How to Export Your Customers from QuickBooks and Separate Addresses into Columns

If you’re exporting your customer list from QuickBooks Online (QBO) or QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) into Mothernode, you’ll first need to export your customer data, then clean up the address column so that each element (street, city, state, ZIP) is in its own field.

This guide walks you through both parts of the process.


Part 1: Exporting Customers from QuickBooks

A. Export from QuickBooks Online (QBO)

  1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online account.

  2. Go to Settings ⚙️Export data.

  3. Select the Reports tab.

  4. Under Customers and vendors, check Customer contact list.

  5. Choose your desired date range (or leave as “All”).

  6. Click Export to Excel (.xlsx).

  7. Open the downloaded file in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

📝 Tip: You can also go to Reports → Customer Contact List, then use the Export → Export to Excel option in the upper right corner.


B. Export from QuickBooks Desktop (QBD)

  1. Open your QuickBooks Desktop company file.

  2. Go to the Reports menu → Customers & ReceivablesCustomer Contact List.

  3. Once the report loads, click ExcelCreate New Worksheet.

  4. Choose Create a new worksheet and click Export.

  5. Save the exported file to your computer (it will open in Excel automatically).

📝 Tip: If the “Excel” button isn’t visible, make sure Microsoft Excel is installed on the same computer.


Part 2: Preparing Your Data

Most exports combine the Full Address into one cell (for example:
123 Main Street, Dallas, TX 75201).
You’ll need to separate that information into individual columns: Street, City, State, and ZIP Code.


A. In Microsoft Excel

Step 1: Select the Address Column

  1. Open your exported file in Excel.

  2. Click the column header that contains the addresses.

Step 2: Use “Text to Columns”

  1. Go to the Data tab → click Text to Columns.

  2. Choose Delimited → click Next.

  3. Check the Comma (,) box → click Next.

  4. Choose the destination cell (or leave as default) → click Finish.

Now, your addresses are split into separate columns (for example:

Column A Column B Column C Column D
123 Main St Dallas TX 75201

Step 3: Clean Up (Optional)

  • Rename your headers to Street, City, State, and ZIP.

  • If ZIP codes have lost leading zeros (e.g., “02108” → “2108”), change that column’s format to Text.


B. In Google Sheets

Step 1: Select the Address Column

  1. Open your exported file in Google Sheets.

  2. Highlight the column containing the full address.

Step 2: Split Text into Columns

  1. From the top menu, click Data → Split text to columns.

  2. At the bottom of the screen, a separator menu will appear.

  3. Choose Comma as the separator.

Google Sheets will automatically separate the address into individual columns.

Step 3: Adjust and Label Columns

  • Rename each header appropriately (Street, City, State, ZIP).

  • If state and ZIP are combined (for example, “TX 75201”), you can split again:

    1. Select that column.

    2. Go to Data → Split text to columns again.

    3. Choose Space as the separator.


✅ Final Check

When finished, your sheet should look like this:

Customer Name Street Address City State ZIP
John Smith 123 Main Street Dallas TX 75201
Jane Doe 456 Oak Ave Austin TX 78701

Summary

Task Tool Steps
Export customers QBO Settings → Export data → Customer contact list
Export customers QBD Reports → Customer Contact List → Excel
Separate address Excel Data → Text to Columns → Delimited by comma
Separate address Google Sheets Data → Split text to columns → Separator: comma

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