Cross-company restore in QuickBooks Online: What to expect and how SysCloud handles it

SysCloud’s cross-company restore feature allows you to restore backed-up data from one QuickBooks Online company to another. Whether you're restoring the entire company, just specific records, or selected list items, it’s important to understand what SysCloud does behind the scenes and why. 

This article explains the restore process for each type of data and outlines important limitations so you can plan your restore effectively.

1. Best practices for cross-company restore

Before initiating any restore, we strongly recommend: 

• Always restore to a new or clean QuickBooks Online company 
  This helps prevent naming conflicts, duplicate entries, and inflated balances caused by overlapping data. 

• Understand that restores cannot be undone 
  Once a cross-company restore begins, it cannot be rolled back. Be sure of the destination company and your restore selections. 

• Review all limitations and restore logic before starting 
  Understanding how SysCloud handles each object type ensures that you choose the right strategy—especially for overwriting vs. suffixing and handling restricted fields. 
• Initiate restore within the same QuickBooks Online plan 
  Since each QuickBooks Online plan supports only a limited set of objects and features, restoring from one plan type (e.g., Advanced) to another (e.g., Simple Start) may result in restore failures due to unsupported objects. 
  To ensure compatibility, we recommend performing cross-company restores between companies that are on the same QuickBooks Online subscription plan.

This restore option brings over everything backed up from your original QuickBooks Online company: 

• Transactions – Invoices, bills, journal entries, payments, and more 

• Lists – Customers, vendors, accounts, items, etc. 

• Attachables – Files and documents associated with supported objects 

This is the most complete restore mode and replicates the structure and content of one company into another. 

How SysCloud handles the restore and why: 

Transactions 

• Always created as new 
  QuickBooks Online does not allow duplicate document numbers through the API. If a transaction already exists with the same number, the restore will fail. 
  To avoid this, SysCloud appends a timestamp to the document number to make it unique. 
  Example: INV1001 becomes INV1001202507211100. 

• No overwrite of existing data 
  All transactions are newly created. Existing transactions in the destination company remain unchanged. 
• Audit trail not restored 
  QuickBooks Online does not allow audit history (such as created by, modified by) to be carried over. 

Lists 

• You choose how to restore list items 

• Overwrite existing items by name 

• Create new items by appending a suffix (e.g., ABC Corp 2024) 

• Why suffixing is needed 
  QuickBooks Online does not allow duplicate display names for lists. Using a suffix ensures the restore can proceed without conflict. 

• Suffix rules 
  No special characters are allowed, and the total name must stay within QuickBooks Online character limits. 

• Balances are intentionally not restored 
  Balances are recalculated through associated transactions. Including them during restore would cause inflated totals. 

• Certain of new accounts for following are skipped 
  QuickBooks Online restricts duplication of some system accounts. These will not be restored if they already exist in the destination: 

• Undeposited Funds 

• Unapplied Cash Payment Income 

• Unapplied Cash Bill Payment Expense 

• Opening Balance Equity 

• Retained Earnings 

Attachables 

All associated attachments are restored 
SysCloud restores all files linked to supported objects (such as receipts, uploaded documents, and invoice PDFs) into the destination company, ensuring your records remain complete. 

3. Cross-company restore for transactions

When restoring only transactions from one QuickBooks Online company to another: 

• All transactions are created as new in the destination company. 

• Document numbers are made unique by appending a timestamp (e.g., BILL45620250721T1030). 

• Audit history may not be retained.

• No existing transactions are overwritten. 

This restore type is useful when you want to preserve financial activity without affecting your list structure.

4. Cross-company restore for lists

When restoring only list items (customers, vendors, accounts, products, etc.): 

• You can choose between: 
  • Overwriting existing entries 
  • Creating new entries using a suffix 

• SysCloud does not restore balances for lists, as those are recalculated by restored transactions. 

• Suffix guidelines: 
  • No special characters 
  • Name + suffix must stay within QuickBooks Online’s character limit 
• Restricted system accounts will not be restored if they already exist: 
  • Undeposited Funds 
  • Unapplied Cash Payment Income 
  • Unapplied Cash Bill Payment Expense 
  • Opening Balance Equity 
  • Retained Earnings 

This restore option is suitable when you want to replicate the master data structure from one company into another. 

5. Limitations to keep in mind