Outright Accounting Software: Product Status and Migration

Outright accounting software is a legacy product, not a current accounting system to adopt. GoDaddy acquired Outright in 2012 and incorporated it into GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping. GoDaddy later retired the online bookkeeping service in 2022. A reader searching for Outright today should focus on recovering records, validating prior books, and choosing a supported replacement.

Do not enter credentials into an unofficial site claiming to restore the old product. Use retained exports, statements, tax returns, marketplace reports, payment-processor records, invoices, receipts, and bank data to rebuild a complete accounting trail.

What Outright became

GoDaddy’s 2013 acquisition release states that its Online Bookkeeping product combined the earlier acquisition of Outright with invoicing technology. The later GoDaddy service agreement described an internet service for self-employed people and small businesses to track income and expenses, organize tax information, and, for paid users, access additional reports and history.

Those historical pages explain the product lineage but do not establish current service availability. The agreement also warned that users were responsible for collecting desired content before cancellation and allowed discontinuation. That is a useful lesson for every cloud accounting product: maintain an independent export and exit plan while the service is operating.

Identify what records still exist

Record source	What to retrieve	Control total
Legacy Outright or GoDaddy exports	Transactions, categories, invoices, customers, reports, tax summaries	Counts and totals by year, account, and transaction type
Bank and card institutions	Statements, transaction files, check images, deposit detail	Statement beginning and ending balances
Marketplaces	Orders, refunds, fees, taxes, adjustments, payouts	Gross sales through net settlement by payout
Payment processors	Charges, fees, disputes, reserves, refunds, deposits	Activity and ending balance by period
Tax files	Returns, workpapers, depreciation, estimated payments, information forms	Reported income, expense, asset, and liability figures
Source documents	Invoices, bills, receipts, contracts, mileage and asset records	Document population tied to recorded transactions

Preserve original files read-only before transforming them. Record the download date, source account, date range, file type, and any missing period.

Assess the legacy books before migration

A category list designed for Schedule C preparation may not equal a complete double-entry ledger. Determine whether the legacy records contain bank and card balances, accounts receivable, accounts payable, loans, sales-tax liabilities, fixed assets, equity, undeposited funds, and processor clearing accounts.

Compare each bank and card account to monthly statements. Rebuild marketplace and processor reconciliations from gross sales, discounts, refunds, fees, taxes, reserves, and deposits. A net bank deposit should not be recorded as gross revenue when the underlying settlement contains other elements.

Tie historical annual totals to filed tax returns and the accountant’s workpapers, but investigate differences rather than changing the books to match a return automatically. Tax and book classifications can differ.

Choose the replacement by workflow

Document current sales channels, payment processors, banks, cards, invoices, bills, contractors, employees, inventory, fixed assets, sales tax, projects, and reports. Identify whether the business needs cash-basis tracking only or a complete accrual ledger.

A marketplace seller may need a settlement application plus a general ledger. A freelancer may need invoicing, expense capture, estimated-tax support data, and simple reconciliation. A growing business may need receivables, payables, inventory, payroll connections, permissions, and accountant access.

Shortlist supported products only after confirming the exact US version, current integrations, export formats, user roles, and record-retention options in official documentation.

Test marketplace and payment mappings

For each channel, decide which system owns orders, invoices, refunds, fees, sales tax, shipping, discounts, and payouts. Define a unique settlement or transaction identifier. Map gross sales, returns, fees, liabilities, and cash to separate accounts.

Run one payout containing several sales, a refund, a platform fee, collected tax, and a reserve adjustment. The accounting system should record each component and reconcile the net deposit exactly. Test a chargeback and a later correction.

Decide the migration method

Full-detail conversion

Import transaction history when files contain reliable dates, amounts, accounts, names, and identifiers and the destination supports the objects. This offers search and comparative reporting but requires the most mapping and duplicate control.

Open items and balances

Move unpaid invoices, unpaid bills, uncleared items, loans, tax liabilities, assets, and an opening trial balance. Retain a complete readable legacy archive. This can be practical when old transaction exports do not map cleanly.

Clean cutoff

Begin at the start of a month or year after reconciling the old period. Enter approved opening balances and keep historical reports and source files separately. A clean cutoff is not permission to discard legacy evidence.

Worked reconstruction example

An online seller has annual Outright-derived exports, bank statements, payment-processor CSV files, and marketplace settlement reports. The old annual report shows $96,400 of income, while deposits total $88,730.

The difference consists of $5,210 in marketplace fees, $1,340 in refunds, $720 in processor fees, and $400 still held in a year-end reserve. The reconstruction records gross sales, offsets refunds and fees, recognizes the reserve receivable, and ties cash to deposits.

The seller imports the new year’s opening bank, card, processor, sales-tax, asset, liability, and equity balances into the replacement. One full payout is tested before bulk imports begin. The accepted result is the source-to-ledger reconciliation, not the fact that the old annual income number reappears.

Validate the replacement books

1. Import customers, vendors, accounts, and opening balances into a test company.
2. Process representative sales, refunds, fees, deposits, bills, expenses, card charges, transfers, and tax activity.
3. Reconcile every bank, card, marketplace, and processor balance.
4. Compare profit and loss, balance sheet, general ledger, tax support, and transaction counts.
5. Correct a duplicate and an incorrect category, then review the audit history.
6. Close the period, restrict a user, export the complete file, and test recovery.

Recordkeeping after a discontinued product

The IRS’s current electronic accounting records FAQ explains that electronic files may be requested during an examination. Its automated-records guidance also states that using a third party does not relieve the taxpayer of recordkeeping duties. Preserve accessible transaction detail and the documentation that links transformed exports to the original records.

IRS Publication 583 explains that electronic records should be complete, accurate, accessible, and reproducible. If the original application is unavailable, maintain sequential exports, field definitions, category mappings, reconciliation workpapers, tax returns, and source documents in formats that can still be read.

Common migration failures

• Searching for a download of the retired product instead of preserving and rebuilding records.
• Importing net marketplace deposits as sales without fees, refunds, taxes, and reserves.
• Loading all legacy categories into a new chart without an approved crosswalk.
• Creating duplicate activity from overlapping bank and marketplace imports.
• Matching the profit and loss while ignoring cash, cards, liabilities, assets, and equity.
• Discarding raw exports after a transformed file appears to import successfully.
• Choosing another cloud service without periodic exports and a tested exit plan.

Decision rule

Do not adopt or depend on Outright accounting software today. Treat it as a legacy record source. Select a current replacement only after it reconstructs the required history, preserves an audit trail, reconciles every financial source, completes a representative close, and provides complete exports that remain usable outside the vendor.

Continue with the Accounting Software and Tools hub, compare small-business accounting requirements, review SMB accounting systems, or examine current software candidates.

Educational information only. Tax, payroll, and compliance rules change and may vary by jurisdiction. Confirm the current requirements for your facts with the appropriate agency or a qualified professional.

For help rebuilding or reconciling books in QuickBooks, review Steady’s QuickBooks services.