The hardest part of switching invoicing apps is usually not learning the new app.
It is deciding what to bring with you.
After a few years, an invoicing account can contain hundreds of clients, old products, abandoned estimates, paid invoices, attachments and settings you forgot existed.
Trying to recreate all of it in a new system can turn a simple switch into a migration project.
You probably do not need to.
A better approach is to separate records you must retain from data you still need to work with every day.
Archive the first group properly. Migrate the useful parts of the second.
This article is general information, not tax, accounting or legal advice. Record retention and migration decisions can affect bookkeeping and tax reporting, particularly when open transactions are recreated.
What should you export before leaving an invoicing app?
Start with the records that would be difficult or impossible to recreate later.
For most small businesses, that means:
- Invoices
- Quotes, estimates or proposals
- Client list
- Product or service list
- Payment history
- Credit notes and refunds
- Expense records if the old system held them
- Relevant reports
- Attachments and receipts
- Tax reports
- Account statements
- Any custom fields you rely on
Use more than one format when practical.
PDF is excellent for preserving what a human saw. CSV or Excel is better for structured data that you may want to sort, search or import elsewhere.
A screenshot is not a data export.
How do you export invoices from FreshBooks?
FreshBooks’ current support documentation says active and archived invoices can be exported as a CSV file from the Invoices section using More Actions, then Export Invoices.
FreshBooks also supports downloading invoices as PDFs.
Its broader data export guidance covers clients, expenses, invoices, estimates and proposals, items and services, reports and vendors. Some exports are available directly as CSV or PDF, while certain estimate and proposal CSV exports involve contacting FreshBooks support.
If you are leaving FreshBooks, do not export only a list of invoice totals. Download the actual invoice PDFs too.
The CSV is useful for data. The PDFs are useful as records.
How do you export data from QuickBooks Online?
QuickBooks Canada’s current support documentation provides an Export data function that can export reports and lists to Excel.
Intuit says the export can include information from posting transactions that affect account balances, including invoices, receipts and bills. Other data types have their own export methods.
QuickBooks also documents separate export steps for estimates, customer statements, attachments, recurring templates, the chart of accounts, products and services, and reports.
The exact set you need depends on what you used QuickBooks for.
If QuickBooks was your full bookkeeping system rather than only an invoice tool, switching invoicing apps is not the same thing as migrating your accounting records. Coordinate that move with whoever handles your books.
How long do you legally need to keep old invoices in Canada?
The CRA generally requires business records and supporting documents to be retained for six years from the end of the last tax year to which they relate.
There are exceptions.
If a return is filed late, the retention period can run from the filing date. Certain records related to long-term property and historical business information can need to be kept longer or indefinitely. The CRA can also require longer retention in some circumstances.
Electronic records must remain electronically readable for the required period.
See what records the CRA expects you to keep for the full rules, including what counts as a record and how long digital copies need to stay readable.
So cancelling an old software subscription is not a record retention strategy.
Before closing the account, make sure the records you are required to keep exist somewhere you control and can still read.
When is the best time of year to switch invoicing software?
January 1 is tidy, but it is not mandatory.
A calendar year boundary gives you a clean mental split: old system for one year, new system for the next.
But waiting nine months for January because you dislike your current setup makes little sense.
Month-end can be just as useful. So can the end of a major project or billing cycle.
The best cutover date is one you can explain later.
For example:
“All invoices issued through September 30 are in the old system. All invoices issued October 1 onward are in the new system.”
Write that down in your year-end notes.
A clear boundary matters more than a ceremonial date.
What should you do with invoices that are still unpaid when you switch?
Choose one source of truth.
You have two basic approaches.
The first is to leave existing invoices in the old system until they are paid, while creating all new invoices in the new app.
This preserves the original payment history but may require temporary access to both systems.
The second is to recreate the open invoices in the new system, with careful notes showing the original invoice number, date, amount and any payments already received.
If you do that, avoid accidentally creating what looks like a second sale in your bookkeeping.
Do not casually issue a brand new invoice number for the same receivable and then leave both versions active.
For a handful of open invoices, a controlled manual transfer can be simple. For dozens or hundreds, get your bookkeeper involved before making changes.
Should you import every old invoice into the new app?
Usually not.
Historical invoices need to be retained. That does not mean they all need to become editable live records in the new system.
If you have seven years of paid invoices, importing every line item can create a lot of work without improving the way you run the business today.
A PDF archive can preserve the old documents. Structured exports can preserve the old data.
Then the new app can begin with current clients, current products and open work.
There are exceptions. If you depend heavily on lifetime client sales reports inside the invoicing app, more history may be useful. But make that choice because you use the data, not because “migration” sounds like everything must move.
Which clients should you migrate?
Start with active ones.
If a client has not hired you since 2019 and there is no open balance, you probably do not need to rebuild their profile on day one.
Keep them in the archive.
Move clients with:
- Open invoices
- Active quotes
- Recurring work
- Current contact information
- Likely near-term work
This also gives you a chance to clean the list.
Old duplicates, obsolete contacts and clients with three slightly different spellings do not need to follow you forever.
Which products and services should you migrate?
The same rule applies.
Bring the things you still sell.
If your old system contains 140 products because every one-off line item became a saved product, do not automatically recreate 140 products.
Create a clean current catalogue.
For a service business, that might be a dozen common services and a few standard rates. For a contractor, it might be the common labour and material categories used repeatedly.
Historical invoice PDFs preserve what you sold in the past. The new product list should help you invoice the future.
What reports should you save before cancelling?
At minimum, save reports that help reconcile the final period in the old system.
Depending on the software and how you use it, that can include:
- Invoice detail
- Accounts receivable or ageing
- Sales by client
- Payments received
- Sales tax reports
- Credits and refunds
- Revenue summaries
- Expense reports
- Product or service sales
Run the reports through the cutover date.
If you later wonder why the new app begins with a $7,400 outstanding balance, the final ageing report from the old system can explain exactly what made it up.
What should you not bother migrating?
Anything you can preserve more reliably as an archive and do not need operationally.
That often includes:
- Old paid invoices as editable records
- Inactive clients
- Discontinued services
- Expired quotes with no continuing relevance
- Old email templates
- Obsolete automation rules
- Ancient branding settings
- Duplicate contacts
Migration is a chance to remove accumulated clutter.
The goal is not to make the new system look exactly like the old one. If that were the goal, you could stay where you are.
How do you start in Ledger in the middle of the year?
Pick a cutover date.
Add the clients and products you still use. Create new quotes and invoices in Ledger from that date onward.
For open receivables you want represented in the new system, recreate them carefully using the original information and keep the archived original. Make sure your bookkeeping does not treat the recreated record as new revenue.
Ledger keeps quotes, invoices, clients and products together, and a quote can become an invoice in one action. Client records carry their history from the point you begin using the app.
It does not need seven years of old paid invoices imported before you can send invoice number one from the new system.
How should you archive the old system?
Create a folder named clearly, such as:
FreshBooks Archive to 2026-09-30
or:
QuickBooks Invoice Archive to 2026-09-30
Inside it, keep the exports organised by type.
For example:
- Invoice PDFs
- Invoice CSV
- Clients
- Quotes and estimates
- Payments
- Reports
- Tax
- Attachments
Add a short text file that explains the cutover date and anything unusual, such as which five invoices were still open.
Then back up the entire archive somewhere separate.
Open a sample of the files before cancelling the old account. An export is only useful if it actually contains what you thought you exported.
Should you keep paying for the old app just to access history?
That depends on the service terms and how complete your export is, but the goal should be to avoid making your legal record retention depend entirely on indefinite paid access to the old system.
If the provider offers a read-only period after cancellation, that can be convenient. It should not be your only copy.
The CRA makes the taxpayer responsible for protecting and producing required records even when a third party holds them.
Own your archive.
A clean switch is mostly about boundaries
You do not need to recreate your entire business history to change invoicing apps.
Export the old records in durable formats. Keep what the CRA requires. Save the reports that explain the final state of the old system. Choose a clear cutover date. Bring active clients and current products into the new app. Decide deliberately how to handle open invoices.
Then move forward.
The easiest migration is the one where the old system remains a well-organised archive rather than a second system you have to keep alive forever.
Sources: FreshBooks on exporting your data and managing your invoices; QuickBooks Canada on exporting your QuickBooks Online data and exporting reports to Excel; Canada Revenue Agency on where to keep your records, for how long, and how to request permission to destroy them early and electronic record keeping (IC05-1).