n-How to Change From Cash to Accrual in QuickBooks (and What It Actually Changes)
In QuickBooks Online, go to Settings > Account and settings > Advanced, find Accounting method, select Edit, choose Accrual, then Save. In QuickBooks Desktop, it's a report preference rather than a global switch: Edit > Preferences > Reports & Graphs > Company Preferences. Either way, this changes how your reports are calculated, not the transactions themselves.
The full walkthrough
1. Open your accounting settings. In QuickBooks Online, click the gear icon, then Account and settings, then the Advanced tab.
2. Find Accounting method. It's under the Accounting section near the top. Click the pencil icon to edit it.
3. Choose Accrual or Cash. Select the one you want and click Save, then Done. QuickBooks applies it immediately to new reports you run.
4. In QuickBooks Desktop, set it as a reporting default instead. Go to Edit > Preferences > Reports & Graphs > Company Preferences and set the Summary Report Basis to Accrual or Cash.
5. Override it on a single report when you don't want to change the default. Any report in QuickBooks has a Cash/Accrual toggle right in its own settings, so you don't have to flip the company-wide switch just to see one report the other way.
What this setting doesn't do
This is the part people get wrong most often: changing the accounting method doesn't rewrite your transactions. Every invoice, bill, and payment is still recorded the same way it always was, on the date it happened. What changes is purely how QuickBooks summarizes those transactions into a report.
On a cash-basis report, income shows up when you're actually paid and expenses show up when you actually pay them. On an accrual-basis report, income shows up when you invoice (whether or not you've been paid) and expenses show up when you're billed (whether or not you've paid yet). Same underlying data, two different lenses on it.
That also means switching back and forth is low-risk in a way a lot of people don't expect. You're not migrating data or reprocessing anything, you're just telling QuickBooks which lens to use when it builds a report. The real work is making sure you're consistent about which basis you're using when you talk to your accountant, your lender, or the IRS.
What we've built on top of QuickBooks reporting
Reports that land in the right basis automatically
A scheduled P&L or board report gets generated and sent on the basis your accountant actually wants, every time, instead of someone remembering to flip the toggle before running it.
Dual-basis reconciliation checks
Cash and accrual versions of the same report get pulled side by side so a bookkeeper can spot a gap worth investigating, without manually running the same report twice and comparing by eye.
What reporting task are you still doing by hand in QuickBooks?
Tell us what it is, generating a specific report, reconciling two versions of the same numbers, exporting something for someone else to review, and we'll tell you if it can run itself.
Switching accounting methods and want the reporting side handled too?
If you're changing how your books are read, this is usually a good moment to also stop generating and sending those reports by hand every month. Tell us what reports you run and who gets them, and we'll tell you what can be automated. That goes for anything else manual in your business too, not just this one setting.
Let's talk