QuickBooks and Your Business « an independent blog by AccountingUsers, Inc.

Short answer: Yes. Here’s what people have said after having sent corrupted QuickBooks files to us.

“Sent them a file from a company that called and needed help on their QuickBooks file. Read a lot of forums and reviews and found you people. On Saturday at noon I uploaded this file. At 2:00 pm I was downloading the fixed file. Nothing was lost and the upgrade to the new version was good. Thanks!” — John Horsley, Computer Medik

“File is much faster and stable now! Thanks!” — Shawn Spears, CFO Network

“I’m more than delighted after I tested my database and knew it was back to normal. Our accounting department is very happy with the outcome and performance of the file.” — JC Marin, Trusteecorps

“Fantastic! Thank you so much for the quick turn-around. Well worth the money for the peace of mind seeing my data again!!!” — Jill St.Aubin King, Monarch Gardens LLC

“Thank you for your help on this! You guys did a great job. Everything looks perfect. I wish I would have used your service first. I will definitely recommend you to others.” — Brett Jensen, CDFA

Of course, the best course of action when a file gets corrupted is to restore yesterday’s backup and move forward. But sometimes good backups aren’t available, or the problem doesn’t become immediately known. In that case, data repair services can be handy.

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sunset It’s just about that time again…the time every year when Intuit discontinues supporting an older version of QuickBooks. This is called “sunsetting” a version.

As usual, it’s the version from 3 years back. So QuickBooks Pro 2010, QuickBooks Premier 2010, QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 10, and QuickBooks for Mac 2010 will all be unsupported by Intuit after May 31 of this year.

That means that you won’t be able to get tech support from Intuit for these products. (You can still get database repair, Enterprise downgrade, or supercondense services through us however, even after the version is sunsetted.)

If you call up Intuit tech support after May 31, they will probably tell you you have to upgrade to a supported version before they can help you.

But a lot of people use QuickBooks without a support plan. Would they be affected? Yes, if they are using Intuit services related to QuickBooks:

* QuickBooks payroll services of any kind
* Intuit merchant services
* Bill payment services
* Online banking
* Email services through Intuit’s servers
* QuickBooks online backup service

Basically, if your copy of QuickBooks 2010 has to reach out to Intuit on the internet to do any of its functions, those functions won’t work anymore after May 31.

Also, if you need to register or re-register your QuickBooks 2010 software, you may not be able to. (See this blog article, however, for tips on a workaround for that.)

Options? Keep using your existing version without accessing the resources above. Or, upgrade to a newer, supported version.

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13 ball We have seen a number of Enterprise 13 company files come in for data repair over the last month that had corrupted customer credit card information in the file. This kind of data corruption causes the file to fail verify and rebuild and sometimes prevents credit card data from being saved in the file.

In versions prior to 13, we would sometimes see files with corrupted credit card information, particularly if user information in the file was corrupt. But we believe something is different in ES 13, at least through the R4 update. We’re seeing a much higher percentage of files with this kind of corruption.

Almost all of these files have been repairable — we’ve been able to repair the files so that they verify and rebuild without errors and the users can save credit card information afterwards. Sometimes, however, the credit card details themselves are unsalvageable and we have to delete them to save the rest of the file.

Hopefully, the newly released R5 update has addressed whatever the underlying issue is and there will be less of these data integrity issues popping up. We should have a better sense of that in the weeks to come.

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About one century ago, Sir Ernest Shackleton explored the antarctic continent. Clothed in reindeer fur, wearing boots insulated with grass, and with the help of sled dogs and Mongolian ponies, he and his team were the first to reach the magnetic south pole. They were the first to climb Mount Erebus (Antartica’s highest peak). And although he fell short of being the first to reach the South Pole, he voyaged further south than anyone before him had gone.

He then wrote about his adventures. It is compelling reading.

“Degrees of frost” is a phrase he used to describe temperature in Antarctica. It is a poetic way of saying “below freezing” degrees (in Fahrenheit scale, of course. Shackleton was an Englishman).

I took a walk with my daughter earlier this month when it was -22F (-30C). That’s 54 degrees of frost, according to Shackleton. Here’s what that looked like.

54 degrees of frost is as far below freezing as 86 degrees Fahrenheit is above freezing.

That was the coldest temperature we had ever experienced. But those temperatures (and worse) were commonplace for Shackleton and his team in the days of their explorations. You’ve got to admire the tenacity and hard purposefulness of those frosty men.

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What if you need fewer licenses of QuickBooks than you used to?

One Enterprise 11 user had this scenario. She tells her story:

“AccountingUsers saved the day! After over a decade of dedicated QuickBooks use, I started my own business from home. I no longer needed the Enterprise version I had been using at my previous company.

But there was no way to “downgrade” to a fewer licensed version. Unacceptable! Thank goodness I found AccountingUsers’ services to make the necessary edits to my company file. Highly recommend this!”

– Sara Carter, The GKW Company, Inc.

So the solution we had for Sara was to convert her Enterprise file to QuickBooks Premier format. Then she was able to just purchase and use the number of Premier licenses she needed…and save the difference in annual upgrade and support fees over continuing to maintain lots of Enterprise licenses.

This situation might also help a business who outsources some of their accounting operations and doesn’t need as many users and licenses of QuickBooks as before.

When we convert an Enterprise file to Premier or Pro, all the information in the file is retained…transactions, accounts, lists, balances, memorized reports, custom templates, user preferences, payroll details…everything.

Have you ever considered moving from Enterprise to a lower edition?

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You might want to rename your QuickBooks company file for one of several reasons:

* You are making major changes to your file and want to have a copy of your original file handy for reference purposes.

* You are getting your file supercondensed, and want to keep the original, renamed file for historical reporting.

* Your legal name or DBA has changed and you want your file to reflect that.

So how do you change it’s name? It’s pretty easy.

First of all, exit QuickBooks, and have all other QuickBooks users exit the program.

In Windows, open My Computer, or your network drive, or wherever you keep your QuickBooks file. (If you don’t know where it is kept, run QuickBooks and open your company, then press the F2 key. It will tell you where your file is. Then exit QuickBooks.)

Drill down to the folder where your QuickBooks file is located. It might be somewhere like Public Documents /Intuit / QuickBooks / Company Files

You’ll see your company file there. QuickBooks maintains one or two folders that include your file’s name (depending on your QuickBooks version) and a handful of auxiliary files with your file name.

For each of those, right-click on the file and select Rename. Give it the new name you want. Avoid the use of special characters except for hyphens or underscore characters. Rename each folder or file with the new name.

You may have a folder like “Your company name – Images” and “Restored_Your company name_Files”. Rename the “Your company name” part to your new company name.

That does it as far as renaming the file at the Windows level.

When you run QuickBooks, rather than opening the company from the first screen, click the QuickBooks menu for File / Open or Restore Company / Open a Company File. Select the NEW company name.

You probably want to change the file’s internal name too, so that no one gets confused about which file is which. So click on at the QuickBooks menu for Company / Company Information…

You can then easily change the internal name of the company to match what its file name is. That way, whenever you open the company and it displays the name at the top of the QuickBooks window, it will show the new name.

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A picture is worth 1000 words. So we’ll save a bunch of time and just let you see what some of the most important screens look like in QuickBooks 2013. You “visual people” will like this.

The redesigned screens and home page are the main new things in the 2013 version. These are taken from the QuickBooks 2013 Premier edition. You can click the image to see the whole thing.

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QuickBooks 2013 shortcuts — QuickBooks 2013 Shortcuts, AKA icon bar

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QuickBooks 2013 Customer Center — Customer Center

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Some people like the new look of the screens and some don’t. How do you feel about them?

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You want to get your QuickBooks file problem remedied, but you can’t do without it; what to do?

We schedule most of our supercondense work, where we cut large QuickBooks file sizes down by 60-80%, on weekends. It’s just what we do.

As client Beth Sampson of MB Seafood Company Inc. put it, “I was happy that there was no interruption or ‘down time’ to business, and that it was able to be done over the weekend.”

Typically, the client will finish up their regular work in QuickBooks on a Friday, and then upload a copy of their file securely to us Friday afternoon or evening. We supercondense the file and return it to them later on that same weekend, usually Sunday sometime. So on Monday morning, their team is ready to use a small, clean, stable version of their file that will perform much better than their original one. And no downtime needed.

We know that your use of QuickBooks is a mission-critical aspect of your business operation, so we work on your file when you don’t.

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optical illusion - girl or old woman — Girl or old woman? It's all in your perception (Punch magazine, 1915)

The other night I waited in the car while my wife was in the grocery store. I saw a guy sitting at an outdoor table — picnic table, really — at the edge of the parking lot. That’s the table where the store employees take their smoke break.

The guy’s head was down and his arms rested on the table top. Scrunched over. He didn’t move. There was a plastic bag on the picnic table in front of him. His long hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail and he wore brown coveralls. I noticed that he twitched occasionally; he was otherwise perfectly still. Passed out?

I watched him for a couple minutes, wondering if I should go check on him or something. From fifty yards away, under the parking lot lights, he looked semi-conscious to me…maybe having a medical emergency? Should I go check it out?

About the time I had decided to do SOMETHING, he straightened up, and I realized he had been writing. The scrunched posture and the twitches were just the natural body language of handwriting.

He stood up, picked up his parcel, and started walking rapidly and purposefully across the parking lot. He was holding a wrapped bouquet of flowers and an envelope.

Voila! All became clear.

He strode to the highway, turned left, and walked out of sight.

What I had perceived as a bad thing was in reality a very good thing. A card and flowers…awesome.

Just another example of how difficult it is to really perceive someone else. As it says, it’s not a bad idea to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (or upset, or judgmental).

‘Cause it’s easy to get it wrong.

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send a file Let’s say you need to get a copy of your QuickBooks file to your bookkeeper…or business partner…or CPA. Easy, you say. Just attach it to an email.

Stop!

You should consider a couple of things first.

1. Security. Sending and receiving email is not the most secure thing to do on the internet. If your email account gets hacked, of if your email receipient’s email gets hacked, you don’t want your QuickBooks file sitting out there for the taking. And you don’t want your file to sit out there in someone’s inbox forever either.

It’s more secure to use a file sharing or file sending service. Services like sharefile.com, yousendit.com, sendthisfile.com, and others have secure means of sending files. Most of these services allow you put an ‘expiration date’ on the file you send, so it will automatically go offline after a week or two. That’s a good thing.

Or, if you have a cloud-based drive you can share, like IDrive, you can securely upload a backup of your file and give access to someone else.

2. Efficiency. Attaching large files to emails is not very efficient; email wasn’t designed to carry heavy data loads. If the file you attach to your email is bigger than, say, 10MB, it may fail to send at all, or may not be receivable on the other side.

Even if you create a portable copy of your data — which would be perhaps only 20% the size of your regular QBW file — most company’s files are still going to be too big to reliably send by email.

Keep it secure, and keep it efficient when you transfer someone your QuickBooks data.

How about you? What’s the best method you’ve found to send someone a QuickBooks file?

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QuickBooks and Your Business

an independent blog by AccountingUsers, Inc.

Is It Possible for a Corrupted QuickBooks File to Be Recovered?

QuickBooks 2010 about to Depart into the Sunset

Problems with Customer Credit Cards in Enterprise 13

54 Degrees of Frost

Downgrading Enterprise to Fewer Licenses

How to Rename a QuickBooks Company File

QuickBooks 2013 Screenshots

Condensing a Big QuickBooks File without Down Time

What I Saw in the Parking Lot

Emailing QuickBooks Files