Do You Need Accounting CS Just to Get QuickBooks into UltraTax CS? (Accounting CS vs. AccountantSync)

If you've searched for how to import QuickBooks into UltraTax CS, you've hit Thomson Reuters' own answer: "You can't import QuickBooks data directly into UltraTax CS. You can import your client QuickBooks data into Accounting CS, make any necessary adjustments, then import into UltraTax CS." In other words, the recommended path to move a trial balance from QuickBooks into your tax software runs through a second Thomson Reuters product — Accounting CS.

That raises a fair question for a small or mid-size firm: do you really need a full write-up and payroll platform sitting between QuickBooks and UltraTax, just to code a trial balance once a year? This is a comparison of the three real ways to bridge that gap — the Accounting CS detour, the manual Excel import, and a direct trial-balance bridge — with the trade-offs laid out so you can pick the one that fits your firm.

First, why the gap exists at all

UltraTax CS imports trial balance data natively only from Thomson Reuters' own CS Professional Suite — Accounting CS, Trial Balance CS, and Workpapers CS. QuickBooks Online and Xero aren't on that list, so their balances have to arrive as outside data. We cover the mechanics of that in depth in the QuickBooks Online to UltraTax CS gap; the short version is that UltraTax routes every balance to a return line based on the tax code assigned to the account, and QuickBooks accounts don't carry those codes. Something has to add them. The three options below differ mainly in where that coding happens and how much else you have to buy or build to get there.

Option 1: The Accounting CS detour (the Thomson Reuters-recommended path)

Accounting CS is Thomson Reuters' professional accounting platform for write-up, trial balance, bookkeeping, payroll, and financial statements. It's a capable product — but it's a full client-accounting system, not a lightweight import utility. Using it purely as a conduit to UltraTax looks like this:

  1. Get the QuickBooks data into Accounting CS. Accounting CS's direct QuickBooks integration targets QuickBooks Desktop (Pro, Premier, Enterprise). If your clients are on QuickBooks Online, you generally export a trial balance to a spreadsheet and use Accounting CS's spreadsheet import to bring the balances in — so you're already doing an export-and-map step before UltraTax even enters the picture.
  2. Assign a tax code to every account — inside Accounting CS. After the balances land, you assign the UltraTax tax code to each account. Thomson Reuters is explicit that "you can only assign or correct tax codes for Accounting CS clients from within Accounting CS." It's a one-time assignment per account, but it's coding you do in a second application, per client.
  3. Retrieve the balances into UltraTax CS. UltraTax then examines and summarizes the general ledger balances from the Accounting CS write-up file, applies whole-dollar rounding, and transfers each amount to the right input screen by tax code.

Where it makes sense: if you already license Accounting CS and keep clients' books or write-up there, the UltraTax retrieve is genuinely seamless — this is the workflow the CS Professional Suite was designed for, and it's hard to beat for firms already living in that ecosystem.

Where it doesn't: if your clients' books live in QuickBooks Online or Xero and you only need to move a trial balance into UltraTax at tax time, Accounting CS is a large, separately-licensed platform bought to solve a much smaller problem. Thomson Reuters doesn't publish Accounting CS pricing — you contact sales — but it is priced as a full accounting system, not as an import add-on. You're also maintaining a duplicate chart of accounts and a per-client tax-code assignment in a tool your books don't otherwise touch.

Option 2: The manual Excel import (skip Accounting CS)

Thomson Reuters documents a second path: import trial balance data into UltraTax CS directly from Microsoft Excel, bypassing Accounting CS entirely. This is the route most firms without Accounting CS actually take, and it's the workflow we walk step by step in mapping QBO accounts to UltraTax tax codes. In outline:

  • Export the trial balance from QuickBooks Online (or Xero) to Excel.
  • Reshape it into the columns UltraTax expects — account number, description, unit, tax code, and amount — collapsing debits and credits into a single signed amount and trimming account numbers to UltraTax's 12-character limit.
  • Assign a tax code to every account by hand, using the Tax Code Listing for the client's entity type.
  • Import the spreadsheet into UltraTax.

Where it makes sense: no extra software to license. For a firm with a handful of clients, a well-built template gets the job done.

Where it doesn't: the coding is entirely manual and entity-specific, and none of it persists. An account left without a tax code is silently excluded rather than flagged, duplicate account numbers under one tax grouping fail to import, and the spreadsheet you build this year doesn't carry forward to next year. It's the cheapest option in dollars and the most expensive in preparer hours — which is the whole reason firms end up re-keying the same trial balances every season.

Option 3: A direct trial-balance bridge (AccountantSync)

AccountantSync is built for exactly the firm the first two options underserve: books in QuickBooks Online or Xero, returns in UltraTax CS, and no desire to buy a write-up platform or rebuild a spreadsheet every April. It's the universal trial balance bridge to UltraTax CS. The workflow:

  1. Connect QuickBooks Online or Xero directly (both are generally available, alongside spreadsheet/CSV upload) and pull the client's trial balance for the period.
  2. Set the entity type — 1120, 1120-S, 1065, Schedule C — so every mapping is entity-aware from the first account.
  3. Auto-map the accounts to UltraTax tax codes, with the confident ones pre-filled and the judgment calls flagged.
  4. Generate a UltraTax-ready import file with signs, whole-dollar rounding, 12-character account numbers, and grouping sums handled to UltraTax's spec.

The difference that matters over a full tax season isn't any single import — it's that the mapping persists year over year and copies between similar clients. You don't re-assign tax codes inside a second application (Option 1) or rebuild a spreadsheet from scratch (Option 2); you map a client once and reuse it. If your clients are split across QuickBooks Online and Xero, the same approach covers both — the Xero-to-UltraTax path works identically.

How to choose

  • You already run Accounting CS for write-up or payroll. Stay on the CS Professional Suite path — the UltraTax retrieve is built for it. Options 2 and 3 don't save you much.
  • Your books live in QuickBooks Online or Xero, and you only need the trial balance in UltraTax. Accounting CS is more platform than the job requires. The real choice is between the manual Excel import (free, but fully manual and nothing persists) and a direct bridge (mappings that carry forward). The more clients you have and the more returns you repeat year over year, the more the persistence pays off.
  • You're a very small firm with a few returns. The manual Excel template is a defensible starting point — just know that every hour it costs is an hour you're re-spending next season.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to buy Accounting CS to import QuickBooks into UltraTax CS?

No. Accounting CS is Thomson Reuters' recommended path because it's part of the same CS Professional Suite, but it isn't required. UltraTax CS can import trial balance data directly from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, so you can code the accounts yourself and skip Accounting CS. You can also use a direct bridge like AccountantSync that connects to QuickBooks Online or Xero and generates the UltraTax import file without any Thomson Reuters write-up product in between.

What is Accounting CS actually for?

Accounting CS is a full professional accounting platform — write-up, trial balance, bookkeeping, payroll, and financial statements. Because it belongs to the same suite as UltraTax CS, balances flow from Accounting CS into UltraTax by tax code automatically. That integration is genuinely seamless for firms that already keep client books or write-up in Accounting CS; it's heavier than most firms need if they only want to move a QuickBooks trial balance into UltraTax at tax time.

Can Accounting CS import from QuickBooks Online?

Accounting CS's direct QuickBooks integration is built for QuickBooks Desktop (Pro, Premier, Enterprise). For QuickBooks Online, the common path is to export the trial balance to a spreadsheet and use Accounting CS's spreadsheet import — so there's an export-and-map step before the data reaches Accounting CS, and a tax-code assignment step inside it, before UltraTax ever retrieves the balances.

What's the difference between the Accounting CS detour and AccountantSync?

The Accounting CS detour routes your data through a full write-up platform where you assign tax codes per account, per client, from inside that application. AccountantSync connects to QuickBooks Online or Xero directly, auto-maps the accounts to UltraTax tax codes, and generates the import file — and the mapping persists year over year and copies between similar clients, so you set a client up once instead of re-coding every season. Start free with your first two clients, no credit card required.