Compressing QB Files

Q:

Subject:  QB COMPRESS FILE

Hi Tax Guru – thanks for the info.

But……my regular file is 21 MB – when I create a portable file 16 MB and even an accountants copy only goes down to 16 MB.

And believe me – my company is pretty small – neither my accountant nor my bookkeeper have any suggestions.

Any other ideas – maybe something is set up incorrectly?

The last time I created a portable it went through e-mail at 16 MB – it’s not going through any more.

Thanks

A:

That is very strange.  I have always seen the QBM and QBX files come out at about a fifth the size of the QBW files.

What version of the QB program are you using?  Make sure it has been updated to the most current maintenance release.  If your program version is over three years old, you may also want to consider upgrading to a newer one.

I have seen clients squeeze even QBX files down to a little smaller size by zipping them, so you may want to give that a try.  The zip program should be able to shrink the file down even more.

Good luck.  I hope this helps a little.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-Up:

Hmm - I'll run and see if I can update my version - but it's 2007 premier.

 

Using Older QB Programs

Q:

Subject:  Quickbooks

Kerry,

My bookkeeper at the C21 was talking to QB support the other day.  They said the the 2006 version would quit working completely in the near future and recommended upgrading to the 2009 version.  Do you have any knowledge of this?  Do you recommend the 2009 version? 

Thanks a bunch,

A:

Your bookkeeper misunderstood the situation.  The QB programs will work forever.  I have several clients still using the 2001 and 2002 versions just fine.
Intuit doesn't like the fact that people are holding on to their QB programs for several years and not buying their new versions as often as they would like. In order to motivate more upgrades, a few years ago, Intuit started a sunset program, where they announced that they will only provide technical support for the most recent three versions.  That means, as of the middle of April this year, they will only answer technical questions about the 2007, 2008 and 2009 programs.  The earlier programs will continue to work just as they did before.

I don't do any payroll work, but I do understand that Intuit doesn't allow its built-in payroll for earlier versions of the QB program to be updated after a certain number of years; so that may be a motivator to upgrade to a newer version of the program if you are using QB for payroll.  If you are just doing bookkeeping, your 2006 will continue to work for several more years.

I currently have about a dozen versions of QB installed on my computers in order to maintain compatibility with client data files.  I have heard that some bookkeepers don't like the hassles of maintaining so many versions simultaneously, so they require their clients to upgrade to whatever version the bookkeepers are using.
I do have some clients who upgrade every year on their own, which is fine, but not required.  Whether you want to move to a newer version is up to you.  You won't lose any data in the transition to a newer version of the program; but you can't later roll it back to be usable in an older version of the program.
I hope this helps explain this issue for you.

Kerry

 

Quicken Reports

Q:

Subject: Quicken

Good afternoon Mr. Kerstetter.

I am a QB Pro Advisor but am not that familiar with Quicken.  I have a client that just began using Quicken, but when I was talking to her, she could not find the Reports tool bar,  I am truly embarrassed to ask, which way do you print the p&l and the balance sheet from Quicken?

A:

I recall that printing reports in Quicken was always very intuitive, much like in QuickBooks.

I don't actually use Quicken any more, but I do have the 2003 program installed on one of my old computers.  I checked and see that there is an item called "Reports" on the top menu line.  That drops down to different categories of reports.  The P&L is under the "Cash Flow" section and is actually called "Income/Expense."

I hope this helps.  You may want to explain to your clients the benefits of using QuickBooks instead of Quicken; especially the ability to more easily exchange data files with you.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter