hear of being used with QW on Macs but I think there are many other alternatives to that.  Your IT group will hopefully be able to give you some great guidance on what your best option(s) might be.

As an FYI, Quickbooks is an entirely different program from Intuit and it is not compatible with Quicken (which is not Intuit).  Export/Import/data conversion compatibility is something you'll want to look into, as well.

BTW, Quickbooks is a more expensive program.  It might be less expensive to stay with H&B and go the Parallels route.  Of course, the least expensive and easiest route to go is to continue using H&B on your Windows system.

jgbinpa

@Boatnmaniac, Thanks for all of the advice. It sounds like Parallels may be the way to go. I just got a new 24" iMac with the M1 chip so I'll make sure I get the appropriate version. (Based on their website looks like Parallels Desktop 17 for Mac is the latest that supports the M1 chip). I have to say, after running Quicken on the Mac for a few days now, I do like the Windows interface much better, and I use the built-in invoice forms for all of my billing.

I checked out Quickbooks and I agree it is overkill and expensive. My business is a small side business and my wife only bills once per month to one client. Neither of us has a lot of expenses other than some software licenses.

Time to dig in to Parallels!

jacobs

Boatnmaniac said:
Parallels is the one that I most frequently hear of being used with QW on Macs but I think there are many other alternatives to that. 

Actually not. VMWare Fusion has been the main competition to Parallels over the years, but they were very slow to develop a solution for running Windows on M1 Macs. Fusion has a "technology preview" version, but doesn't yet have an official released version; Parallels got there a year ago.

(The big issue, aside from the underlying technology, is that Microsoft provides an ARM-based versions of Windows 11, but it's not officially supported. Microsoft has not answered whether it intends to do so in the future, so for for the foreseeable future, there's a workable solution, but it's a little tenuous.)

CrossOver is a different software option; it's not a VM, like Parallels and Fusion, but software which translates Windows API calls to Mac APIs. On Intel Macs, I think reports were generally positive about running Quicken Windows, but I don't know if I've read about this combination on M1 Macs. CrossOver is not native for M1 Macs, so it runs using the Mac's Rosetta 2 emulator and performance won't be as good as a Windows app in a native VM.

I'm not aware of any other options currently.

jgbinpa said:

My business is a small side business and my wife only bills once per month to one client.

If you only do a few invoices, you might find you can create your invoices in a Word/Pages template while recording the billed amounts and subsequent payments in Quicken. That's obviously not as slick as an integrated billing and A/R solution, but I can say from my wife doing it for years that it's definitely do-able for a business with low volume invoicing. And the least expensive solution!