Shivam

Helping QuickBooks Online Customers
in Data Migration Issues

Helping QuickBooks Online Customers
in Data Migration Issues

The problem

When users migrate payroll data from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, they frequently encounter data discrepancies. The current post-migration hub shows these discrepancies but doesn't offer a way to fix them, forcing users to frustratingly cross-verify reports between both versions.

People Impacted

The people impacted by this problem were small and medium business owners who had recently migrated to QuickBooks Online from Desktop and used payroll services to manage their payroll.

Business Goals

Provide a way for users to fix data mismatches after migration. Enhance the migration experience to increase the overall Product Retention Score and conversion of potential users from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

Design Process

Delight for Design

Design for Delight (D4D) is a framework based on three principles: Deep Customer Empathy, Go Broad to Go Narrow, and Rapid Experimentation. It focuses on understanding customer needs, generating diverse ideas, and quickly testing them for refinement.

My role

As the solo product designer for the post-migration hub redesign, I collaborated with cross-functional teams and led both customer studies and design delivery, transforming a manual, fragmented process into a streamlined, transparent experience.

01

Initial state

The initial state of the post-migration hub had sections for accounting, payroll, and payments. These sections displayed comparative values from relevant reports, along with links. In cases of a mismatch, users had to download these reports and manually compare each line item with the corresponding report from QuickBooks Desktop to identify the data set. This was a frustrating and labor-intensive process for users.

02

The gap

The post-migration hub gives feedback on users' accounting and payroll data, but it doesn't provide the exact locations of the discrepancies or a way to fix them.

03

Insights from the previous user studies

Feedback

01

Users expects a detailed post-migration reports

Users want more detailed post-migration reports to pinpoint data mismatches, rather than just a high-level overview. They currently have to manually compare QuickBooks Online and Desktop reports to find the specific discrepancies.

02

They want a ways to fix discrepancies

The current state of the post-migration hub doesn't provide a way to fix these mismatches. Users have to manually go to a specific place in QuickBooks Online and adjust the data themselves.

03

Manual data verification is a burden for users

Users are finding it difficult to verify migrated data, as they are returning to the old system to manually compare reports and individual line items.

04

What user's expectations were?

Users expect a 100% data migration. If that's not possible, also QuickBooks Online should show exactly where the mismatches are and provide a way to fix them

04

What user's expectations were?

Users expect a 100% data migration. If that's not possible, also QuickBooks Online should show exactly where the mismatches are and provide a way to fix them

05

First iteration

Showing the Online and Desktop values upfront at the level of transactions.

For the first round of iteration, we tried to go deeper by showing all transactions from QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online side by side. If a mismatch was found, the system would display a warning sign next to those transactions.

06

Brainstorming among the designers

The XD huddle

Feedback

01

We should provide the user with a clear, step-by-step guide on what to do next

From the XD huddle, we learned that these interfaces are not intuitive, which means users may not be able to understand the next required action.

02

We should show differences in the values in values between Online and Desktop

It might help users understand the significance of the issue and motivate them to take action to resolve it.

03

We should also provide an explanation for mismatches

Users expected a flawless migration, but were disappointed to find data discrepancies without a clear explanation for the mismatches.

07

What we understood from huddle?

Still, there’s a lot of back and forth the customer has to do to fix the mismatches. Apart from this, we also need to enhance the intuition within the interface.

08

Deep dive sessions with tech teams

Understanding the reasons for mismatches

Feedback

01

Operational methods cause discrepancies

We've learned that the different operational methods of QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online are the major reason for the mismatches after migration.

02

Show differences in the values in values between Online and Desktop

QuickBooks Desktop used to give a lot of flexibility in terms of using the platform. Because of this, users would often mess up their data books. QuickBooks Online, however, comes with strong guidelines and doesn’t allow these kinds of files. Because of this, a lot of data was missing after migration.

03

We should also provide an explanation for mismatches

The feature disparity between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop was one of the major reasons for the data mismatch after migration.

09

Second iteration

Solving for missing transactions and non posting checks

10

Usability Testing using usertesting .com

Feedback

01

Discrepancy in "Add" button expectations

Out of 14 customers, 12 expected that clicking the "Add" button would take them to a page where they could manually input a value. However, two customers believed that clicking "Add" would automatically correct the discrepancies.

02

Users expect more clarity on procedure

In designs, more emphasis should be placed on the information where we communicate the procedure. Additionally, providing step-by-step instructions may be more helpful.

03

Confusion over "Fix the Mismatch" functionality

While most customers understood that the "Fix the mismatch" button would lead to a pop-up for manual entry, one customer mistakenly thought it would automatically resolve the issues.

Key Learing

I learned to plan projects and estimate time more effectively. I also now understand the value of quickly building an MVP to get user feedback and prefer to collaborate.

Let’s collaborate.

Let’s collaborate.

Open to new roles.

The problem

When users migrate payroll data from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, they frequently encounter data discrepancies. The current post-migration hub shows these discrepancies but doesn't offer a way to fix them, forcing users to frustratingly cross-verify reports between both versions.

People Impacted

The people impacted by this problem were small and medium business owners who had recently migrated to QuickBooks Online from Desktop and used payroll services to manage their payroll.

Business Goals

Provide a way for users to fix data mismatches after migration. Enhance the migration experience to increase the overall Product Retention Score and conversion of potential users from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

Design Process

Delight for Design

Design for Delight (D4D) is a framework based on three principles: Deep Customer Empathy, Go Broad to Go Narrow, and Rapid Experimentation. It focuses on understanding customer needs, generating diverse ideas, and quickly testing them for refinement.

My role

As the solo product designer for the post-migration hub redesign, I collaborated with cross-functional teams and led both customer studies and design delivery, transforming a manual, fragmented process into a streamlined, transparent experience.

Brainstorming among the designers

The XD huddle

06

Feedback

01

We should provide the user with a clear, step-by-step guide on what to do next

From the XD huddle, we learned that these interfaces are not intuitive, which means users may not be able to understand the next required action.

02

We should show differences in the values in values between Online and Desktop

It might help users understand the significance of the issue and motivate them to take action to resolve it.

03

We should also provide an explanation for mismatches

Users expected a flawless migration, but were disappointed to find data discrepancies without a clear explanation for the mismatches.

Usability Testing using usertesting .com

10

Feedback

01

Discrepancy in "Add" button expectations

Out of 14 customers, 12 expected that clicking the "Add" button would take them to a page where they could manually input a value. However, two customers believed that clicking "Add" would automatically correct the discrepancies.

02

Users expect more clarity on procedure

In designs, more emphasis should be placed on the information where we communicate the procedure. Additionally, providing step-by-step instructions may be more helpful.

03

Confusion over "Fix the Mismatch" functionality

While most customers understood that the "Fix the mismatch" button would lead to a pop-up for manual entry, one customer mistakenly thought it would automatically resolve the issues.

04

What user's expectations were?

Users expect a 100% data migration. If that's not possible, also QuickBooks Online should show exactly where the mismatches are and provide a way to fix them

08

Deep dive sessions with tech teams

Understanding the reasons for mismatches

Feedback

01

Operational methods cause discrepancies

We've learned that the different operational methods of QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online are the major reason for the mismatches after migration.

02

Show differences in the values in values between Online and Desktop

QuickBooks Desktop used to give a lot of flexibility in terms of using the platform. Because of this, users would often mess up their data books. QuickBooks Online, however, comes with strong guidelines and doesn’t allow these kinds of files. Because of this, a lot of data was missing after migration.

03

We should also provide an explanation for mismatches

The feature disparity between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop was one of the major reasons for the data mismatch after migration.

07

What we understood from huddle?

Still, there’s a lot of back and forth the customer has to do to fix the mismatches. Apart from this, we also need to enhance the intuition within the interface.

09

Second iteration

Solving for missing transactions and non posting checks

Key Learing

I learned to plan projects and estimate time more effectively. I also now understand the value of quickly building an MVP to get user feedback and prefer to collaborate and fail early.

Shivam

Shivam

Shivam®

Shivam®

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