Friday, March 13, 2009

Moving from Quicken to QB

Q:

Subject: Data Transfer - Quicken to QB

Dear Kerry – I have Quicken back-up files but no longer have Quicken software. How do I transfer those back-ups to QB, please?

I hope you can help!

Kind regards

A:

It's been a while since I have worked directly with Quicken files. However, one of my big problems with that program was the fact that its backup function pretty much consisted of just making regular size copies of the multiple data files that are used by the program instead of a compressed file that could be stored and transferred much more efficiently, as has always been the case for QuickBooks.

This means that your Quicken backup files should be just as accessible to the QuickBooks conversion utility as the normal files would be. As long as you are working with a version of the QB program that is as current as the Quicken program, going into File - Import - Convert From Quicken should work for you. For example, if the Quicken data had been created using the Quicken 2005 program, you should be able to convert that data into QB by using the QB 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 or 2009 program.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

Follow-Up:

Dear Kerry - Thank you very much for getting back to me. It was a bit of a leap of faith that I got in touch with you (details from your website!) and I didn't really expect a response. I'm really pleased and grateful that you took the time and trouble to think about my problem and give me the benefit of your experience.

In the meantime, I found my Quicken software and just reloaded it. However, the day is probably not too far away when we'll move to QB - and your advice will be very useful then.

Thanks again and best wishes from Scotland.