QuickBooks Self-Employed to Sole Trader Plus migration: how to recover missing invoices and transaction history
If you have recently moved to Sole Trader Plus, your records will be in a different place to where you are used to looking. This guide covers where everything now sits, what is not part of the move, and what to do if something specific still cannot be found.
First: check the move has finished
Your data transfers in stages and can take up to 72 hours to complete. You will receive a confirmation email once it has finished.
Until that email arrives, records may appear incomplete simply because they are still transferring. Wait for the confirmation before adding or editing transactions — changes made mid-transfer can result in duplicates.
Where to find your invoices
Invoice history is under Sales.
- Check your status filters first. Statuses are now Draft, Sent, Overdue or Paid rather than Unpaid/Paid, so a narrow filter will hide most of your list
- Widen the date range, as default views often show recent activity only
- Use the search bar to search by customer name or by amount
Where to find your transactions
Bank activity is under Accounting > Bank transactions.
The For review tab holds transactions that have arrived from your bank but have not yet been categorised. These are not part of your reports until you review them, so check this tab before assuming anything is absent.
To categorise: open For review, select the transaction, choose an account from the Category dropdown, then select Add.
Your bank accounts now appear as an Asset in the Chart of Accounts. This differs from Self-Employed, where bank accounts sat outside your categories, and is expected.
Your categories are now a Chart of Accounts
Simple labels such as "Travel" are now specific ledger accounts, grouped into Income, Expenses, Assets, Liabilities and Equity. Your transactions are still there under more precise account names.
This structure is what allows Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports to build automatically, which makes Self Assessment and VAT preparation considerably quicker.
Worth knowing: if you used tags or labels in Self-Employed, these are not part of the move. Use the Chart of Accounts categories going forward.
Check your bank connection if recent transactions are missing
If a bank connection had not been refreshed for some time before your move, transactions from that account may not have carried across.
- Check the date of the most recent transaction for that account
- If there is a gap, reconfirm your bank connection
- If the account cannot be reconnected, set it up as a new connection
Banks differ in how far back they allow you to backdate. If a gap remains, you can upload the missing transactions manually.
A note on customer records
Sole Trader Plus has a dedicated Customers section, which Self-Employed did not. Self-Employed stored client names on individual invoices rather than in a contacts database, so names from your invoice history will appear, but details such as email, address and phone number will need adding. It is worth doing this once at the start, as it makes future invoicing faster.
Match, don't Add
When a customer pays an invoice, match the bank transaction to that invoice rather than adding it separately.
If you send a £100 invoice and £100 later appears in your bank feed, selecting Add records a second £100 of income. Look for the green Match prompt instead — it marks the invoice as paid without duplicating the income.
Invoices already marked Paid before the move do not need matching. Matching applies only to invoices that were Open or Draft at the time, and to new invoices from now on.
If something specific still cannot be found
Do not recreate the record manually, as this creates duplicates. Note the date, customer, amount and invoice number if you have it, then book a free 1:1 session so your account can be reviewed directly. You are also welcome to post the details below and the Community will help you narrow down where to look.