Short answer
When you import from QuickBooks Online, the start date does not affect your income and expense accounts. QuickBooks' Trial Balance report always reports income and expense from the first day of the client's fiscal year through the end date you choose.
So if you ask for 9/1–12/31 and the client's fiscal year begins in January, you will receive January through December of income and expense. This is how QuickBooks' Trial Balance report works — you can confirm it by running that report in QuickBooks yourself and changing only the "From" date: the numbers do not change, and the report is titled "As of <your end date>" rather than "for the period."
Re-importing will not change this, and neither will "Disconnect and delete all accounts." The behaviour comes from the report QuickBooks returns, not from your Tallyfor binder.
What actually controls the period
End date — yes. This is the real control. An earlier end date genuinely shortens the income and expense figures.
Start date — no. It has no effect on income and expense for a QBO import.
The client's fiscal year start — yes. This is where income and expense begin accumulating.
Balance sheet accounts (assets, liabilities, equity) always show the balance as of your end date, including everything before the period. That is normal and correct for any trial balance — it is the only way the debits and credits balance.
When this matters, and when it doesn't
Your situation | Result |
A full fiscal year (any year-end) | Correct |
A short year ending early — e.g. 1/1 to 8/31 for a final return | Correct — just set the end date |
A brand-new entity that started mid-year | Correct — there is no earlier activity to include |
A period starting mid-year where the books already have earlier activity — e.g. a mid-year S-corp election, an ownership change, or a change of year-end | This is the case that needs the step below |
How to import a true short period
Because income and expense accumulate from the fiscal year start, you can temporarily align the fiscal year with the period you need.
In QuickBooks Online, go to Settings → Account and settings → Advanced → Accounting.
Set First month of fiscal year to the first month of your period (for a 9/1–12/31 period, choose September).
In Tallyfor, import from QBO using your period end date (12/31).
Afterwards, set First month of fiscal year back to its original value.
You will get income and expense for exactly your period, the balance sheet as of your end date, and all earlier earnings correctly closed into Retained Earnings — which is what a short-period trial balance should look like.
Please note: this changes a setting in your client's QuickBooks file, so you need admin access and should change it back when you are done. QuickBooks' fiscal year start is a month, so this works for periods that begin on the first of a month.
If you would rather not change the QuickBooks setting
You can build the period yourself:
In QuickBooks, run the Trial Balance twice — once as of your period end, once as of the day before your period starts.
In Excel, subtract the earlier figures from the later ones for income and expense accounts only. Leave balance sheet accounts at their period-end values.
Post the income and expense you removed to beginning Retained Earnings so the sheet still balances.
Import the result using Tallyfor's Excel trial balance import.
Still not right?
Send us the client name, the period you need, and the client's fiscal year start month, and we will look at the imported data with you.