You can move those transactions over, but you'll need to create a new vendor profile first since QuickBooks Online won't let you convert an existing customer name directly into a vendor.
Why this happens
QuickBooks Online keeps customer, vendor, and employee names unique across your company so your reports, checks, and transactions don't get crossed up. That's the reason a name can't just switch categories on its own, even when it's clearly been entered under the wrong list.
Steps to move the transactions
- Create the new vendor. Go to Expenses & Bills, then Vendors, and select New Vendor. Give it a name that's at least one character different from the customer name (for example, "John J. Doe" instead of "John Doe").
- Pull every transaction tied to the customer. Run a Transaction List by Customer report for that name. This lists every expense in one place so you're not hunting through your books one at a time.
- Reassign each transaction. Open each one from the report, change the payee to the new vendor name, and save.
- Delete the old customer name once every transaction has been moved over.
- Clean up the vendor name if you want to drop the extra character now that the original customer name is gone.
This works the same way whether you're catching up a handful of transactions or well over a hundred going back several years. Running the report first is what saves you from opening each transaction blind.
Check out this article for more: Move names between Customer, Vendor, and Employee lists in QuickBooks Online
If any of the transactions are trickier, like ones that already have payments applied, drop a reply and we'll help sort those out too.
